Andrew Wilson. If God, Then What?: Wondering Aloud About Truth, Origins, and Redemption. Nottingham, UK: Inter-Varsity, 2012. 160 pps. A review by Gavin Ortlund: Andrew Wilson’s If God, Then What?: Wondering Aloud About Truth, Origins, and Redemption is an accessible, winsome, honest, and often profound articulation of the Christian faith for a post-Christian audience. Wilson describes it as the content of Tim Keller’s The Reason for God in the style of Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, and this combination of depth and likability makes the book succeed. It will strengthen and equip believers, help inquirers, and challenge skeptics. Donald Miller Style The words “wondering aloud” in the subtitle capture something of the book’s disarming, conversational style. Unlike the style of other apologists, the U.K. pastor doesn’t pound his readers into submission with layers of argumentation designed to blow all doubts to smithereens. Rather, he invites readers to question their assumptions and consider the explanatory beauty of the Christian worldview. (In terms of the spectrum of views on apologetics, the
Apologetics
C. S. Lewis: Why He Matters Today
The importance of argument
From J. Gresham Machen’s The Importance of Christian Scholarship. Posted by Andy Naselli. Certainly a Christianity that avoids argument is not the Christianity of the New Testament. The New Testament is full of argument in defense of the faith. The Epistles of Paul are full of argument—no one can doubt that. But even the words of Jesus are full of argument in defense of the truth of what Jesus was saying. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” Is not that a well-known form of reasoning, which the logicians would put in its proper category? Many of the parables of Jesus are argumentative in character. Even our Lord, who spake in the plenitude of divine authority, did condescend to reason with men. Everywhere the New Testament meets objections fairly, and presents the gospel as a
Chance vs. God: The Battle of First Causes
Secular evolutionary theory abandons God as the first cause, replacing Him with chance. But, what is chance? Where does chance get the power to bring everything we now see into existence? (HT: Allsufficientgrace)
Honest questions? Wait to hear honest answers!
From Thabiti Anyabwile: Once you ask that question, you should really be quiet and listen to the answers of people who think they know. Otherwise, the question is insincere or you’re in danger of passing off ignorance as a plausible answer. Reading a few things and listening to a few conversations of late, I’m struck by how often in various ways this question is posed, then followed by a rejection of answers given. It’s as though some people think agnosticism about the text provides the meaning of the text, or makes the meaning unknowable. Whatever happened to asking an honest question then carefully considering the answers offered?
Collision Movie Trailer
A preacher and an atheist walk into a bar… Preview of the first 13 minutes of the forthcoming documentary “Collision”. The film follows renowned author and anti-theist Christopher Hitchens and Pastor Douglas Wilson as they debate the topic: “Is Christianity Good For The World?”. A Darren Doane film. level4.tv collisionmovie.com
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