Good books and 'The Good Book'

Lately I’ve been strongly encouraging people to read Tim Keller’s new book, “The Reason for God.” Reading it, for me, has been a heartening, mentally invigorating and spiritually energizing experience. In many ways this book reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity,” including when it comes to the helpful effects it had on me.

But it occurred to me in a fresh way today that, however good and helpful a book like Keller’s is, the Bible is still in a category all its own. Maybe that’s so obvious to most that it doesn’t need saying. But for me it’s worth remembering that the Bible does not rely on any other book or any other author to establish its authority or worth. As Dr. Grier used to teach us in theology/philosophy classes, the Bible (as the Word of God) is ‘self-authenticating’ – it comes with its own authority precisely because it is God’s own speech.

So again, we’re not dependent on other books, even very good ones, to establish or certify to us the authority or value of Scripture. Still, I think Keller’s new book (and Lewis’ older ones) help me in this very specific and important way: it re-assured me that the powerful intellectual myths that are out there, that seem to make Christianity implausible are in fact implausible themselves. (As Keller says, skeptics have good reason to doubt their doubts.)

So, again, authors like Lewis and Keller help me to recover a full confidence in Scripture that should have been there all along. As Heb. 6:13 says, God can’t swear by anyone higher than himself, for there is no one higher. That means no human words can add to the authority of the words of God in Scripture. But human authors and good books can help clear away the cognitive cultural clutter that attacks and erodes our confidence in the Bible’s truthfulness, usefulness and authority. In other words, a book like “The Reason for God” serves a very good purpose when it helps us to believe, or believe again, that (as Augustine said) “what Scripture says, God says.”

-- Psalm 19:7-11; John 5:35; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:21