Welcome to Marc Swikull's web site! (Regular pages will be up after the holidays.)

4 Christmas Gift Recommendations
   

1. Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Capitivity by Nancey Peacey

This is probably the best Christian book of the year, if not the decade. Pearcey examines the comparmenatlization of Christianity to the "private" sphere of life as we, in America, have come to understand it.

By way of examining Francis Schaefer and his impact on Pearcey's life, she argues that Christianity is "total truth"—it was never meant to be merely "personal."

Work, family life, politics, science, and philosophy are all significantly affected by what Christianity teaches.

 
 

2. Satisfy Your Soul by Bruce Demarest

Demarest, professor of Systematic Theology at Denver Seminary, found his spiritual life to be quite dry even after having mastered systematic theology.

Through a seminar at his church, he became more aware of his need for developing a practical—not merely theoretical—relationship with God.

This book discusses Demarest's spiritual journey and the following:

  • Developing a deeper, personal relationship with God
  • What "spiritual formation" is and how to start doing it
  • the Biblical case for Christian "mysticism"
  • psychology's role in Christian development
  • the differences between Christian spiritual practices & other world religions and philosophies
 
 

3. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek

This is a great book to give to the Christian struggling with the questions like, "Is my faith true?" "Is the Bible accurate?" "Is God just in sending non-Christians to hell?"

The book is written in a very conversational manner and starts by examining different worldviews and the nature of truth and proceeds by systematically covering the case for the existence of a personal God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the historicity of the New Testament records, and answering most "common" objections.

This also makes a great gift for those exploring Christianity.

 
 

4. The Successful Investor by William J. O'Neil

The Successful Investor lays out practical guidelines for investing in stocks. What separates O'Neil's advice from most is that it's based on 40+ years of careful stock market analysis.

O'Neil, founder of Investor's Business Daily, gives you practical guidelines for

  • finding the right companies to invest in (using O'Neil's "CAN SLIM" criteria)
  • finding the right time to invest (& how to read a stock's price chart to do it)
  • knowing when to sell (& sticking to strict rules to avoid the major losses most people experienced in the late '90s)

This is the most practical book on investing I've come across and the most believable, too.

 

Talk Radio (worth listening to)

Frank Pastore     Dennis Prager     Hugh Hewitt     Larry Elder  

TV Shows (worth watching)

Faith Under Fire (hosted by Lee Strobel; on PAX Saturday's @ 10:00 pm)

Christian Publications

Christian History
Christianity Today
Faith and Philosophy
World Magazine
WorldNetDaily

Christian Apologetics

Access Research Network
Apologetics.com
Apologetics Information Ministry
Impact Apologetics
LeadershipU
Reasons to Believe
Stand to Reason

Christian Philosophers

J.P. Moreland
William Lane Craig
Dallas Willard
Norman Geisler
Peter Kreeft
Francis J. Beckwith
Alvin Plantinga
Richard Swinburne
William Dembski

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