First CRC Library

Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, addresses the frequent doubts that skeptics and non-believers bring to religion. Using literature, philosophy, anthropology, pop culture, and intellectual reasoning, Keller explains how the belief in a Christian God is, in fact, a sound and rational one. To true believers he offers a solid platform on which to stand against the backlash toward religion spawned by the Age of Skepticism. And to skeptics, atheists, and agnostics he provides a challenging argument for pursuing the reason for God.

Barely had Christian civilization in the West begun to struggle out of the ruins of the Roman empire when a lethal new threat confronted it. Islam, a religion created by the prophet Muhammad, burst from Arabia, taking by conquest half of Christendom, from Iran to the Atlantic coast of Africa and northward into Spain. Across the prophet’s vast domain Christians were forbidden on pain of death to preach the Gospel, ride horses, build tall churches or ring church bells. Facing relentless discrimination, many conquered Christians, and eventually most, converted to Islam, and were prevented on pain of death from switching back. Christendom was now confined to Europe, defended by the armies of Byzantium in the East and the ferocity of the Franks in the West. Here, however, the faith continued to grow, preaching the love and mercy of God and slowly creating order from chaos.