To test this, the scientists generated holograms of the apostle Paul and the prophet Muhammad. Thousands of people crammed into a sports stadium to witness this demonstration.
The book is written as if it is a transcript of this fictional debate. The pressure is on Paul to prove the resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact. Paul presents his argument using three facts: the actual death of Jesus on the cross, the empty tomb, and the appearances of Jesus to his followers, including Paul himself. Muhammad then presents a counter argument against Paul's points after which, each debater responds one more time. Then the moderator, a professor from the philosophy department at MIT, asks questions of each of the participants before ending with a closing statement.
The arguments for the resurrection that Paul gives are nothing new, but to see them presented in this way is a fun take on historical data. Paul presents testimony from 1st century historians and church fathers and contemporary scholars, some of whom are critical of Christianity. The Muslim side of the debate is also pretty standard. Muhammad's argument is basically "Allah gave me the Qur'an, and because it's from Allah you should believe it." Muhammad brings up some other points against Christianity such as the reliability of the gospels and some contradictory evidence from the so-called Gospel of Barnabas, but these really aren't addressed because they don't pertain to the resurrection.
While this book doesn't end with a clear winner of the debate, the author is a professor of apologetics and has a Ph.D in New Testament studies, so it's safe to assume that Paul won the argument (at least in the mind of the author). Personally I found this book to be pretty free from Christian bias, although some may say that I wouldn't see it anyway because if I'm biased it would be in the same direction as the author.
All things considered though, I really enjoyed this book. Both sides of the argument are well researched and cited with extensive footnotes found at the end of the book. While this is not a book designed to prove Christianity is true and Islam is false, it does give a great case for the resurrection of Jesus while showing that the arguments against it don't hold much water. I had heard most of the arguments from both sides before, having used some of them myself in response to Muslims using the same arguments presented in this book. I think that this book presents the information in a clear way and in a format that's easy and fun to read.
In Christ
Alex
