Week 1: Introduction — A Skeptic's Journey

1.McDowell describes himself as a college student who actively argued against Christianity and put down Christians. What was his original motivation for investigating the claims of Jesus? What did he expect to find?

2.He credits a small group of Christian students — and particularly one young woman — with sparking his investigation. What was it about their lives, not just their arguments, that got his attention? What does that suggest about the relationship between evidence and witness?

3.McDowell says he 'didn't want to become a Christian.' What fears or resistances do you think he was protecting? Can you identify any similar resistances — intellectual, emotional, or social — in your own approach to questions about Jesus?

4.The book is addressed to people who are skeptical about Jesus's deity, resurrection, and claims on their lives. Which of those three — deity, resurrection, or personal claim — feels most challenging or most important to you personally, and why?

5.McDowell frames this as a 'hard-headed' book — one that takes evidence and reason seriously. Do you think faith and evidence are in tension, or can they reinforce each other? How has your own experience shaped that view?

6.By the end of the introduction, McDowell has essentially promised that the evidence changed him. What would it take for evidence to genuinely change your mind about something you already believed? What makes someone truly open to investigation rather than just going through the motions?

7.McDowell's conversion began in a library, not in a church. What does that tell us about how God can use intellectual honesty as a pathway to faith? How does this connect to the book's broader argument that Christianity is not a blind leap but a reasoned commitment?