2.26.2008

Reason for God #18 on the NY Times

Tim Keller's book is number 18 on the New York Times Bestsellers list! (Score) I cannot wait till Easter till I get my hands on a copy. (Oh the sheer delight).

Here is an interview that Keller did with First Things. [HT - Between Two Worlds]

I journeyed to Barnes and Noble and Borders - Both places had it. I have read that a few coffee joints have them next to "The God Delusion" and Keller's book is being picked up more than Dawkins.

two quotes grabbed from elsewhere

Biblical texts such as Isaiah 60 and Revelation 21-22 depict a renewed,
perfect, future world in which we retain our cultural differences (”every
tongue, tribe, people, nation”). This means every human culture has (from God)
distinct goods and strengths for the enrichment of the human race. As Walls
indicates, while every culture has distortions and elements that will be
critiqued and revised by the Christian message, each culture will also have good
and unique elements to which Christianity connects and adapts. [Sets'n'Service]

“The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experiences of cosmic abandonment. Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power excels ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken. Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us. … If we again ask the question: ‘Why does God allow evil and suffering to continue?’ and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is. However, we know what the answer isn’t. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself. … So, if we embrace the Christian teaching that Jesus is God and that he went to the Cross, then we have deep consolation and strength to face the brutal realities of life on earth.” [Shepherd's Scrapbook]

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