The Reason for God

There are too many topics in this book to respond without writing a book of my own, so I will have to pick and choose the most beautiful and most painful aspects and flesh each one as it comes. I fully expected this book to be as pedantic and inane as several of the other Christian propaganda items that have been recommended to me over the years. Instead, I found myself wrapped up in the battle between wholehearted agreement with the disillusionment that accompanies the lack of spirituality and the foregone conclusion that Christianity is the only answer to everything- that Christianity will save the world. Other than his conclusion, Timothy Keller’s treatment of Christianity from the inside blew me away- he does not fall back on the clichés of Christianity, like the man who once patted me on the head and said, confidently; “You’ll find the truth”. That pillow of faith which is supposed to explain all lacks in logic is never used in the book, which I appreciate.

Keller acknowledges the pain and disillusionment of the “Me Generation”. As entitled, self-centered adults raised on the concept of self-esteem, we have supreme faith in our own reasoning abilities and moral capacity, whether founded in reality or not. As scientific minds of the new millennium, we look for reason and logic to explain anything that can be definitively said to be “true”.  When we are confronted with a world that does not do what we want, does not react the way we feel is fair, and is somehow beyond our abilities to understand, we rebel. Somehow we did not achieve the goals we set for ourselves, and there is a void remaining in the middle of our souls even if we DID find what we thought would create happiness. In our frustration, many of us have left whatever churches we once called our own- professing that we have been failed by the establishment rather than exploring the possibility that we have failed ourselves. Keller’s church is made up of the skeptics and doubters of New York, whose voices have screamed that frustration in the face of Keller, his church, and Jesus Christ Himself.

Between this and the Varieties of Religious Experience, I feel like the loneliness and disillusionment are over-classified and therefore belittled. The sick soul, as William James calls it, experiences pain in order to find the divine, and would not have found the final peace without the conflict and depression that inspired it. Keller talks about the three major reasons for doubt, which seem to embody all of human experience- intellectual, personal, and “having the right people”, or community-based. I could invent different categories that spanned the whole of my experience, but these will do. However you classify them, each person’s pain is individual and unique, and deserves to be treated as such. I have a sick soul according to William James, and my wrestling with God has lasted most of my life, and I expect no answers. Truth in the divine world is something we can never accomplish, no matter what the objections are. My questions are universal and, to Mr. Keller, it seems they are also childish and common. No matter what the frequency of my arguments, the arguments remain valid in my eyes, and in my heart. God finds me in the questions rather than in the answers.

"[O]ne can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms."
— Simone Weil

Having survived his own crisis of faith, researching avidly, and, after finding peace, having consoled enough souls to fill his own church and begin several more, Keller is certainly qualified to guide us through the twists and turns of Christianity. I was swept away by his straightforward explanations of such difficult concepts as the triune God, the divinity and resurrection of Jesus, and the “loving” God of discipline and wrath.

My central issues with Christianity are the only pieces that are required for membership in the club- and I am sure that I am not alone. Jesus being “God”, his resurrection from the dead, and the three gods wrapped into one (Triune God) are simultaneously the most important and the most difficult aspects of the creeds.  If I can think of Christianity as being about compassion, about fulfillment and service to humankind and to the world as a whole, I am a dedicated Christian. Of course, if I think of it that way, I am also a dedicated Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, and many more.