Book Reviews
by Vin Sparks

The Reason for God

Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Author: Timothy Keller, Born September 23, 1950, founded and serves as Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Pastor Keller has learned to connect with young urbanites successfully enough to have built a church that hosts more than five thousand every Sunday. His ministry has also helped to plant 50 gospel-based churches in New York and another 50 in urban areas from San Francisco to London.

Purpose: To take a second look at doubt. He urges believers and non-believers alike to look at doubt in a radically new way. Pastor Keller has distilled the many conversations he’s had with doubters over the years into a book that points to a spiritual third way.

Part 1 – The Leap of Doubt
Here Pastor Keller takes on the hard questions that young urbanites have about the Christian Church and what it has become. There is honest chastisement of the church along with answers that reveal the lack of reason behind the questions being asked. These direct but respectful answers seem to resonate with a young New Yorker in such a way as to keep them coming back for more.

Doubts addressed in Part 1:

  1. There Can’t be Just One True Religion
  2. How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
  3. Christianity is a Straightjacket
  4. The Church is Responsible for so much Injustice
  5. How can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
  6. Science Has Disproved Christianity
  7. You Can’t Take the Bible Literally

After addressing doubt, it is logical to offer faith. Pastor Keller, once again, does so in such a way that draws these young thinkers to a decision for Christ.

Reasons for Faith addressed in Part 2:

  1. The Clues of God
  2. The Knowledge of God
  3. The Problem of Sin
  4. Religion and the Gospel
  5. The (True) Story of the Cross
  6. The Reality of the Resurrection
  7. The Dance of God

As you can see from the titles of some of these chapters, Redeemer Presbyterian Church preaches a traditional version of the gospel and yet has made a mark for Christ right in the heart of one of the largest urban areas in the world.

I have relied heavily on this book in posting to this blog and will continue to do so. In a series of addressing some of the biggest objections millennials have with Christianity I have freely drawn from Pastor Keller’s work here. For a closer examination of how I have done so, follow the chapter links above.