Apologetics journalism

Based on Lee Strobel’s best-selling book of the same name, The Case for Christ follows Strobel’s real-life “Road to Damascus” while on an investigation to expose Christianity as “all a big con.”

It’s 1980—back when journalists wore corduroy blazers and mustaches while clacking at typewriters—and Lee Strobel (Mike Vogel) is celebrating his first book at The Chicago Tribune newsroom. Behind him hangs a large banner: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” It’s with that skepticism-driven tenacity that Strobel decides to fact-check the Bible’s claims about Jesus Christ (he’s even got one of those evidence boards plastered with photos and notes). But his real motive is personal: Strobel’s wife Leslie (Erika Christensen) has just ditched atheism for the Christian faith. Strobel can sense his wife changing, and he’s terrified. “I’m not going to lose my wife and kid to something that I can’t even reason with,” he tells a colleague, who then suggests that Strobel de-convert his wife through reason.

So Strobel interviews various Christian scholars such as William Lane Craig and Gary Habermas: How do we know this Jesus really existed? Is the New Testament reliable? Why should we believe claims of Jesus’ resurrection? Did He really die on the cross, and why would He do that? But the more Strobel asks these hard-nosed questions, the more the evidence-based answers bruise his faith in atheism.

The Case for Christ is strong on apologetics, fine in visuals, and OK in acting, but weak in character and plot development. At almost two hours long, the story starts to drag at the 60-minute mark with too much dialogue and close-up shots of Strobel’s pondering stare. While it makes a decent case for Christ, the film will ultimately appeal more to the choir than to the critics.