The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

The term “church” is used in two distinct ways in The Reason for God, as in most Christian books. It can refer either to a particular local congregation or to the full collective of all Christian believers from every time and place. Since Keller is a pastor, many of his references to church have to do with his experience of ministry in his own congregation, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (See: Key Figures). In some instances, however, usually made clear by context, Keller uses the term to refer to the whole body of Christian believers throughout history.

Keller’s aim in The Reason for God is not to provide a systematic theology of God’s nature, and so he often assumes a traditional Christian perspective on God without taking pains to define the term. The broad areas in which Christian doctrines about God are important in The Reason for God are in the doctrines of creation, soteriology, and trinitarianism. Creationism posits that everything that exists was brought into being by God. Soteriology is the theology of salvation, in which Jesus’s death on the cross saved humanity from its sins. The Trinity is the belief that God’s divine nature is singular and undivided but exists in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit.

Keller interacts with the perspectives of many different scientists throughout The Reason for God, and his use of the term “science” usually follows common convention in referring to the natural sciences (as opposed to the social sciences). Contrary to the opinions put forward by the “new atheists” like Richard Dawkins, Keller does not see a fundamental conflict existing between religion and science. Rather, he provides evidence showing that many professionals working in the natural sciences hold religious views, including some of the leading figures in biology, medicine, and physics. Keller views science as an indispensable method for gaining knowledge by experimental means, but he warns against conflating this practical and methodological sense of science with what he calls “scientism,” an anti-religious philosophical viewpoint that regards scientific methods as the only proper source of human knowledge.