Evangelical stays the course, with grace and humility

THE REASON FOR GOD: BELIEF IN AN AGE OF SKEPTICISM

By Tim Keller

Dutton, $24.95, 320 pages

REVIEWED BY JON WARD

It’s now time for the Christian counterpunch, responding to the deluge of diatribes that have pounded away at God and his followers these past few years.

Faith is responsible for most of the world’s problems, said Sam Harris in 2004. Believers are deluded, Richard Dawkins declared in 2006. And God is not great, argued Christopher Hitchens last year.

So up stands Tim Keller, theologian, intellectual, pastor, who shepherds a church of 5,000 in New York City (only don’t call that a megachurch — those are only in the suburbs).

How do you plead, Mr. Keller, to the charge that religion has caused much of history’s trouble and bloodshed?

Guilty, says Mr. Keller.

Guilty?

“Religion can certainly be one of the major threats to world peace,” Mr. Keller writes.

Wait a minute. Perhaps we could back up and check your orthodox credentials Mr. Keller.

Do you believe in the divine inspiration of every word in the Bible? Of course, he says.

How about your education? Did you attend a bona fide Calvinist seminary? Try two, he retorts: Gordon-Conwell and Westminster.

And you belong to the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), not the liberal Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA)? Sure do, he says.

Story Continues →