The Reason for God: A Review

Thanks to Cameron Olson, the first book I’ve received for review was a good one- The Reason for God by Tim Keller. For years I’ve been searching for a good book to give people who are searching for Christ that doesn’t oversimplify the issues or attack strawmen. I think he deals comprehensively with modern criticisms of Christ and the church as well as build an excellent case for believing in them.

I am writing this review for Christians. If you are curious or critical about Christ, what I will have to say really will be of no interest to you. I would simply recommend the book to you to read yourself. If you would like, feel free to drop me a comment on what you think of it in the comments below.

If you are already a Christian, here’s my review- so many books defending Christ are coming from the classical method to apologetics. This method says that through clear reasoning you can provide clear and convincing arguments that will compel someone to become a Christian. There are many problems with this method of apologetics, however. For one, it puts the authority in reason rather than God. It also undercuts your message by the method of argument. Additionally it somehow implies that if you are not a Christian it is because you are too stupid to figure it out- which is not the case at all. I despise this method.

The other way of approaching apologetics is called presuppositional apologetics. The chief proponent of this method is Cornelius Van Til (you can read his comparison of the perspectives, description of the relationship between Chrisitans and non-Christians, and summary of the methods). I think this perspective is more intellectually honest, humble, and simply more convincing. Until Keller’s book, however, this uncommon method for apologetics has not been presented in an accessible form for Joe-non-Christan. CS Lewis comes close- who is someone Keller speaks highly of throughout the book- but I personally think that Lewis still falls into the first camp of apologetic method. This is why I was so excited to find this book, and encouraged to read it.

Who will be the next reader to send me something from my Amazon Wish List for review? I can’t wait!