A call to honesty and humilty (A Reason for God-Introduction)

The introduction of Keller’s book is a reflection of his personal background of working with doubt to clarify his own faith and his interpersonal work to help others examine their own lives and beliefs. A key idea is that the more honest a person is about faith the more clarity there will be about his own faith and the more humility there will be concerning the faith of others. Keller’s hook to capture one’s attention is that “the enemies are both right.” By that he means that the world is “getting both more religious and less religious at the same time.” As he cites statistics and studies to make his point he moves offers several suggestions. On one hand he suggests that both camps recognize their own strong positions in culture and resist any over the top hype that really is defensiveness. Instead he urges everyone to examine their own doubts and faith. For the believer such examination can be helpful preparation for the times when life seems exceedingly more difficult or unfair than expected or for when one comes into contact with a skeptic who is smart. And by examining the doubts and faith of skeptics, the believer opens the door for conversations that include answers that are more plausible to the skeptic. Keller challenges the skeptic to “look for a type of faith hidden in their own reasoning.” He does just this in the first half of the book as he seeks to answer the most common objections he hears to Christianity. This is one of the most helpful aspects of this book and makes it a resource that will serve many Christians. He listens to the objections and through many conversations has come to understand what ‘faiths’ lie behind those objections. Very helpful stuff indeed! I found Keller’s analysis of his personal journey of faith helpful. He identified three “barriers” he has had to work through and in. The first was the intellectual one—is it true? Why? How do I know? The second barrier he calls the interior or personal barrier. I think he means not merely the experiential aspect of sensing and knowing God’s presence, but the actual workings out of a real faith in a real person. He says it would take a different book to flesh this out. I suspect he is thinking of the always present work Jesus does through His grace and mercy. His point—it can’t be merely intellectual. The third barrier is the one that led him to ministry. It is the social barrier. He found himself wondering why the moral relativists were so insistent on social justice and why many (most?) orthodox Christians appeared so blasé about deep social and societal wrongs. Helping to create such a community has been part of the impetus for his work in New York City. This book is part of the fruit of that work. Keller wants to answer questions in ways nonreligious people can hear the answers. He wants to help believers to understand faith more clearly and hold it more humbly. What do you think? (By the way, if you want to listen to the sermons that relate to the first seven chapters you can go here to download them.)