The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

In response to the objection in the chapter’s title question, Keller begins by pointing out just how recent an objection it is, having taken shape only in the past few centuries within the confines of modern Western thought. Most other cultures and periods in history did not view the Christian teaching on God’s justice, including hell, as being morally problematic, which suggests that the current reaction against the doctrine is little more than a culturally conditioned response:

In ancient times it was understood that there was a transcendent moral order outside the self, built into the fabric of the universe. If you violated that metaphysical order there were consequences just as severe as if you violated physical reality by placing your hand in a fire (73).

Most traditional cultures around the world have historically found the message of God’s grace, not his judgment, as the harder part of Christianity to swallow since the message of God’s grace runs against their established preconceptions regarding the necessity of judgment against wrongdoers. Such cultures, constituting the majority of human traditions around the world, are

repulsed by aspects of Christianity that Western people enjoy, and are attracted by the aspects that secular Westerners can’t stand.