Book Reviews -- By: Matthew S. DeMoss

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 169:673 (Jan 2012)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Matthew S. DeMoss


Book Reviews

By The Faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary

Matthew S. DeMoss

Editor

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. By Timothy Keller. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009. xxiv + 311 pp. $16.00.

Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. In this book, which is intensely autobiographical, he begins with a simple yet profound observation: “In short, the world is polarizing over religion. It is getting both more religious and less religious at the same time” (p. x). Skepticism and faith are both growing. He describes the cultural milieu this way: “We have come to a cultural moment in which both skeptics and believers feel their existence is threatened because both secular skepticism and religious faith are on the rise in significant, powerful ways. We have neither the Western Christendom of the past nor the secular, religionless society that was predicted for the future. We have something else entirely” (p. xv).

This book is written for both Christians and skeptics. To Christians, Keller encourages wrestling with doubts and questions, “not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors.’ . . . Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt” (p. xvii). Skeptics, too, are encouraged to doubt, “to learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs” (p. xvii). In short, he calls on skeptics to “doubt your doubts.” He adds, “My thesis 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 for theirs—you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared” (p. xix).

The book is divided into two major sections with a brief “intermission” between them. In the first part, “The Leap of Doubt,” Keller interacts with challenges to Christianity. These are seven of the major issues, those that he has heard regularly in his ministry and that every Christian leader has faced. He discusses the claim that Christianity is not the only true religion, that evil is evidence that God is not loving, that Christianity limits freedom, that the church is the cause of injustice and oppression, that a

You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe
visitor : : uid: ()