The Reason for God - Timothy Keller
I first realised I was going to enjoy this book when I opened to the introduction and saw that the first epigraph was a quote from Darth Vader.
Timothy Keller was a well-known theologian and pastor who died earlier this year. Browsing in Manna (my local Christian book store) I saw this book on display and decided to give it a go.
It was really worth the read.
Keller outlines the reasons for belief in God in general and Christianity in particular, pushing back against common secular arguments thoroughly and firmly, while still maintaining a spirit of dialogue. In opening the book, for example, he argues that believers should be more open to admit doubt ("A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenceless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart sceptic" (pages xx-xxi)) and that sceptics should be more open to admit faith ("All doubts, however sceptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs...If you went to the Middle East and said, 'There can't be just one true religion', nearly everyone would say, 'Why not?'" (page xxi)).
Another example of pushing back against common arguments occurs when he addresses the argument that an all-powerful God wouldn't allow evil to exist by stating: "If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. Indeed, you can't have it both ways." (page 25).
At times Keller argues more firmly than you might expect. In one chapter (which he makes sure to preface well and graciously) he argues that we all 'know' that God exists to some degree even if we deny it, due to our insistence that there are moral absolutes in the world. After arguing carefully and thorough for a while, he sums up this section by saying: "If you believe human rights are a reality, then it makes much more sense that God exists than that he does not. If you insist on a secular view of the world and yet you continue to pronounce some things right and some things wrong, then I hope you see the deep disharmony between the world your intellect has devised and the real world (and God) that your heart knows exists. This leads us to a crucial question. If a premise ('There is no God') leads to a conclusion you know isn't true ('Napalming babies is culturally relative') then why not change the premise?" (page 156)
A book like this is hard to do justice to in a simple review, as any statement I quote will be somewhat out of context without Keller's full careful argument. Nevertheless, I hope I've give a few tasters of his style. I fully recommend checking this one out, whether you already have a faith and want to strengthen your own understanding of it, or whether you are less religious and want to check out some of the arguments believers have for believing.
Completed 30 September 2023.
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