Guest Post. The following is a brief review by Martin Shadwick. Martin is an uber-smart guy who works with AFES on the main campus at Newcastle Uni. He’s also my brother-in-law.
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Tim Keller. This is now my default book to give to university students who want to find out about Christianity.
The first half thoughtfully answers the standard objections people have to Christianity (e.g. how could a God allow suffering? hasn’t science disproved Christianity? isn’t Christianity a straitjacket?). The second half explains what Christians believe and offers reasons for faith.
Keller’s style is engaging, humble, and sympathetic to the sceptic. His apologetic approach is largely (although not entirely) presuppositional – that is, Keller suggests that Christian presuppositions actually provide the best explanation for our experience of the world. He does not shy away from difficult subjects, showing, for example, how the doctrine of the Trinity makes sense of our experience of relationships, and how the Trinitarian God invites us a true life centred on other people, not ourselves.
There are perhaps a few too many C. S. Lewis quotes, but Keller is quick to acknowledge his debt to Lewis’ thought.
I am thankful to Keller (and God!) that he wrote this book. It has filled a much needed place as a contemporary, readable, sensitive book to give the thoughtful enquirer.
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