No Argument for God: Going Beyond Reason in Conversations About Faith

by John Wilkinson

Publisher:

IVP

, 2011

Overview

Religion is irrational! New atheists trumpet the claim loudly, so much so that it's become a sort of conventional wisdom. Professing your faith in God sounds increasingly like a confession of intellectual feebleness. Belief in God sounds as cute and quaint as it does pointless.John Wilkinson contends that the irrationality of faith is its greatest asset, because rationalism itself sets artificial limits on all that we've seen—which itself is hinting at something greater that can't be seen. In No Argument for God he turns the tables on the cult of reason, showing that it limits conversation to what happened, when what we really want is the why behind it. We settle for investigation when what we need is revelation—the answer to all our longings.Read this book and break though the gridlock of apologetic arguments to a life-giving encounter with the God who satisfies our minds and seeks our good.

Contents

1 Wouldn't It Be Nice?
2 Seeing Things for the First Time
3 Stop Making Sense
4 Two-Dimensional Existence
5 All in Your Head
6 Guess Who Is at the Door
7 In the Flesh
8 No Stranger to Nonsense
9 Circular Reasoning
10 This Changes Everything
11 Just Different
12 Echoes of God
13 What Do I Say?
14 The Dream of God
Notes

Praise for No Argument for God

"No Argument for God is a thoughtful and challenging read for anyone seeking to grasp more fully faith in the God of the Bible."

"Interesting and loaded with anecdotes, No Argument for God will be a breath of fresh air for folks who, tired of arguing for faith, want to start talking about faith."

"Some people know the truth with a cocksure confidence that is both admirable and annoying. Others have been through the battles of doubt and walk away from the battle with a limp, a limp that reveals that person is still walking straight ahead but with the humility that emerges from deep engagement with God in the shadows of life. John Wilkinson's book is for the limpers, and it is wonderful postapologetics apologetics for an authentic faith."

"Wilkinson stands traditional apologetics on its head in this riveting new vision of conversational engagement. Unashamedly engaging wonder and the apparent 'absurdity' of faith, Wilkinson in one move makes way for an altogether different kind of engagement for those who would consider the spiritual journey Christ invites us into. With an equal poetic power, No Argument for God provides a breathtaking visage of another world waiting for those who would embrace the mystery of knowing God both here and in the world to come. Not just another voice in the current debate of what apologetics should look like in a postmodern milieu, Wilkinson's fresh approach changes the very nature of the conversation itself. To think that wonder, mystery and the obvious transcendence of faith from mere reason may be the actual strengths of our historic faith instead of the ugly stepchildren they've historically been is freeing and sets a new course for both evangelism and our personal relationship with God himself."

"John Wilkinson knows that we can only bear witness to Christ's presence in our lives and validate our beliefs through faithful testimonies. Logic will not make us into believers, and in this important book he makes it clear that the just must live by faith in revelation."

"John Wilkinson's book represents one of the best responses to the attacks of modernist 'scholars' who insist that their limited view of the world is all that there could possibly be. I especially appreciate that John has at the core presented that our response should be focused on the absurdity of the gospel, not only today but even in the first century. He reminds us that faith is rooted not in our ability to reach beyond the sky and 'understand' God or even 'discover' the Creator, but in our Lord's desire to reach through time and space and live among us. The continually fresh and foolishly profound purity of the stand-alone Deity caring enough to invite us--any of us, each of us--into his reign as King of all things, seen and unseen, is what makes faith the wonder of all wonders. Well done, John Wilkinson, keeping us on track as little children set free by the voice and embrace of the One who has come and beckoned, "Let the little children come to me'"

Product Details

• Title : No Argument for God: Going Beyond Reason in Conversations About Faith
• Author: Wilkinson, John
• Publisher: IVP Books
• Publication Date: 2011
• ISBN: 9780830868452

About John Wilkinson

Adjunct Lecturer in Youth Ministry, Evangelical School of Theology.