The Queue

In the first half of The Reason for God, "The Leap of Doubt," Reverend Keller addresses the most common objections to/criticisms of Christianity he's encountered in his quarter century of leading Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. Methinks him far too obsequious to the faith's critics, calling even the most grotesque caricatures "fair and understandable," but what do I know? Maybe sycophancy is exactly what is required to convert smug, city-dwelling heathens. The the second half, "The Reasons for Faith," he makes the positive case for Christianity, including a pleasingly strident defense of the faith's exclusive possession of theological truth, & here Keller seems much more on his game. The old saw seems apropos: the best defense is a good offense.

A fellow I know from church, whom I respect & admire a great deal (though less so since I learned he's a big fan of J. J. Abrams's Star Trek), asked when I began reading The Reason for God, "Have the attacks on Catholicism started yet?" I frowned at that most unfortunate question. I always keep a weather eye open for the ghost of Titus Oates, but found no particular instances of "anti-papism" in the Rev. Keller's treatise. In the "Intermission," under the subheading "Which Christianity?," Keller writes:

It is important for readers to understand this. I am making a case in this book for the truth of Christianity in general—not for one particular strand of it. Some sharp-eyed Presbyterian readers will notice that I am staying quiet about some of my particular theological beliefs in the interest of doing everything I can to represent all Christians. Yet when I come to describe the Christian gospel of sin and grace, I will necessarily be doing it as a Protestant Christian, and I won't be sounding notes that a Catholic author would sound.

The truly interesting part of this fellow's slapdash criticism of Keller is that even while suspicious of anti-Catholicism in The Reason for God he remains an ardent admirer of Joyce Meyer, a Charismatic preacher who seems more inclined to worship Mammon than the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Israel.

I recommend The Reason for God to one & all, especially those who may have been raised in the faith but fell away in their teens & twenties & now find themselves confronting the question, "Is this all there is?" I have designs on saving Red Patton, who was raised a Lutheran but is now an atheist (& about to wed a Catholic girl), but in this I follow the rule of the explorer Joseph Thomson, "He who goes gently, goes safely; he who goes safely, goes far."

Recently
Father Michael E. Gaitley, 33 Days to Morning Glory: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Marian Consecration
Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Currently
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Swords of Mars

Presently
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Synthetic Men of Mars
Matthew Kelly, Rediscover Catholicism: A Spiritual Guide to Living with Passion & Purpose
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Llana of Gathol
Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
Richard Price, Clockers
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights
Ted Morgan, Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led American into the Vietnam War
Norman Stone, The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War
Rice Broocks, God's Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty

Lately Neglected
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill
Edmund Burke, The Evils of Revolution
F. J. Sheed, Theology for Beginners

Autobahn
Yesterday, I espied a vanity license plate: 1LUKE35. I read that as meaning the Gospel according to Luke, chapter one, verse thirty-five (usually denoted as Luke, 1:35):

And the angel said in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."