The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Posted by tom | Mar 17, 2008Thank-you to those which have kept me up-to-date on Tim Keller's ministry as pastor of Redeemer Church, NYC, NY. I have found his material, particularly his work on A New Kind of Urban Christian, of great interest.
Tim's The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism stands at No. 18 on the New York Times bestseller list (anyone interested in passing along a copy in my Easter basket?) and recently he's has spoken on material from his book at a number of Veritas Forums.
In First Things (I'd encourage you to take time to read this piece), Tim comments regarding the motivation behind his writing:
I know for a fact that [C.S.] Lewis was just heavy sledding for even smart Ivy League American graduates by the mid-nineties. One of the reasons I started doing this was I thought I needed something that gave them shorter, simpler, more accessible arguments.
Makes me feel quite smart 
. . . On the other hand, I'm neither equipped nor motivated to rule the professional world of the Big Apple. More importantly, the quote points toward our culture's lack of self reflection and refusal to process the larger concerns which press upon/shape our daily life. A thumbs up to the CMU undergraduate and graduate students which have pressed on with me through the years!
Good to read the affirmations of the Body of Christ, the Apostle's Creed, C.S. Lewis and N.T. Wright, who by the way will speak at Following Christ this December. For those with interest, below is Keller's recent Veritas Forum presentation at Berkeley.
i'm starting to read tim keller's new book that is partly a reply to the recent books by dawkins, harris, etc...the "redeemer pca churches" that tim has started in NYC and other places are reaching mostly single people (average age 30) who are intellligent and usually have no church background...i'm impressed with the way he shows skeptics that their doubts are based on an alternate faith...he wants them to "doubt their doubts"...and see the unproved assumptions underlying their skepticism....here's one reader's review:
Attempting to find a way forward, Keller suggests that both believers and skeptics look at doubt in a whole new way. Within the book he does not make the classical distinction between believers and unbelievers, but rather between believers and skeptics. His thesis depends on this distinction between unbeliever and skeptic because, he says, we all believe something. Even skeptics have a kind of faith hidden within their reasoning. Understanding what we believe about belief is crucial. His thesis is this: "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 so solid as they first appeared." He seeks to prove that thesis in the book's first part.
In the first seven chapters Keller looks at seven of the most common objections and doubts about Christianity and discerns the alternate beliefs underlying each of them. This section is titled "The Leap of Doubt" and answers these seven common critiques:
1. There can't be just one true religion
2. A good God could not allow suffering
3. Christianity is a straitjacket
4. The church is responsible for so much injustice
5. A loving God would not send people to hell
6. Science has disproved Christianity
7. You can't take the Bible literally
In the second half of the book, titled "The Reasons for Faith," he turns to an examination of seven reasons to believe in the claims of the Christian faith.
1. The clues of God
Posted by Miller, Mar 17 2008, 14:512. The knowledge of God
3. The problem of sin
4. Religion and the gospel
5. The (true) story of the cross
6. The reality of the resurrection
7. The Dance of God