Book Review: What's so great about Christianity by Dinesh d'Souza

Book Review: What's so great about Christianity by Dinesh d'Souza

According to its back cover, this book offers an objective examination of the current 'atheist-led' debate about God and Christianity, demonstrates how religious belief can be reconciled with religion and science, and affirms that there is something great about Christianity. It is worth noting that, despite the question mark in the belly of the ichthus which forms the image on the front cover, there is no question mark after the book's title: it is not a query but a statement.

Opening the book, I am delighted and relieved to find that d'Souza starts by laying out his stall as a non-literalist reader/interpreter of the Bible, but rather a contextual one: a good start! And the challenge in his preface is also strong: that Christians have 'fallen short' in knowing what is so great about their faith, and thus being unable either to communicate or to live out that faith in the rapidly changing societies of today, which embrace secularism, atheism, and humanism as well as being multi-cultural/faith.

More stall-setting out follows: the author says he will demonstrate not only the foundational role Christianity has played in western 'civilisation' (inverted commas mine, not his!), that modern science's discoveries and evolutionary theory support belief in a Creator/supernatural designer, that there is nothing in science that makes miracles impossible or faith unreasonable, and that it is atheism which is responsible for historic mass murders and is motivated by moral escapism.

That's quite an agenda for one book! d'Souza tackles it in eight parts. After firstly offering a response to atheism, he examines the relationships between Christianity and 'the west', science, cosmology, philosophy, suffering, morality, and, finally, 'You'. In the first seven sections, d'Souza considers his examination of Christianity to be from a secular viewpoint, demonstrating its influence over our culture and, therefore, the contemporary world, and the ways in which contemporary science and thought are, in fact, compatible with the Christian faith. Good so far. In his final section, he aims to demonstrate the unique elements of Christianity, and 'how our lives change when we become Christians'. Unfortunately, his tactic for this is, to my mind, flawed, in so far as he regards all religions as 'an attempt to solve the dilemma' that the 'pursuit of happiness' remains a pursuit, and has not been achieved. He cites the 'problem of good and evil' as being the main obstacle in this.

While I respect d'Souza's attempt in this book to offer a counter-argument to the persuasive rhetoric of atheists, I think his premise, stated above, is mistaken. Religion is not about the pursuit of happiness, but about becoming fully human: spiritual as well as physical/emotional/rational beings. He also falls back into what I regard as outmoded concepts/doctrines of salvation and atonement, taking his theology from Paul rather than from Jesus. At the last minute, however, he almost entirely saves himself in my eyes, by his statement (p.295) that 'what is denied to us by effort is supplied to us through grace... God's hand reaches out to us, steady and sure. All we have to do is take it. That is the uniqueness of the Christian message.'

After a strong start, I am sorry to say that this book has disappointed me by not going far enough, not going beyond the Pauline conventions of the church's doctrines, and not engaging with the issue of what it is to be human. Offering counter-arguments to those of atheism isn't, frankly, good enough. What's so great about Christianity? Not this book.