Description

(From back cover.) "You may know the statistics. What you probably don’t know are the advances the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) is making in apologetics and academic respectability.

With superb training, Mormon scholars outclass many of their opponents. Arguments against Mormon claims are increasingly refuted as outdated, misinformed, or poorly argued.

The New Mormon Challenge is a response to the burgeoning challenge of scholarly Mormon apologetics. Written by a team of respected Christian scholars, it is free of caricature, sensationalism, and diatribe. The respectful tone and responsible, rigorous, yet readable scholarship set this book in a class of its own.

The New Mormon Challenge recycles no previous material and duplicates no one’s efforts. Instead, responding to the best LDS scholarship, it offers freshly researched and well-documented rebuttals of Mormon truth claims. Most of the chapter topics have never been addressed, and the criticisms and arguments are almost entirely new. But The New Mormon Challenge does not merely challenge Mormon beliefs; it offers the LDS Church and her members ways to move forward.

The New Mormon Challenge will help you understand the intellectual appeal of Mormonism, and it will reveal many of the fundamental weaknesses of the Mormon worldview. Whether you are sharing the gospel with Mormons or are investigating Mormonism for yourself, this book will help you accurately understand Mormonism and see the superiority of the historic Christian faith. Outstanding scholarship and sound methodology make this an ideal textbook. The biblical, historical, scientific, philosophical, and theological discussions are fascinating and will appeal to Christians and Mormons alike. Exemplifying Christian scholarship at its best, The New Mormon Challenge pioneers a new genre of literature on Mormonism."

Table of Contents

Foreword
    Richard J. Mouw
General Editors
Contributors
Abbreviations
Introduction: A Much-needed and Challenging Book
    Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen

Part I: Mormonism’s Appeal, Growth, and Challenges
Introductory Essay

1. The Apologetic Impulse in Early Mormonism:
   The Historical Roots of the New Mormon Challenge
       Craig J. Hazen
2. And the Saints Go Marching On:
   The New Mormon Challenge for World Missions, Apologetics, and Theology
       Carl Mosser

Part II: The Mormon Worldview
Introductory Essay

3. Craftsman or Creator?
   An Examination of the Mormon Doctrine of Creation and a Defense of Creatio ex nihilo
       Paul Copan and William Lane Craig
4. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph Smith?
   God, Creation, and Humanity in the Old Testament and Mormonism
       Jim W. Adams
5. A Tale of Two Theisms:
   The Philosophical Usefulness of the Classical Christian and Mormon Concepts of God
       Stephen E. Parrish (with Carl Mosser)
6. Moral Law, the Mormon Universe, and the Nature of the Right We Ought to Choose
       Francis J. Beckwith
7. The Absurdities of Mormon Materialism:
   A Reply to the Neglected Orson Pratt
       J. P. Moreland

Part III: Mormonism and Christianity
Introductory Essay

8. Monotheism, Mormonism, and the New Testament Witness
       Paul Owen
9. Is Mormonism Christian?
       Craig L. Blomberg

Part IV: The Book of Mormon
Introductory Essay

10. Does the Book of Mormon Reflect an Ancient Near Eastern Background?
        Thomas J. Finley
11. Rendering Fiction:
    Translation, Pseudotranslation, and the Book of Mormon
        David J. Shepherd

Final Conclusions
    Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen
Notes
Glossary
Subject Index
Index of Authors
Index of Biblical and Ancient Literature
Index of LDS Standard Works