There is a reason that Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism hit the New York Times Best Seller list. There is a hunger for spirituality in our times. People are seeking intellectually honest reasons for how a good God could allow suffering in the world, how a loving God could send people to hell, why Christianity isn’t more inclusive, how one religion can be right and others wrong, and why so many wars could have been fought in the name of a God of peace. Keller, a brilliant pastor, teacher, church planter and theologian, is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, New York. Redeemer started with 50 people in 1989 and has grown to over 5,000 today. I first heard of Keller from one of his former elders at Redeemer, who was a college roommate of mine. When my former roommate told me, “You have to read The Reason for God,” my first thought was, “I already have a whole book shelf on apologetics in my office.” But after reading it, I know why this book on the the intellectual support for the Christian belief has sold so many copies. Other books on apologetics are written, it seems, primarily for Christians seeking to learn how to defend their faith. But The Reason for God is a book written primarily for unbelievers – and there are a lot of those. About 4.5 billion people in the world, the last time I heard a number, do not claim to be Christians. Keller writes for them. Keller is a successful Christian evangelist in one of the world’s largest and most influential cities because he can make strong, intellectually viable arguments on behalf of the Christian faith while remaining sympathetic and understanding toward the doubts of the unbeliever. That The Reason for God takes such a sympathetic tone towards the sincere seeker while still using literature, philosophy and sound reasoning to demonstrate the intellectual integrity of Christianity is the reason that I love this book and highly recommend it to all who seek to understand the reason for God.
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