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The Reason for God | 
 enlarge | Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $10.88
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Avg. Customer Rating:  142 reviews
Sales Rank: 23490
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
ISBN: 1594483493
Dewey Decimal Number: 291
EAN: 9781594483493
ASIN: 1594483493
Publication Date: August 4, 2009 (In 208 Days)
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Product Description
A New York Times bestseller people can believe inby a pioneer of the new urban Christians (Christian Today magazine).
Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics and non-believers bring to religion. Using literature, philosophy, anthropology, pop culture, and intellectual reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand against the backlash toward religion spawned by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 137 more reviews...
 Good Reasons for Believing in God! January 7, 2009
I believe it was in 1988 when I attended a weekend conference in New Jersey where Tim Keller was the speaker. He was then telling people about his plans to move to New York City, to Manhattan, to start a conservative Presbyterian church there. He felt called to minister to a large city population at a time when many churches were fleeing to the suburbs. Dr. Boice, the then senior pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in downtown Philadelphia, had a similar commitment to large city ministry and I have often wondered if he had influenced Keller in his decision. I don't know the answer to that question. On the other hand, many wondered at Keller's decision. Probably not because of any lack of perceived need but rather because of the magnitude of the task. He wasn't proposing to join an already established conservative, evangelical ministry (there probably wasn't one, all of the old ones had already left), but rather to start one in downtown Manhattan! I moved to Wichita in 1990 and have heard very little of Keller since then. This book, Reason for God, is the first book of Keller's that I have read. I was delighted to read it not only because of the content (more below - this is a review!) but also because it has filled in the details of his Manhattan ministry. He has apparently been wildly successful in his endeavors! I learned about this book from Lauren Green on the Fox News channel, Green being a member of Keller's congregation. This book is based on Keller's ministry and experiences with the skeptical residents of Manhattan. What are the real questions that people are asking? What answers does the Christian faith have to offer to those questions? Just how relevant is Christianity to this modern world? How best can Christianity be presented to skeptical enquirers? Is this the Apostle Paul in Athens or in Corinth? No, it is Keller in Manhattan! According to New York magazine: "With intellectual, brimstone-free sermons that mange to cite Woody Allen alongside Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Keller draws some five thousand young followers every Sunday. Church leaders see him as a model of how to evangelize urban centers across the country, and Keller has helped 'plant' fifty gospel-based Christian churches around New York plus another fifty from San Francisco to London."
Keller encourages his readers to doubt, Christians as well as unbelievers. In the Introduction he writes: "People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic." "Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts - not only their own but their friends' and neighbors'." "My thesis is that 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 as solid as they first appeared." And with this he sets the stage for dialogue about serious questions. Throughout the book he uses this approach. Have you really understood the Christian message? If you doubt it, upon what are your doubts based? Are those doubts justified? For example, in Chapter 1 he discusses doctrine and how many think that doctrine is harmful and that what really matters are the teachings of major religions that seem similar. He responds as follows: "Ironically, the insistence that doctrines do not matter is really a doctrine itself. It holds a specific view of God, which is touted as superior and more enlightened than the beliefs of most major religions. So the proponents of this view do the very thing they forbid in others."
Granted that at least some evil in the world does pose a problem, but I think Keller's take on it is a good one. He writes in Chapter 2: "Tucked away within the assertion that the world is filled with pointless evil is a hidden premise, namely, that if evil appears pointless to me, then it must be pointless. Again the reasoning is, of course, fallacious. Just because you can't see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one. [Remember Job.] Again we see lurking within supposedly hard-nosed skepticism an enormous faith in one's own cognitive faculties. If our minds can't plumb the depths of the universe for good answers to suffering, well, then, there can't be any! This is blind faith of a high order." Later in the same chapter he displays the fallacious logic of the atheist concerned with justice: "On what basis, then, does the atheist judge the natural world to be horribly wrong, unfair, and unjust? The nonbeliever in God doesn't have a good basis for being outraged at injustice, which, as Lewis [C.S. Lewis] points out, was the reason for objecting to God in the first place. If you are sure that this natural world is unjust and filled with evil, you are assuming the reality of some extra-natural (or supernatural) standard by which to make your judgment."
Reminiscent of Phillip Johnson's lecture at Princeton University "Can Science Know the Mind of God?", Keller writes in Chapter 8: "if we can't trust our belief-forming faculties to tell us the truth about God, why should we trust them to tell us the truth about anything, including evolutionary science? If our cognitive faculties only tell us what we need to survive, not what is true, why trust them about anything at all? . . . If we believe God exists, then our view of the universe gives us a basis for believing that cognitive faculties work . . . I want to demonstrate that you already know that God does exist . . . belief that we cannot prove but can't not know."
This is a good read, not only for Christians who want a better understanding themselves of basic issues of faith and to be able to give better answers to those who ask, but it is also a good read for non-Christians who are asking questions.
Thought provoking January 7, 2009
This book brought thought provoking angles that need to be considered when searching for truth. It is imperative that each person search for the truth and meaning to life. Jesus said seek and you will find. To go through life aimlessly is eternally fatal. Jesus is truth and the truth leads to Jesus, Gods Son. I love the picture that the author portrays in the chapter on the dance, and Gods perfect love. That makes sense and gives hope!
Not for the weak in mind..... January 6, 2009
Timothy Keller's book, THE REASON FOR GOD is not light reading. It answers age old questions which are the stumbling blocks to non-believers AND it answers them in a remarkably fresh and solid manner. If you've ever questioned your beliefs or if you wonder why the world has so many who profess to be Christians, this book will give the answers. It's tops on my book list!
Before you rant, read Keller. January 2, 2009
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What's your favorite rant against Christianity? What hypocrisy about the religion just really turns you off? Before you open mouth and insert foot, read this book. Keller addresses many of the tough questions that any Christian or anyone who believes in God struggles with. I first listened to this book on compact disc then I ordered it. I think he is the C.S.Lewis of our generation.
The best Christian apology I have read January 1, 2009
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Timothy Keller can make difficult matters clear and don't let one's interest die. I made numerous notes about his arguments which for me were satisfying. I looked some harsh critiques of these book which make one sad. How can we understand this world in so totally different way? Nothing that atheists argue does not persuade believers and similarly the believers' arguments are futile when one is an atheist.
I do not have anything important to add to those positive reviews. I just wanted to recommend this book, because it is the best Christian apology I have read - and I have read a lot of them.
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