Book Review: Always Ready by Greg Bahnsen

Greg Bahnsen (1948 – 1995) was an influential Christian apologist who got his PhD in philosophy at the University of Southern California. He is perhaps most remembered for his skilled debates with atheists like Dr. Gordon Stein, which gave him the title of being “the man atheists fear most”. In apologetic circles, he was recognized as the primary defender of the presuppositional method. Always Ready is a composition of his works that offer an introduction to both the methodology and practicality of presuppositional apologetics.

I’ll be reviewing this book from chapter by chapter or section by section. It all depends on how much I think needs to be commented on. However, before I proceed, it must be noted that I have some “biases” or commitments that are in contrast with Bahnsen’s beliefs. Our greatest disagreement is a theological one, namely the fact that I’m not a Calvinist but a Wesleyan-Arminian. While it is not in my interest to particularly deal with that issue in the review, it will undoubtably have some effect on how I respond to this book. Nevertheless, I intend to treat this book with the intellectual respect it deserves and with an openness to be challenged.

With that said, I do not hold onto just one apologetic methodology. Each method has its own strengths and weaknesses from my limited evaluation. Like a chess game, there is not a single strategy that can accommodate the vast amount of moves one could make. Similarly, to have a rigid strategic approach in arguing with the nonbeliever seems to me to be too narrow. In all honesty, I am lenient toward the classical method but I still do not have any obligation to it in every circumstance. So at the present moment, I am quite flexible when it comes to apologetic methodologies but perhaps this book will give me a convincing argument to reject all other methods in favor of presuppositionalism. In any case, I hope you will enjoy the review and I look forward to dialoguing with presuppositionalists to clear up any misconceptions that I may have!

Section One: The Lordship of Christ in the Realm of Knowledge

1. The Robbery Of Neutrality
2. The Immorality Of Neutrality
3. The Nature Of Unbelieving Thought
4. The Mind Of The New Man Rooted In Christ
5. Revelation As The Foundation Of Knowledge
6. Summary And Application: God’s Self-Attesting Authority

Section Two: The Conditions Necessary for the Apologetic Task

1. Three Arguments Against Presuppositionalism
2. Humble Boldness, Not Obscurantist Arrogance
3. Inescapable Revelation, Inescapable Knowledge
4. Common Ground Which Is Not Neutral
5. Where Point Of Contact Is, And Is Not, Found
6. Overall Summary: Chapters 1-11

Section Three: How to Defend the Faith

1. The Foolishness Of Unbelief
2. A Two-Fold Apologetic Procedure
3. Answering the Fool Chapter 16: Worldviews In Collision
4. The Ultimate Stating Point: God’s Word
5. Summary On Apologetic Method: Chapters 13-17

Section Four: Conditions Necessary for Apologetic Success

1. God Must Sovereignly Grant Understanding
2. One Must Believe In Order To Understand
3. Strategy Guided By The Nature Of Belief
4. Not Being Beguiled As Was Eve
5. Not Lying To Defend the Truth
6. Effectively Encountering Varieties Of Opposition

Section Five: Answers to Apologetic Challenges

1. Ready To Reason
2. The Heart Of The Matter
3. Answering Objections
4. Tools of Apologetics
5. Apologetics In Practice
6. The Problem Of Evil
7. The Problem Of Knowing The “Super-Natural”
8. The Problem Of Faith
9. The Problem Of Religious Language
10. The Problem Of Miracles

Appendix: Biblical Exposition of Acts 17

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Tags: Always Ready, Greg Bahnsen, Presuppositionalism