Keller, Timothy. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. New York: Dutton, 2008. 293 pp.
I am, in many
ways, an apologetics junkie. I love the
various aspects, topics, issues, styles, methods, approaches, insights, and
personalities of Christian apologetics.
Like anyone, I have my favorite apologists. The Apostle Paul is certainly one; St. Augustine
another. Thomas Aquinas is high up on my
list, as is Thomas Sherlocke. In the 20th
century, James Warwick Montgomery, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, Gary Habermas,
and William Lane Craig have been apologetic heroes. But my absolute favorite 20th-century
apologist is indubitably C. S. Lewis – not because I agree with him about
everything, but because he is a masterful communicator, and because his basic
approaches to apologetic questions is both sound and winsome. Lewis was a genius at grasping complex
theological truths and communicating them in terms that everyone could
comprehend. Lewis was a master wordsmith
who took pride in the craft of creating beautiful prose, even in argumentative
form. Lewis also understood the mind and
heart of the non-Christian, and engaged them in their terms on their turf –
very effectively at that.
In all of those
ways, I tend to hold up Timothy Keller as a 21st-century C. S.
Lewis. Like Lewis, Keller is a broad
reader, with deep understanding of the theological truths of the faith as well
as the mind of the non-Christian. Like
Lewis, Keller loves learning and language, and crafts lovely literature. In this next series of blog posts, I intend
to interact with two of Keller’s most prominent apologetic works: his 2008 The Reason for God, and his 2016 Making Sense of God. I will have three blog posts on each book:
this post covers the first half of the first half (yes, the repetition was
deliberate) of The Reason for God.
Timothy Keller
planted Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan in 1989. In the past twenty years, Redeemer has
reached out to (and reached) tens of thousands of young, professional New
Yorkers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Today it ranks as a major church-planting center, with daughter churches
not just throughout New York City, but in major urban centers around the
world. Keller’s expositional preaching
continually has in mind the objections that may arise in the minds of skeptics
and non-Christians in his congregation.
Every Sunday, the worship service is followed by at least an hour of
question and answer, where Keller remains in order to respond to the questions
and doubts of those (usually unbelievers) in attendance.
In The Reason for God, Keller seeks to
engage the broader skeptical American audience through print. In his introduction, he notes that the world
is becoming increasingly polarized over religion, both more and less religious
at the same time (x). Keller suggests
that rather than rejecting one another in hostility (as seems to be the current
trend), skeptics and believers should both “look at doubt in a radically new way”—Christians acknowledging and
wrestling with their own and their neighbors’ doubts about the faith (xvii), and
skeptics recognizing and examining “a type of faith hidden within their
reasoning.” (xviii) His expectation, which serves as the primary thesis for The Reason for God, is that “if you come to recognize the
beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as
much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians from theirs—you will
discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared.” (xviii)
Thus, while exhorting Christians to critically examine their beliefs, Keller
leaves no doubt that he expects that exercise will lead to a deeper renewed
faith in Jesus Christ, while the skeptic’s searching ought to lead to a
discovery of new-found faith.
Having laid out
his thesis, Keller divides his work into two major sections: “The Leap of
Doubt” and “The Reasons for Faith.” The
first section (seven chapters) examines “the seven biggest objections and
doubts about Christianity.” (xix) The second section (also seven chapters)
reviews “the reasons underlying Christian beliefs.” (xix) Thus, Keller sets out
on a dual project of negative and positive apologetics—giving reasons not to disbelieve,
followed by reasons to believe. While
the primary audience Keller has in mind is the unchurched skeptic, Keller also
apparently desires to bolster wavering or wandering Christians in their
faith. Thus, The Reason for God can serve as a training tool for Christians who
seek to engage skeptical friends with reasons to believe. Keller has provided a concise, digestible
(each chapter is approximately fifteen pages long, with readable font and
spacing) apologetic guide.
The first
objection against Christianity is its intolerant exclusivity in an age of
religious tolerance and pluralism (Chapter One, “There Can’t Be Just One True Religion”). Keller uncovers four hidden (and false)
axioms which are required to support the charge, and systematically
deconstructs them. First, the assumption
that “all major religions are equally valid and basically teach the same thing”
betrays a fundamental ignorance of the irreconcilable differences between
religions’ doctrinal stances (7). Furthermore,
this pluralist presupposition itself “holds a specific view of God, which is
touted as superior and more enlightened than the beliefs of most major religions,”
(8) thus exposing professing tolerant pluralists as intolerant. Second, the presumption that “each religion
sees part of spiritual truth, but none can see the whole truth (8) assumes that
the speaker himself has complete objective perspective, and is free from the
limitations that plague ‘ordinary’ religious people (9). Third, the presupposition that “religious
belief is too culturally and historically conditioned to be ‘truth’” (9) is
itself a culturally and historically conditioned belief (10-11). Fourth, the assumption that “it is arrogant
to insist your religion is right and to convert others to it” (11) is not
followed by proponents of religious pluralism, who try valiantly to ‘convert’
others to their own perspective (12).
Keller quotes Mark Lilla: “The curious thing about skepticism is that
its adherents, ancient and modern, have so often been proselytizers. In reading them, I’ve often wanted to ask:
‘Why do you care?’” (13) In the rest of the chapter, Keller acknowledges that
Christianity (and religion generally) has been a major divisive (and even
violent) force at times, but insists that it also has “within itself remarkable
power to explain and expunge the divisive tendencies within the human heart.”
(18)
Keller then
tackles the problem of evil and suffering (Chapter Two, “How Could a Good God
Allow Suffering?”). He summarizes J. L.
Mackie’s argument about the incompatibility of a good and powerful God with
unjustifiable and pointless evil in the world (23). Keller identifies the hidden assumption that
“if evil appears pointless to me, then it must be pointless,” (23) a claim which inflates one’s own perception and
knowledge. He then discusses the
redemptive and refining purpose of much suffering (24-25), before turning the
argument around. Following C. S. Lewis
(as he does often throughout The Reason
for God, an intellectual debt he acknowledges in the Afterword), Keller
argues persuasively that the argument from the existence of evil admits the
existence of an objective standard of right and wrong (26), and serves as a
confirming argument for the existence of God.
Finally, Keller reminds the reader that God is not immune or distant
from human suffering, but has taken suffering upon Himself on the Cross (29),
and that the reality of redemption and the resurrection transforms our
experience of suffering (30-32).
Skeptics often
argue that the Christian faith is an enemy of freedom and stifles individual
creativity (Chapter Three, “Christianity is a Straitjacket”). In response, Keller points out that a belief
in objective truth is unavoidable (37-38), and using the example of pro-gay and
anti-gay groups, insists that every community is by nature exclusive to some
degree (38-39). Furthermore, Christianity
is not a cultural straitjacket, but is rather marked internationally by
incredible cultural diversity (40-43).
The first three
chapters, basically half of the first half of The Reason for God, deals effectively (though admittedly not
exhaustively) with three considerable contemporary objections to Christian
faith. In my next blog post, we will
look at the other four objections and how Keller responds, before turning to
the positive case for Christianity
that he poses in the second half of the book.
Until next time!
