the Foolishness of God

This book by John Austin Baker is a masterwork of apophatic theology - that is to say, a coherent & cogent apologetic for Christian truth managing to make the points it does without drawing on or developing dogma or doctrine to whatever degree. Instead of engaging theological conversation in the conventional sense, Baker develops his case through a wildly minimalistic series of common-sense considerations - he assumes nothing about doctrinal truth or falsity, seeming to make his position as difficult as possible, yet in my opinion still resoundingly succeeds in making a compelling picture of Christian truth.

   The text is split into three parts. Firstly, we consider what the universal human experience can, or cannot, imply to us about the nature of life in all its wondrous mess, and further about the nature of all that is - including God, if God exists. These chapters blend anthropological history with moral psychology to construct a nest of arguments toward the Being of an omnipotent benevolent personality. Next we take a close look at Jesus, given that Christianity claims him to be both God and God's definitive revelation: again, there is no traditional Christology involved here, but a rigorous appraisal of the historical figure of Jesus insofar as such a portrait can be properly reconstructed from the evidential documents, and finally a reflection on how even a minimalistic interpretation of the character & ministry of the historical Christ aligns him to profound depths with what we can say to be true of the God as developed in the prior chapters. The final chapters of the book skip into the present to discuss how human experience of & engagement with the Church & the Bible do [or don't] affirm everything already argued, before ending on more of a hypothetical provocation to the reader - that is, if we as the simple sinful humans we are experience living in God's presence & under God's truth & find that doing such challenges & changes us, obviously there remains questions & missions to pursue that mere doctrine cannot speak to satisfactorily.

   I really enjoyed this book. It's a bit academic in tone, if not in content technically, but ultimately very readable with a bit of patience for the way Baker's arguments skip back & forth while different strands of them are being developed. This ranks highly among the books I would give someone to try to persuadingly nudge them toward Christian faith; more substantial than mere vibes but less parochial than most mainstream efforts in apologetics. Recommended reading for Christians looking to develop more of a muscular & less of a Totally-Sure-Of-Myself style of evangelical argument - and, lest it not be said, potentially a book that could knock some coconuts off the shy of a non-believer's grasp of their own oh-so-precious common sense.