Keller on the Problem of Pain

In December 2004, a massive tsunami killed more than 250,000 people around the rim of the Indian Ocean. Over the following weeks, newspapers and magazines were full of letters and articles asking "Where was God?" One reporter wrote: "If God is God, he's not good. If God is good, he's not God. You can't have it both ways, especially after the Indian Ocean catastrophe." Despite the confident assertion of the columnist, the effort to demonstrate that evil disproves the existence of God "is now acknowledged on (almost) all sides to be completely bankrupt." Why?

... Just because you can't see or image a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn't mean there can't be one. Against we see lurking within supposedly hard-nosed skepticism an enormous faith in one's own cognitive faculties. If our minds can't plumb the depths of the universe for good answers to suffering, well, then, there can't be any! This is blind faith of a high order.

... If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. Indeed, you can't have it both ways.

Excerpt from 'The Reason for God' Chapter 2 - How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?

Keller on the Trinity

I'm currently preparing for a lecture this Friday at Kings Training College on the topic of the Trinity (I understand; you're trying to suppress the jealousy), and have found Keller's The Reason for God to be particularly helpful, particular his chapter titled 'The Dance of God'.

Many writers on this topic become confusing and difficult to grasp. Keller's writing is logical and practical. Here's a snippet:

Christianity, alone among the world faiths, teaches that God is triune. The doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one being who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity means that God is, in essence, relational...

If there is no God, then everything in and about us is the product of blind impersonal forces. The experience of love may feel significant, but evolutionary naturalists tell us that it is merely a biochemical state in the brain.

But what if there is a God? Does love fare any better? It depends on who you think God is. If God is unipersonal, then until God created other beings there was no love, since love is something that one person has for another. This means that a unipersonal God was power, sovereignty, and greatness from all eternity, but not love...

However, if God is triune, then loving relationships in community are the "great fountain... at the center of reality."... In the Christian conception, God really has love as his essence...

Ultimate reality is a community of persons who know and love one another. That is what the universe, God, history, and life is all about. If you favor money, power, and accomplishment over human relationships, you will dash yourself on the rocks of reality...

You will never get a sense of self by...making everything revolve around your needs and interests. Unless you are willing to experience the loss of options and the individual limitation that comes from being in committed relationships, you will remain out of touch with your own nature and the nature of things.

Needless to say, the whole chapter is a brilliant yet easily understood explanation of the Trinity.

On Absolute Claims

You can't say, "All claim about religions are historically conditioned except the one I am making right now." If you insist that no one can determine which beliefs are right and wrong, why should we believe what you are saying? The reality is that we all make truth-claims of some sort and it is very hard to weigh them responsibly, but we have no alternative but to try to do so.

From the Leap of Doubt: Chapter 1 - There Can't Be Just One True Religion

Keller & the Reason for God

I've just finished reading Timothy Keller's The Reason for God. Keller pastors Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhatten, which has nearly 6,000 regular attendees, mostly young adults of ranging ethnicities.

In summary, the book is written in two parts, with each part consisting of seven chapters.

In Part One, Keller puts forward his case that skepticism is actually based on a set of beliefs...

"But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from the position of faith in Belief B... Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith."

The first half of the book reviews the seven biggest objection and doubts about Christianity, the second half examines the reasons underlying Christian beliefs. The key points are outlined below:

Part One: The Leap of Doubt
1. There Can't Be Just One True Religion
2. How Could a Good God Allow Suffering?
3. Christianity is a Straitjacket
4. The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice
5. How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
6. Science Has Disproved Christianity
7. You Can't Take the Bible Literally

Part Two: The Reasons for Faith
1. The Clues of God
2. The Knowledge of God
3. The Problem of Sin
4. Religion and the Gospel
5. The True Story of the Cross
6. The Reality of the Resurrection
7. The Dance of God

Over the next week I will post some excerpts that I found particularly brilliant. I encourage any thinking Christian to grab a copy for yourself, particularly for any young person embarking upon university studies.