Overview of Keller's The Reason for God

This book has been enormously popular in certain circles and, imho, for good reason. It's very intelligent and very readable; whatta combo! It is first and foremost an apologetic book for today. While Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict is very factual, aggressive and almost confrontational, Keller's is much more persuasive. There is a gentle tone that strikes me as being much truer to the idea of reasoning with someone, while McDowell's is more argumentative. Granted, there will always be a place for McDowell's factual/historical apologetics but I believe that philosophical apologetics are the sharper sword in today's society.

What convinced me to purchase the book 'hot off the press' and read through it with a friend? The gospel-centeredness and sound reasoning of the author. Keller has only published one other book, Ministries of Mercy, in his pastoral career. But he has written great articles for various publications and his NYC church, Redeemer Presbyterian. And there's a good batch of his free online sermons available at http://sermons.redeemer.com/store/index.cfm. His writings and sermons and the church all seem to have a gospel-centered outlook; it's crazy beautiful! There are some people you read and re-read because it so resonates with your heart and mind. Well, the gospel-centeredness definitely touches my heart and I hope that the repeated exposure will help train my mind and instincts to be gospel-centered.

Well that's enough gushing for one post. I'll move on to some specifics in the next post.