Making Sense of God

In Making Sense of God, Tim Keller argues that “con­temp­orary secular­ity is not the absence of faith, but is instead based on a whole set of beliefs, including a number of highly contestable assumptions about the nature of proof and rationality itself” (p. 41).  So the human situa­tion does not involve secularism on the one side and religious belief on the other—all positions involve faith.  “To move from religion to secularism is not so much a loss of faith as a shift into a new set of beliefs and a new community of faith, one that draws the lines between orthodoxy and heresy in different places” (31).

In the book’s “trailer” (on this page), Keller says, “Skepticism can be a healthy thing if it leads us to question the pieties of our age…  However, our modern society elevates skepticism to such an ultimate value that belief in anything becomes faintly absurd.  It’s also true, therefore, that skep­ticism of religion and of faith itself can become one of the unques­tioned pieties of our age, and therefore it’s right to be skeptical of the depth of our skepticism.”

“Even secularism is a set of beliefs about what is right and wrong, about the nature of the world.  And every set of beliefs needs to make its case.  The burden of proof belongs to every set of beliefs.  And every set of beliefs needs to say, ‘My set of beliefs makes more sense of the world and human experience than the others.’”

Keller is “seeking to show that Christianity in particular gives us resources for meaning, hope, justice, identity, satisfaction, and free­dom—things that no human being can live without.  Christianity not only explains why we need those things but also gives us unparalleled resources to fulfill them.  Therefore Christianity makes more sense than any of the other particular views.  That’s the case of the book.”

I’ve read Making Sense of God twice now.  It was excellent the first time and even better the second:  bold, honest, direct, fair, balanced, provocative, invigorating…  I wholeheartedly recommend this book for anyone—believer, skeptic, or somewhere in between—who’s ready to examine their own belief system and ask thoughtful questions about the great issues of meaning and purpose and life.

To get a closer look and a better feel for this very helpful work, check out the book reviews from Andrew Wilson and Derek Rishmawy.  And peruse this collection of twenty quotes from the book.  And finally, don’t miss the various resources Keller provides, including an excerpt from the book.