The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is a 2008 book by Timothy Keller that seeks to provide a rational defense of the Christian faith. As such, it is a book on religion and society that falls within the subgenre of Christian apologetics. Keller (1950-2023) was the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and is the author of many notable works of popular Christian theology, with a particular focus on urban ministry and cultural engagement. He was a leading figure in his denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, as well as a co-founder of The Gospel Coalition, an influential parachurch organization. The Reason for God reached seventh place on the New York Times bestseller list and was viewed as a timely and significant rebuttal of the best-selling works of the “new atheists” (e.g., Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens). Keller devotes his attention both to answering common objections from critics of Christianity as well as to providing rational reasons for believing the Christian faith.

This study guide uses the 2018 edition from Penguin Books.

Summary

The Reason for God addresses seven common objections to the Christian faith (Part 1 of the book) and then provides arguments in favor of its veracity (Part 2). While many books of Christian apologetics have attempted the same goal across the centuries, The Reason for God is uniquely rooted in the background context of early-21st-century Western skepticism about religion.

Keller begins by addressing the widespread sense, held both by skeptics and by religious believers, that those on the opposite side of the debate are rising in power and influence in troubling ways. Keller agrees with both sides on this point, noting that surveys show an increase both in skepticism and in devout religious belief, with the middle of the spectrum—the merely nominally religious or uncommitted—showing the greatest losses. Part of Keller’s goal is to offer an explanation to the growing skeptical population as to why the devoutly religious side is also growing and to prompt them to critically consider their own position.

Many of the objections with which Keller deals are commonly voiced criticisms of Christianity. These include reckoning with some of the darker parts of Christian history, addressing faith’s relationship with the natural sciences, and assessing the historicity of the Bible. Keller’s goal is to demonstrate the incompleteness of the popular stereotypes that generally lie behind such questions. He argues that a valid reckoning with Christian history will include not just a list of the terrible things that some self-professed Christians have done but also questioning whether those self-professed Christians were at all representative of the moral traditions of Christianity. Further, he contends that an honest look at Christian history will reveal the enormous good that has been done in the name of Christ.

On science and Christianity, Keller challenges the common assumption that science and faith are in conflict. He points to significant numbers of religious believers who work in the natural sciences, as well as to the fact that on certain questions (such as the creation/evolution debate), there is a far more diverse set of possible interpretations held by Christians than is popularly known, some of which have no problem affirming the dominant scientific models. In addressing the historicity of the Bible, Keller’s method is similar, pointing to many scholars and experts in the field who affirm the historicity of the gospel accounts. He also dispels popular notions about the mythologized nature of early Christian accounts.

Many of the other objections Keller addresses reflect the social and cultural milieu of early-21st-century New York City. Influenced by the pluralistic and relativistic currents in postmodern thought, such objections insist that with all the religions in the world, no single one could claim to be exclusively true. Keller sympathizes with the good intentions of those who make such objections but argues that the majority of other religions are also exclusivist in their truth claims, just as Christianity is, so the defense offered by this objection is not one that the other religions would agree with. Further, Keller points out that such objections tend to assume an objective perspective for the skeptical view while characterizing other views as the relativized products of particular historical and cultural contexts.

Part 2 then proposes arguments in favor of Christianity. Keller offers several classical arguments for the existence of God, including the design argument and the argument from morality. Keller explains the constituent elements of ideas like sin, salvation, and the story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection to address popular misconceptions about Christianity and to present the compelling power of the traditional Christian narrative. He concludes with an invitation to his readers to assess their own motivations and explore whether they are being called to take a personal step toward the Christian faith.