Michael J. Alter was a teacher for over forty years in the Miami-Dade County Public School System. He is an established author, having published twelve texts including The Name Israel (2023), Why the Torah Begins with the Letter Beit (1998), and What Is the Purpose of Creation: A Jewish Anthology (1991). The latter two were the main selection of the Jewish Book News. Alter also published The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry (2015) and A Thematic Access-Oriented Bibliography of Jesus's Resurrection (2020).
"""Michael Alter's new work represents a substantial contribution to the enduring debate over whether a historical Jesus was historically resurrected from the grave. This book takes us on a compendious and systematic tour through major historical and contemporary arguments that Christian apologists have used to support the historicity of the Resurrection, and rebuttals to each of those arguments that have been offered by skeptics and by Jewish and Muslim opponents. This work will serve as a useful survey and catalogue of the reasons that have been given for belief and disbelief, for anyone who is interested in this critical foundation-stone of Christianity."" --Evan Fales, author of Reading Sacred Texts ""The first and abiding impression given by Michael J. Alter's study of the resurrection apologetic is one of intellectual integrity and an absolute commitment to fairness and accuracy. Add to that a critique that is based on prodigious scholarship and conducted with logical acumen, and you have a treatment of these controversial issues that is as close to definitive and authoritative as we are likely ever to get."" --Keith Parson, author of God and the Burden of Proof ""Since C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, apologetics has been retreating to defend ever-diminishing territory. As its name suggests, 'minimal facts apologetics' fights to hold the last smallest ground for Christian dogma; but with military precision and encyclopedic authority, Alter's new book seizes the final hill from apologetics, leaving it nowhere to stand and defeating it once and for all."" --Jack David Eller, author of Introducing Anthropology of Religion"