The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

by Timothy Keller

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Edition: Hardcover

Publication Date: February 14, 2008

Publisher: Dutton Adult

ISBN: 0525950494

Amazon.com Sales Rank: 227

Average Customer Rating:

List price: ~~$24.95~~

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Reviews

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Concise, Clear Arguments, November 30, 2008

It starts strongly with the almost paradoxical problem that the special grace offered by God through Jesus requires substantial reflection and justification when compared to the acts-based grace of other religions. I wrote paradoxical because in Judaism, acts matter, what you believe is secondary, nice, but not damning by absence. Jews think of this as superior to Christianity, but it allows very sloppy thinking, which the carefulness of Keller shows.

The highlight of the book is really on pages 58-62. These words would and will turn many thoughtful non-Christians into acolytes.

If I could add one thing to the early text, it would be a reference to G�del's Incompleteness theorem. Most people think it means that nothing humans conjure contains the all truth or all causes. In effect, everything is faulty: so your belief is just as valid as my belief - another argument for relativity or nihilism. However, what Incompleteness really implies is that there is a reality out there, outside our closed thoughts, and that reality may just be god: a wonderful belief that rests on extremely solid, non-religious ground: a real proof no different than vertical angles are congruent in plane geometry.

Reasonable, November 26, 2008

At last, here is a crisp intellectual reply to the challenges raised by secular, humanist and atheistic thinkers against Christian doctrine and belief. Tim Keller addresses their most common and pointed questions in an eloquent, firm and thoughtful way. Best of all, he does so without the rancor, sarcasm and arrogance that have typified so many of the challengers themselves. He invites people to seek the truth, and offers solid, sensible supporting points for each argument.

He readily admits the profound harm and mistakes that have been made by those claiming to be Christians who act contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the early church. By drawing a distinction to clarify the true message and beliefs of the faith, he dispels multiple misinterpretations and misconceptions about Christianity. His moderate voice of love and tolerance towards others has already led so many people to think through the profound implications of their belief systems in Manhattan. This book reflects his decades of street-level experience in New York.

Mr. Keller's reasoned approach contrasts sharply with the shrill and emotional outbursts so common in our "progressive" post-modern age. His work is a welcome and worthy successor to that of his proclaimed predecessor, C.S. Lewis.

you better be willing to use your brain, November 18, 2008

I was a little disappointed in this book, probably because I have listened to a lot of Tim Keller's messages and I guess I was hoping for new ideas in this book. I didn't find many points that I hadn't already heard him speak about but that doesn't mean his points aren't intelligent and helpful because they are. I was hoping to give this book to some friends, but after reading it, I think it's too intellectual for them to want to read it. It's a well written, clear, helpful book . . .expectations are a bummer.

He is risen!!, November 11, 2008

In the shrewd analysis of Timothy Keller (no relation to Helen), "The Reason for God" comes down to this: "If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all he said. If he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?" (p. 202). And that is so true!

Jesus of Nazareth DID rise from the dead, so everyone can just forget about Plan B. And yet, Jesus has sometimes been criticised for not sticking it out in the tomb as long as he promised before making his escape--which is one of those things that Keller's book frankly forces us to accept. Jesus said he would stay dead for three days and three nights (e.g., Matthew 12:38-40). He was taken down from the cross at sunset on Friday. By midnight, his body was wrapped in a winding sheet and stored in Joseph of Arimathaea's tomb, with an exit scheduled for Monday evening. And less than thirty hours later, VAVOOM, he's gone! Then came that first predawn visit from his mother and Mary Magdalene, and the rest is history.

I may not be Jesus' biggest fan, but I say let the critics hang. Let them - not for 72 hours but for two MINUTES - nose the inside of a stifling, damp, cobwebby, maggot-infested stone tomb. Better yet, let them sleep in one. And then let them wake up dead on a stone slab, in the middle of the night, like Boris Karloff, in a crypt that is sealed up so tight you can't breathe, and it's so pitch-dark in there that you cannot even see the glow from your own halo.

Truly, it was no picnic for Jesus, not even after they took him down and put him away for the weekend. ESPECIALLY then. You may call it "Holy Week." That's not what Jesus called it. I'll tell you what Jesus called it. Jesus called it "Maundy Thursday," "Bad Friday," "Easter Sunday," and GETMEOUTAHERE Saturday.

Timothy Keller doesn't call the Lord's early-bird Resurrection a "mistake." He calls it improvisational quick-thinking, and I totally agree with him. I don't care if your name is David Blaine, if you were trapped inside that tomb, you would not have stayed one minute longer than Jesus did. For a moment, just imagine yourself inside that dark stone crypt with the risen Lord: here lies the body, just starting to stir. There's you, a devout, born-again Christian--even so, I still would not be too surprised if you pounded lumps on him to be the first one out. And if you should ever happen to be trapped inside a small stuffy elevator with a stabbed-dead body during a power-outage, you will know exactly what I'm talking about.

After just thirty hours, Jesus' injuries had not yet had time to heal - but that, actually, turned out to be a big plus. It was the sight of those wounds that totally convinced grumpy Thomas, for example, that Jesus' literal physical body had literally passed through the stone wall of the tomb without exiting by the door. Later, when he showed himself to doubting Thomas, Jesus said, "Go ahead! Reach hither your finger, and touch my hands." So Thomas did that.

Then Jesus hoisted his robe. "Now reach hither your hand," he said, "and thrust your fingers into the spear-hole in my side, and be not faithless, but believe!" (John 20:27).

Now when Jesus lifted his robe to display a deep wound in his side where no wound should be, from the spear of Felix Fabius, several of the Eleven were totally embarrassed, not unlike the Washington press corps when President Lyndon Johnson hoisted his shirt to display the scar from his recent and successful cholecystectomy.

But it was exactly the right thing for Jesus to have done at that particular moment. Jesus did not borrow his "Check it out!" stratagem from President Johnson; he borrowed it from his mother, who had told him the story of her own similar "challenge of faith" to skeptical Salome, at the Virgin birth, as recorded also in the Gospel of James.

The device worked perfectly to restore the faith of grumpy Thomas, who jerked his hands behind his back and said, "My Lord!" and "My God!" (John 20:28). Thomas was aghast - for he knew Salome personally, and she had told him her own version of the same frightening story from thirty years ago.

No WAY was Thomas going to poke his fingers in there.

Jesus said, "Thomas, because you have seen, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and believed, anyway" (John 20:29).

And that saying cut Thomas's heart to the quick: for even though he went on to write a much-beloved holy scripture (the Gospel of Thomas, which helped Saint Paul and the Church patriarchs to establish Christ's position on "the problem with Jews"), poor grumpy Thomas never did feel as lucky or well-blessed as these people who can believe whatever the Bible says, without seeing any evidence that it might actually be true.

- L.

Clear Discussion of Reason for God's Existence, November 8, 2008

Timothy Keller has given a clear and simple discussion of the reason for God's releveance and exitence in contemporary society. As a New York pastor for the last decades, he writes with authority and compassion. I recommend this book to anyone seeking a guide to truth.


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							December 1, 2008


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