Book Review: What’s So Great About Christianity

D’Souza, Dinesh.

What’s So Great About Christianity.

348 pp

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 2008

There are at least two important things to note about this book and its author. First, there is no question mark in the title— it is answers, not questions. Second, D’Souza has written seven or eight other books, some of which could almost be described as politically sensationalist, so our first approach is with some caution. Examples of his work: The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, The Roots of Obama's Rage, and articles like The Self Esteem Hoax, and Two Cheers for Colonialism.

D’Souza was raised in India, as a Catholic, but now describes himself as an evangelical Christian. In 1988 he served as an advisor on domestic policy in Ronald Reagan’s White House. Over the years D’Souza has appeared on CNN, Glenn Beck, ABC’s Nightline, and CBS’s Face the Nation, and has debated such noted atheists as Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer, and Christopher Hitchens.

When we turn to D’Souza’s own words, we are reassured by the apparent sincerity and forthrightness of his message. For instance, this book is dedicated: “For Bruce Schooley, stricken with cancer, who has found in Jesus Christ a cure for death.” And he shows to my satisfaction that, “As space and time are within the universe, the creator is outside space and time, which is to say, eternal.” In fact, “the entire universe with all its laws appears to be a conspiracy to produce, well, us.”

D’Souza has divided his book into eight parts, covering such subjects as “The Future of Christianity”, “Christianity and Science”, “Christianity and Philosophy”, “Christianity and Suffering”, and finally “Christianity and You.” Page three presents the Scriptural challenge to believers, of 1 Peter 3:15, “Always be prepared to give an answer…” D’Souza believes that, “Instead of engaging this secular world, most Christians have taken the easy way out. They have retreated into a Christian subculture…But a group of prominent atheists… has launched a powerful public attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular; they have no interest in being nice. A new set of anti-religious books— The God Delusion, The End of Faith, God Is Not Great, and so on— now shapes public debate.”

This book is immensely wide-ranging— its specific subject-matter is truly “Christianity.” There are statistics on the global Church (in not too many years, China may be the country with the largest Christian population); statistics on missionary effort (Britain has more than 250 churches run by foreigners, typically preachers from developing nations); statistics on the scientific illiteracy of young people; dozens of quotations of the subversive intentions of the prominent atheists mentioned earlier; and on and on.

Part II switches to history and shows how Christianity is “the spiritual basis of limited government.” Christianity is also the basis of “our culture’s powerful emphasis on compassion, on helping the needy, and on alleviating distress.” In contrast, he quotes the Chinese proverb, “the tears of strangers are only water.”

D’Souza looks at “the theological roots of science”, then at what he calls “the invention of invention”, then at “a universe with a beginning” and “man’s special place in creation.” He progresses to “the limits of reason”, “why miracles are possible”, and “the reasonableness of faith.” Many parts of this book are truly a mental feast. Quotations, statistics, arguments pile up so quickly that we often have to re-read and muse.

The climax of the entire work is Chapter 25: “Jesus Among Other Gods: The Uniqueness of Christianity.” For an unbeliever or a seeker, this is where D’Souza finally shows his hand. This is where he reaches the heart of the matter: “The propensity to sin is in man’s nature…The wages of sin is death… It is impossible to atone for one’s past sins…God decided to pay the price himself for human sin…Hell is where God is eternally absent… when every earthly hope of redemption has failed…it is at this point that God’s hand reaches out to us, steady and sure. All we have to do is take it.”

On the very last page, D’Souza presents this thesis, “Ultimately we are called not only to happiness and goodness but also to holiness…Yet holiness is not something we do for God. It is something we do with God. We couldn’t do it without Him.” We want that holiness too; and, even more intensely, we concur with D’Souza’s very last line: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus. We are ready.”

Reviewed by Glenn Wilson 