A Review of Why Good Arguments Often Fail by James W. Sire. Inter-Varsity Press, 2006, 220pp., £8.99 (pb)

Andrew Lim
The Gospel and Our Culture Network Newsletter; U.K. Issue 50, Autumn 2007

Dr. James W. Sire, noted author and public defender of the Christian faith, in his book Why Good Arguments Often Fail, examines why some of our best and most coherent arguments often fail to decisively clinch a case for Christ.

The twelve chapters in his book are sub-sectioned into three distinctive parts.

Part 1 is a helpful, easily-digestible exploration into the most common logical fallacies that people (Christians included) commit, often unknowingly. He sets the stage for this exploration by reproducing Max Shulman’s interesting short story entitled “Love is a Fallacy”. This story leads naturally to Sire exposure of some of the common logical errors we commit in our day to day conversation without being aware of them.

Part 2 looks beyond the issues of logical fallacies. Sire present a breakdown of what makes a sound argument. He emphasizes the point that even if an argument is logically coherent and sound, it may still fail to persuade. It has to be convincing. And there are reasons why a good argument may fail to convince – reasons which we simply cannot comprehend. Sire makes the concession that belief is person-oriented.

He helpfully presents us with a taxonomy of failures of good arguments. He alerts the reader to the dangers of arrogance and misjudgment on the part of the apologist. He points out relevant cultural and worldview issues which unwittingly work towards preventing our otherwise good arguments from being effective.

Part 3 carries two interesting arguments that work. The first comes from the Apostle Paul in his engagement with the philosophers in Acts 17. The second comes from Sire’s own experience. The last chapter of this book is an excellent annotated bibliography divided into ten categories of areas of interest. His brief write-up in each of these areas, punctuated often with personal recommendations, is enough to whet one’s appetite to check out these books. The list is also evidential of Sire’s personal breadth of reading and I am nostalgically reminded that this is the same man who taught me how to read “worldviewishly” through his much earlier book How To Read Slowly. Unlike many of us, Sire commends what he has actually read.

This book will benefit those who have never had any prior understanding of basic logical fallacies. Sire not only exposes them for what they are but does so in a most readable way by furnishing stimulating examples for each of the fallacies cited. His examples are mostly culled from real life encounters and are immediately serviceable for the average apologist.

Most books on apologetics move straight into the various controversial issues commonly relevant to the defense of our faith. Sire takes a few steps back and sensitively sniffs out the various critical areas that, though not immediately the grist for the apologist’s mill, nevertheless are crucial to the success or failure of our attempts at defending the faith. To be sure, the apologetic endeavor seeks to rebut arguments that reject Christianity as true. But both Christians and non-Christians alike have issues that are troubling enough to muddy the waters even before any rational encounter could even begin. Sire appropriately addresses the arrogance, aggression and misjudgment on the part of the Christian, and the “moral refusal” on the part of the non-Christian.

This book makes a number of crucial calls to the apologist.
- it is a call to refrain from imagining that our highly technical arguments will necessarily convert souls;
- it is a call to defend the faith by beginning with the biblical testimony of Jesus;
- it is a call to preserve the dignity of one’s opponent even when the most silly of questions is asked;
- it is a call to humbly accept that not every person is equally endowed with a rapier-sharp epistemic mind;
- it is a call to spiritually discern the other person’s psychological scar which make her resistant to faith in Christ;
- it is a call to understand and acknowledge the way one’s foundational, pretheoretical beliefs affect one’s propensities to belief or unbelief;
- it is a call to take with utter seriousness the almost total moral blindness of the unbeliever, to whom a concession to be morally obligated can only be the work of the Holy Spirit. Apart from that divine illumination, the human heart will go on wanting what it wants.

These calls alone make the book unique.

Why Good Arguments Often Fail is a valuable book not only for all those above reasons. I commend it for its warmth of personal approach. On more than one occasion, Sire has chosen to be vulnerable by citing incidents in his personal apologetic encounters where his apparent failures have been openly acknowledged for our learning. I have not personally come across many apologist who publicly live up to the commendations of 1 Peter 3:15 “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” Sire’s book betrays such gentleness and reverence.