The Reason For God

From Neoredemptive

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Timothy Keller Dutton Adult 2008
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Synopsis

A worthwhile introduction to Christian apologetics, in two parts. The first is concerned with demonstrating that most popular objections to Christian faith are in some way circularly self-defeating or question-begging; the second sets up Keller's affirmative case for the plausibility of the Christian faith.

Doc's Take

An enjoyable read, although there's not much that's really original here, particularly for readers already familiar with C. S. Lewis and Alister McGrath (who recur throughout) and N. T. Wright (whose work is the heart of one chapter). But such a reader isn't really the target audience anyway, so this should not be regarded as a criticism of the book.

I was both pleasantly surprised and disappointed by Chapter X. In it Keller argues that everyone already implicitly believes in God as demonstrated by the very acts of thinking and communicating as if they are meaningful, but many then go on to suppresses this knowledge by refusing to acknowledge it. In a way, this is one of the most explicitly Biblical ideas in the whole book, in that the premise is lifted verbatim from Romans 1; however, the connection with Romans 1 and the implications of that text aren't so much as hinted at. I suppose a discussion of the judicial blindness of rebellious humanity may not be easy reading for the curious agnostic, but at the same time it's an important element and implication of the substance of the faith that Keller is calling them to and the argument he is using.