God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet, by Nathan Schneider

Don’t be put off by the cover design. This is a substantive and challenging book! It is somewhat similar to the volume that was number one on my list last year (Why Does the World Exist? by Jim Holt). The primary difference is that Schneider’s focus is the variety of “proofs” offered throughout history for the existence of God. Like Holt, Schneider has traveled far and wide and even overseas to interview various theologians and philosophers on this subject. Keep reading...

God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet, by Nathan Schneider (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 254 pp.

Don’t be put off by the cover design. This is a substantive and challenging book! It is somewhat similar to the volume that was number one on my list last year (Why Does the World Exist? by Jim Holt). The primary difference is that Schneider’s focus is the variety of “proofs” offered throughout history for the existence of God. Like Holt, Schneider has traveled far and wide and even overseas to interview various theologians and philosophers on this subject.

This is not a book for the faint of heart (or lazy of mind!). But it’s not so deep that you can’t greatly enjoy it. Schneider is an engaging writer and interweaves throughout his narrative his own personal journey of faith. The most helpful section was toward the end where he interacts with the numerous “new atheists” such as Harris, Dawkins, and Hitchens. It is here that we encounter William Lane Craig, perhaps the most effective and eloquent of all evangelical philosophers who has personally debated most of the more well-known atheist authors. It is evident throughout the book that Craig has exerted the greatest single influence on Schneider himself.

So, if you are fascinated by the many arguments for the existence of God (and believe me when I say Schneider leaves no intellectual stone unturned), this is the book for you (again, in spite of that awful cover design!).