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 PrintableVersion The reason for GodBelief in an age of skepticismApologetics for a politically-correct generationTHE REASON FOR GOD In 1989 Tim Keller and his wife Kathy set out to plant a church in New York, perhaps one of the most secular, sophisticated and religiously sceptical cities on earth. Today their church, Redeemer Presbyterian, has nearly 6,000 people in regular attendance, a host of daughter churches, and is engaged in planting churches in the major cities throughout the world. A large part of the key to this gospel success story has been quality apologetics. Tim has a great willingness to honestly engage the secular mind and address the doubts and reasonable questions which contemporary Westernised politically correct people have about biblical Christian faith. This book gives us Keller at his best, arguing carefully and persuasively for Christ. It is a book which has listened intently to where educated non-Christians are coming from and shows a deep longing for their conversion. The sceptic’s leaps of faithThe book divides into two sections. In the first part the author deals with seven doubts that are frequently expressed to attack or at least rebuff Christianity. These range from the problem of suffering to the ‘offence’ of declaring that Jesus is the only way of salvation to the perceived collision between science and faith. Tim’s approach is not so much to nail down complete answers but to cast doubts on the doubts and to make the non-Christian see that there are just as many ‘leaps of faith’ in the assumptions behind their stance as they accuse the Christian of harbouring. He shows that none of these popular attacks on the faith is at all able to land a knock-out blow, but rather leaves the non-Christian with just as many problems. For example, secularists are usually very keen to dismiss the idea of moral absolutes, yet this very position leaves them all at sea when trying to find a basis for universal human rights. Sufficient reasonsHowever, it is one thing to argue that there are no sufficient reasons for disbelieving Christianity. It is another to argue that there are sufficient reasons for believing it. This is what takes up the second half of the book. Here he begins with clues to God like that of the ‘fine tuning’ of the universe and moves through to the cross and the resurrection and the logic of full commitment to Jesus Christ. All this is marked by clarity of thought and an ability to turn the tables on the sceptics. Here is a little taster. ‘In the last part of Dawkins’s The God Delusion he admits that, since we are the product of natural selection, we can’t completely trust our own senses. After all, evolution is interested only in preserving adaptive behaviour, not in true belief…[But] Thomas Nagel, the prominent philosopher and atheist…writes that to be sure my mind is telling me what is really, truly out there in the world, I must “follow the rules of logic because they are correct — not merely because I am biologically programmed to do so”. However, according to evolutionary biology, laws of reason would have to make sense to us only because they help us survive, not because they necessarily tell us the truth. So, Nagel asks: “[Can we have any] continued confidence in reason as a source of knowledge about the non-apparent character of the world? In itself, I believe an evolutionary story [of the human race] tells against such confidence”.’ Neat, isn’t it? There will be some Christians who will find that Tim Keller has not said all that they would have said, or not said it in the way that they would have done. But, remember, he is principally writing for sceptical unbelievers who have very little knowledge of biblical background or theological language. A modern classicIn short, The Reason for God is a classic and a page-turner. It is meant primarily for thinking non-Christians, but will be a great encouragement to the faith of any Christian who reads it. At present it is only published in the US (though available here through The Good Book Company) and is due to be published in Britain by Hodders in the autumn. However, if you would like a taste of the book and want to see the author in action then if you Google ‘Tim Keller@Google’ you should be able to find a YouTube presentation of Tim addressing the staff at Google, giving a 45-minute resume of the book and taking a few questions. John Benton© Evangelicals Now - June 2008 |
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