The Reason for God 1

Tim Keller is the pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY. Manhattan is known as a pretty secular place, so the fact that Keller's church has 5000+ members is quite remarkable. The purpose of his book is to help skeptics of Christianity overcome their doubts while at the same time taking seriously their criticisms of Christianity. The first half of the book looks at the biggest objections to Christian beliefs that Keller has encountered while the second half of the book looks at the reasons for Christian faith.

The first chapter looks at the objection that "there can't be just one true religion." When Christians claim that faith in Christ is the only Truth, some people might view that as arrogant. Or some might think that means Christians think they are superior to non-Christians.

Keller doesn't totally disagree with these objections. Because many religions do make exclusive truth claims, there can be a tendency towards "us vs. them" attitudes, feelings of superiority, etc. And this can lead to violence, hatred and oppression. Some of the ways of dealing with these problems have been to outlaw religion or to condemn religion or to make religion private. Keller doesn't believe any of these will work. Rather, Keller thinks Christianity gives us "rich resources" to deal with the tendency of religion to slide towards violence or intolerance.

Keller's first point is Christian belief that all people are created in the image of God. This doctrine should lead Christians to believe that non-Christians are "better than any of their mistaken beliefs could make them." In other words, even though non-Christians are incorrect in their religious beliefs, they are still image-bearers of God. And, says Keller, because of the Christian doctrine of sin, even though Christians may have correct religious beliefs, we should still expect that we won't live up to those beliefs. Keller writes, "Christians ... should expect to find nonbelievers who are much nicer, kinder, wiser, and better than they are." This is because Christians are not accepted by God because of our moral superiority or our great wisdom, but rather by God's grace. Keller's point here is that because salvation is based not on works but God's grace, Christians have no right to feel superior to people of other faiths.

So back to the objection that Christianity is exclusive. Keller agrees with skeptics that Christianity is exclusive. But at the same time, Christians have "within their belief system the strongest possible resource for practicing sacrificial service, generosity, and peace-making." This is because at the heart of Christianity is "a man who died for his enemies, praying for their forgiveness."