JOHN G. STACKHOUSE, JR.
Maybe Christianity is actually true.
But why does anyone believe it?
Why do two billion people believe it?
"We all live at the nexus of knowledge, faith, doubt, and decision. John Stackhouse provides for us an invaluable guidebook to that vexed territory."
―Hans P. Halvorson, Stuart Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
Can I Believe?
CHRISTIANITY FOR THE HESITANT
Maybe Christianity is actually true. Maybe it is what believers say it is. But at least two problems make the thoughtful person hesitate.
First, there are so many other options. How could one possibly make one's way through them to anything like a rational and confident conclusion? Second, why do so many people choose to be Christian in the face of good reasons not to be Christian?
This book begins by taking on the initial challenge as it outlines a process: how to think about religion—reasonably and responsibly. It then tells the basic story of the Christian religion in a way that will startle most readers while clearing away misunderstandings that have repelled so many.
The second half of the book then looks at Christian commitment both positively and negatively. Why do two billion find this religion to be persuasive, thus making it the most popular "explanation of everything" in human history? At the same time, how does Christianity respond to the fact that so many people find it utterly implausible, especially because so many Christians insist that theirs is the only way to God and because the problem of evil seems to undercut everything Christianity asserts?
Can I Believe? refuses to dodge the hard questions as it welcomes the intelligent inquirer to give Christianity at least one good look.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOHN G. STACKHOUSE, JR.
John Stackhouse gets the questions, not just the answers.
A lifelong Christian, he has pestered Sunday School teachers with queries, annoyed pastors with disagreements, and argued with professors of philosophy, religion, and history. He understands why people find Christianity compelling…but also why so many people don’t.
A professor of religious studies at Crandall University in eastern Canada, Stackhouse was educated at Queen’s University (BA, First Class), Wheaton College Graduate School (MA, summa cum laude), and the University of Chicago (PhD). He has given lectures at some universities you’ve heard of (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Edinburgh, Hong Kong) and many you haven’t. His commentary on contemporary religion and culture has been featured on national radio and TV in Canada, the United States, and Australia, and in publications as diverse as The New York Times, The Australian, The Globe and Mail, Time, and Reader’s Digest.
He has also, however, discussed religion outside the academy: with insurance executives in Seoul, with physicians in Vancouver, with lawyers in Aspen, with religious leaders in Jerusalem, with journalists in Ottawa, with pastors in Bangalore, with teachers in Sydney, and with CEOs around the world. He gets the questions, not just the answers. And this book is his attempt to be resolutely fair to both.
