A Word About My Three New Books

By Douglas Groothuis, PhD

Since we moved to Michigan in June of 2024, I have had much time to write, especially to write books. Where I live in Lowell is quiet and lonely. I don’t have the group of friends and knowledge of culture that thirty-one years in Denver gave me. So, I hunker down and pound the keyboard. (Some of my keyboards needed replacement letters for some keys, since I wore off the lettering.) Of course, I have my responsibilities and opportunities at Cornerstone University where I thrive in teaching and advising faculty. But as a Distinguished Professor, they expect me to represent the school in my writing, and am happy to do so.

Something odd happened this summer. Three of my new books were released within about a month of each other. William F. Buckley, the great public intellectual and leader of the conservative movement, was asked why he wrote so much. His reply was my own as well: “Because my enemy writes more.” The enemy is falsehood—ideas that enslave instead of liberate. See John 8:44. A few years after becoming a Christian in 1976, before I published a book, I used to joke with friends that I wanted to write a book called The Refutation of All Heresy. That is essentially what I have attempted to do these fifty years—address non-Christian worldviews with the truth, rationality, and life-giving power of the living God (1 Peter 3:15; Jude 3). Let me explain how this relates to my three new books.

1. What if Jesus is Right? (Tyndale). is cowritten with my friend and Denver Seminary graduate, Lindsey Medenwaldt, J. D., who is a Professor at Northwestern University and author of Bridge-Building Apologetics. We want people to know that Jesus spoke the truth and lived the truth, “the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6), he offers the truth. He was and is right about everything, and it matters for eternity. We argue this in a popular but thoughtful style. We are not afraid to challenge false views of Jesus—the prosperity-gospel Jesus, the New-Age Jesus, the good-teacher Jesus, and others—that denude him of his unique authority and command. If you know unbelievers or new believers who are interested in the identity of the most influential person in human history, What If Jesus Is Right? could help them realize that he is. This is my fourth book about Jesus. The others are Revealing the New Age Jesus (InterVarsity, 1990), Jesus in an Age of Controversy (Harvest House, 1996), and On Jesus (Wadsworth, 2003). I am working on a revision of On Jesus to be called Encountering the Philosophy of Jesus (InterVarsity, 2027).

2. Urban Legends About Apologetics (B&H Academic). This is part of a series of “urban legends” books that includes other legends about theology, Old Testament, and others. It is more academic than What if Jesus is Right?, but I hope readable and interesting. The first thirty-five legends are ideas that Christians hold that inhibit the work of apologetics, which is so vital to outreach and Christian witness. Five more legends are ideas that non-Christian hold about Christianity, such as miracles are incompatible with a belief in modern science. The last section takes up several issues such as “The Future of Apologetics” and a long chapter, “Apologists You Should Read.” Urban Legends sums up in mostly short chapters my views on apologetics forged over fifty years of apologetic engagement.

3. Taking Back Truth (Baker). This is a sequel to my 2000 InterVarsity book, Truth Decay, which is a critique of postmodernism. Because truth is still assailed by false philosophies and moralities, Christians, who must be people of truth, need to work to take it back (Colossians 2:8). Thus, I offer eight chapters: “How We Lost the Truth and How to Take it Back,” followed by chapters on the truth about: God and religion; human nature; morality; sex and gender; race; and abortion and human value. I conclude with “Truth Tonic for a Sick and Sad Society,” which addresses ways of detecting and defending truth and exposing lies. I take up some basic epistemology, how to detect logical fallacies, and the use of media ecology.

I write and launch books out into the world hoping and praying that they will be used by God to uproot error and establish his truth far and wide. So far, twenty-three of my books have seen the light of print since my first, Unmasking the New Age (InterVarsity) forty years ago. Now I am giving many podcasts and radio interviews on all three books. If you’d like me to speak to your group in person or distantly, let me know. Please pray for me and for the ministry of these books.