Jesus Among Secular Gods by Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale

Book description:

Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale defend the absolute claims of Christ against modern belief in the "secular gods" of atheism, scientism, relativism, and more. 

The rise of these secular gods presents the most serious challenge to the absolute claims of Christ since the founding of Christianity itself. The Christian worldview has not only been devalued and dismissed by modern culture, but its believers are openly ridiculed as irrelevant. In JESUS AMONG SECULAR GODS, Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale challenge the popular "isms" of the day, skillfully pointing out the fallacies in their claims and presenting compelling evidence for revealed absolute truth as found in Jesus. This book is fresh, insightful, and important, and faces head on today's most urgent challenges to Christian faith. It will help seekers to explore the claims of Christ and will provide Christians with the knowledge to articulate why they believe that Jesus stands tall above all other gods. 

My review:

  I don't think I have ever read a book by Ravi Zacharias, but I have read articles by him and have long been impressed with him. When I saw I could review this book that he co-wrote, I decided it was time to read one of his books.

 There are eight chapters in this book, and instead of the two authors writing together, they alternated writing chapters. They each wrote four of the chapters. Their writing style is very similar, so the reader probably wouldn't know which was which if it was not indicated.

 The gods addressed in this book are: atheism, scientism, pluralism, humanism, relativism, and hedonism. The first chapter is an intro chapter titled "Altars Against God", and the final chapter winds everything up in a chapter titled "Love the Truth.".

 No book like this could cover six different isms completely, but the authors do a great job of hitting the highlights, why they are wrong, and how they differ from Jesus and the Bible. The book is an interesting and informative read, and I found myself learning more about even the ones I was familiar with.

 This book is an excellent resource for new Christians, or even non-Christians confused about what is true and untrue. It is also a great book for the more mature Christian to read to help better understand these religions and philosophies so we are better equipped when we run across them.

 There are other wrong religions and philosophies today, but the authors hit the big ones in this book, and did a great job of covering them.

 I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About the authors:

For over thirty-five years Ravi Zacharias has spoken all over the world in great halls and universities, notably Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford. He is listed as a distinguished lecturer with the Staley Foundation and has appeared on CNN and other international broadcasts. The author of several books for adults and children, he powerfully mixes biblical teaching and Christian apologetics. His most recent works include Walking from East to West, a memoir, The Grand Weaver, an exploration of God’s intention and pattern in both the ordinary and the startling elements of life, and The End of Reason, a rebuttal of the claims of the so-called New Atheists. His weekly radio program, Let My People Think, is broadcast over 1,500 stations worldwide, and his weekday program, Just Thinking, is on almost 400. He is founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional offices in Canada, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Dr. Zacharias and his wife, Margie, have three grown children and reside in Atlanta.

DR. VINCE VITALE is Director of the Zacharias Institute. He was educated at Princeton University and the University of Oxford, and later taught philosophy of religion as a faculty member at both universities. During his undergraduate studies at Princeton, Dr. Vitale took an unexpected journey that led him to God. Later, while at Oxford, he developed a new response the problem of evil. This response--termed the Non-Identity Defense--is discussed in his and Ravi Zacharias's previous book, Why Suffering? He is married to Jo, who also works for RZIM.


  Jesus Among Secular Gods is available from Faith Words Publishing, part of the Hachette Book Group.

Thanks to Hachette for the review copy.