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The Reason For God
Belief In An Age Of Skepticism
In The Reason For God, famous New York pastor Timothy Keller defends Christianity and its core beliefs against the most common objections. His fresh approach provides several arguments for continued Christian faith.
- Anyone who is interested in religion
- Christians who want to discover a fresh angle to their faith
Timothy Keller founded his own church in New York in 1989, and now speaks weekly to a Sunday congregation of over 5,000. A prolific author, he has been described as “the C.S. Lewis for the 21st Century.”
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The Reason For God
Belief In An Age Of Skepticism
- Read in 16 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 10 key ideas
Synopsis
In The Reason For God, famous New York pastor Timothy Keller defends Christianity and its core beliefs against the most common objections. His fresh approach provides several arguments for continued Christian faith.
Key idea 1 of 10
Contrary to popular belief, the Christian church is not particularly exclusive – but it does have core beliefs.
People hold many different things against the Christian church. But it’s the notion of Christianity as a strict and self-righteous religion that scares the most people away.
This is because Christianity’s strict beliefs and claims of being the only true religion make many people suspicious.
For example, some parts of the Christian faith, like the belief that Jesus really is the son of God, are incompatible with other religions. By insisting that this belief is true, Christianity implies that all other religions are wrong.
But for many people, each religion is right in its own way. That’s why they reject Christianity: because it claims its own fixed rules and viewpoints are the correct ones. This kind of rigid point of view can make some people very angry.
For example, the author once participated in a panel discussion where he, a rabbi and an imam all stated that not all religions could be true. This angered one of the students attending the discussion, who answered, “We will never come to know peace on earth if religious leaders keep on making such exclusive claims!”
But in actuality, there is nothing wrong or particularly exclusionary in having strong beliefs and core principles. In fact, every single person and society has a set of core principles that make up their identity and differentiates them from others.
For example, if you believe in the right to private property, or that your life has a basic value, then you are upholding a core principle. And every society that has basic rules on how people are allowed to act – for example, a law against homicide – also has some core beliefs about life that create a common moral foundation for their particular social identity.
And even very tolerant groups have certain core beliefs that unite them and form their identity – just like Christianity. For instance, gay rights activists believe that same-sex relationships should be fully accepted by society.
Key ideas in this title
- Contrary to popular belief, the Christian church is not particularly exclusive – but it does have core beliefs.
- Christianity is not a threat to your personal or cultural freedom.
- Christianity is responsible for much that is good in the world.
- Accepting one’s sins isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
- Suffering, injustice and catastrophes don't contradict the existence of God.
- The idea of a hell doesn't contradict the idea of God also being loving.
- Science can’t disprove God’s existence.
- For Christians it is a fact that Jesus actually did rise from the dead.
- Although there is no definite proof, many clues lead us to believe in God.
- Final summary
