The Case For Christ - Lee Strobel
Originally published 1998.
In Christian circles, The Case for Christ is an extremely famous apologetics book. Author Lee Strobel - a journalist who often covered court cases - felt challenged when his wife became a Christian, and set out to investigate the claims of Jesus himself. The Case for Christ was written much later, when Strobel took that base journey and re-enacted it by interviewing various experts to present the court-room style 'case' for Christ. Chapters have titles like "The Medical Evidence", "The Fingerprint Evidence" and "The Eyewitness Evidence" and are presented as interviews between 'prosecutor' Strobel and his interview subjects playing 'witnesses for the defence.'
I first read The Case for Christ when I was much younger. I have always enjoyed it as a resource, and as a result, have given away my personal copy numerous times. It doesn't always come back, which means that over the years I have also had to re-purchase it. This latest purchase (which I did towards the end of last year) is the first time I have ended up with the 'Updated and Expanded' version, and so, feeling curious, I finally decided to re-read the book myself.
The evidence is just as thorough as it always was, with the 'Medical Evidence' chapter being perhaps the most impacting - Dr Alexander Metherell makes the case that Jesus could not have possibly survived the crucifixion in great detail! Yet, I feel like the updated book might have lost a little bit of its edge.
Now, this might be me remembering the earlier version differently than it was, but in the first version of the book I recall Strobel's 'agnosticism' being played up a bit more. Although the interviews that Strobel conducted were done years after he became a Christian, I feel as though the "character" of Strobel in the first version of the book was still skeptical, and as a result had a "conversion" in the epilogue of the book. It was a little bit cheesy, perhaps, and yet undeniably powerful: the journalist, convinced by the weight of evidence from the people he had interviewed, realises that Jesus is God, and bows his knee before him.
Moreover, although the scene might have been slightly fictionalised in that version, it was still true to the experiences of Strobel, who had undertaken a similar journey and had come to faith as a result - but had simply done so at an earlier date than he had written the book.
Whether or not my memory is accurate, I can confirm that this time around Strobel has made it clear that he is already a believer when conducting the interviews, meaning the impact of the debate is slightly lessened - Strobel is a little less 'antagonistic', it seems. This also means that when the epilogue rolls around, Strobel is forced to clarify that his conversion has already happened, years earlier, even as his character refers to the evidence that we have just seen 'modern' Strobel learn.
It is all just a little messier than I remember.
Now, if the earlier version has been changed in the way I assume it has, I understand why it might have been... no doubt, Strobel received correspondence over the intervening years, both from believers and critics, querying the timeline, and felt the need to clarify. But although this new version might be "more accurate," I can't help but feel the older version (if it did exist the way I remember it) was just a little bit more "punchy" while still being true to the essence of the story.
So, where does that leave me. I might have allowed myself to get a little bit off-on-a-tangent there.
Overall, The Case for Christ is still a great book, with a helpful amount of resources for anyone seeknig to deepen their faith or learn more about the evidence for Christian belief. I would still fully recommend it to anyone.
I just also want to find an older copy and see if my memory is correct, as well!
Completed 21 March 2026.
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