Jonathan Edwards Confronts the Gods: Christian Theology, Enlightenment Religion and Non-Christian Faith (Oxford University Press, 2000) analyzes Edwards’ battles with deism over reason, revelation and the religions

My more recent book, God’s Rivals: Why God Allows Different Religions-- Insights from the Bible and the Early Church? (InterVarsity Press, 2007), wrestles with the question, If God is the Father of Jesus Christ, why did this God permit the rise and flourishing of the other great world religions?  

Many readers will be surprised to discover that the Bible and some of the early church Fathers (Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen) had a lot to say about this.  The book’s premise is that for many of the biblical authors, and especially for the early church theologians, the major world religions are not simply human constructs but real spiritual entities.  They represent, at least in part, fallen supernatural powers that reflect both light and darkness.  I go on to discuss the implications of these views for today’s Christians who struggle to know how to understand other religions. 

More recently I teamed up with Robert Millet, a prolific Mormon theologian from Brigham Young University , to write a book about Jesus.  In Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate (Brazos Press, September 2007), Bob and I debate the implications for our understanding of Jesus such topics as the Book of Mormon, the Trinity, faith and works, and many other issues at the heart of Mormon-evangelical disagreements.

Here is an interview conducted recently with me about this book.

I have also joined with an oncologist to write three books on cancer and pastoral theology: Living with Cancer (Word Books, 1992), Dear God, It's Cancer (Word, 1997), and Cancer: A Medical and Spiritual Guide For Patients and Their Families (Baker Books, 2004).  The new book has new chapters on alternative medicine and the mind-body connection, and all the medical chapters have been thoroughly updated. It is the only book on the market, as far as I know, that is written by both an oncologist and a theologian. Each book answers both medical and spiritual/theological questions raised by cancer.

This is a collection of essays by some of the world’s best Edwards scholars, and responses to each by European scholars from a variety of disciplines.  Each is written as a general introduction to an important component of the American theologian’s thought, pitched at a level that is accessible to the general reader.  I have included an introduction and conclusion.  Currently seeking a publisher.

This is a concise and easy-to-understand introduction to the most important world religions.  Special features include testimonies by actual believers in each religion, a Christian analysis of each religion, and treatment of the most-asked questions about each religion, such as: Is Islam inherently violent?  How are women treated in non-western religions? Why don’t Jews accept Jesus as messiah? Why is the DaVinci Code so controversial? Why were some books kept out of the Bible? To be released by Baker Books in June 2008.

This will be a 500-page volume with articles by thirty-two of the top evangelical theologians and scholars. The chapters will survey the state-of-the-discipline on topics of the greatest importance to evangelical theology, and suggest ways in which evangelical theology should move forward. Each chapter will be written by a theologian or scholar who is widely recognized for his or her published work on that subject, and is considered a leading thinker on that topic. The articles will critically assess the state of the question, from both the classical and evangelical traditions, and propose a future direction for evangelical thinking on that subject. (Oxford University Press, 2010).