The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism | 
| Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  92 reviews
Sales Rank: 96
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 0525950494
Dewey Decimal Number: 239
EAN: 9780525950493
ASIN: 0525950494
Publication Date: February 14, 2008
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Product Description
The End of Faith. The God Delusion. God Is Not Great. Letter to a Christian Nation. Bestseller lists are filled with doubters. But what happens when you actually doubt your doubts?
Although a vocal minority continues to attack the Christian faith, for most Americans, faith is a large part of their lives: 86 percent of Americans refer to themselves as religious, and 75 percent of all Americans consider themselves Christians. So how should they respond to these passionate, learned, and persuasive books that promote science and secularism over religion and faith? For years, Tim Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced doubts skeptics bring to his Manhattan church. And in The Reason for God, he single-handedly dismantles each of them. Written with atheists, agnostics, and skeptics in mind, Keller also provides an intelligent platform on which true believers can stand their ground when bombarded by the backlash. The Reason for God challenges such ideology at its core and points to the true path and purpose of Christianity.
Why is there suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isnt Christianity more inclusive? Shouldnt the Christian God be a god of love? How can one religion be right and the rest wrong? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions even ardent believers wrestle with today. In this book, Tim Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations and reasoning, and even pop culture to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 87 more reviews...
 A must read July 22, 2008
Keller's book gives a fresh and extremely coherent apologetic for the issues which believers and skeptics both question. The last chapter in his book, The God of the Dance, is alone worth the price of the book.
 Cleaver arguments, but neither original or thought provoking. July 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thought the author used alot of "spin" to make his points. Seemed to think that "correct" social behavior is inherited from God. I kind of wonder what his position would be if religious scripture had a demonic theme. i read a book in college entitled, "The Existence of God", which I thought was more thought provoking. Because this book is more of a modern "spin" on todays issues, makes it worth reading, but don't expect to always nod your head "yes".
Makes you think, question and dig deeper July 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I truly enjoyed this book, due to the fact that it invites you to think beyond the easy answers and the author invites conversation about very relevant questions. It doesn't sum up all the world's problems and answer every question about God, religion and Christianity. If we are looking for that in a book then why live life? He offers up suggestions that EVERYONE subscribes to some sort of "belief system," even saying you believe in nothing is a way of belief. As a good book should, it asks you to think, seek out deeper roots to why you believe and what you believe. The questions he discusses are the questions he's been asked a thousand times, and he offers up thoughtful and respectful responses. I do not think this is a book to agree or disagree with, but a book to engage and let roll around in your heart and head. An important book in an age of pluralism that is shredding the depth of community.
Thought-provoking and relevant July 13, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Excellent resource for a civil, informed argument for the God of the Bible and Christian world view.
Indispensable read for doubters July 13, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Given the title, it is ironic that I was skeptical about this book at first. I had read so many apologetic works making the same recycled arguments with varying degrees of shrillness that I honestly assumed this would be one more well-intentioned by disappointing book by a well-intentioned by substandard thinker. Was I ever wrong. In The Reason for God, Timothy Keller finally provides what I and many others have been looking for in modern apologetics--reasonableness. Not since C.S. Lewis--and I do not make this comparison lightly--has the case for Christianity been made with such coolness and clear-headed logic.
Keller's book is divided into two broad sections. In the first, "The Leap of Doubt," Keller draws on his experience as a Manhattan pastor to present the most common objections or doubts about Christianity expressed by healthily-skeptical modern people. Keller argues for Christianity with great tact--"argue" is entirely too strong a word--showing not just the flaws in the doubt and its atheist or skeptical roots, but how religion, and Christianity specifically, answer those questions and can fill the voids in the doubter's life. Throughout it is clear that Keller respects and understands the doubts people have about the exclusivity of Christianity, or the Church's history of injustices, or the uncomfortable thoughts of Hell and the supernatural.
The second section, "The Reasons for Faith," builds on the first. If in the first half of the book Keller defends Christianity with his quiet and respectful apologia, here he argues for Christianity with just as much respect, and just as much success. Chapters on the "clues" that point to God and His relationship with human beings--especially in regard to the thought, so terrible to people, of sin--are outstanding. Each section and chapter builds on those that come before, making this book difficult to summarize but a joy to read.
If The Reason for God has any one flaw, it is one of scope. Keller opens up so many deep, complex issues that they cannot possibly be covered in-depth in a single book--any one chapter here could easily justify dozens of books. But Keller's goal is to operate like his "clues for God" and point the reader in the right direction rather than lead them by the hand. This was one book that, for me, could have been twice as long.
I came to this book as a skeptical Christian and found myself not only won over by Keller's calm reasoning but encouraged by his work. The section on sin, in which he presents Soren Kierkegaard's definition of the term as a means to understanding how it breaks man's relationship with God, moved me and helped me understand flaws in my own life. One need not be converted by this book to have one's life changed. And as a believer who has often doubted, it was encouraging to know that those doubts are not only reasonable, but answerable.
Highly recommended.
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