God Actually - Roy Williams

Few books written to make the case for God can be read for pure pleasure. But God Actually rings all the bells, and feels like an intensely satisfying brain massage – combining philosophy, science and history to make the case for God’s existence.

Any reader with doubts about Christianity is likely to find a few gems, with equal accessibility to agnostics and atheists.

God Actually was written as a rebuttal to the atheist bestseller, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion - but while Dawkins can be condescending and dismissive, Williams’ avoids preachiness and addresses doubt with respect.

Importantly, God Actually reads like a mainstream text rather than a ‘Christian’ book which leans too heavily on the Bible or emotional argument.

Williams is an ex-lawyer and born again Christian who came to faith in his mid-30s. He touches on his own experience, and strikes a nice balance between hard-core science and the soft topics of love and conscience.

The book is split into three sections: reasons to believe in God, reasons to believe in Christianity, and answers to some common objections. I found the first third the most inspiring, but as Williams notes, this book is to be sampled, savoured and re-read – gorging it in one shot would cause indigestion.

The text is easy for those without a Christian background to appreciate – and scattered with inspiration from Shakespeare, Martin Luther King, C.S. Lewis and several others.

The author is a liberal Christian, and his views on abortion and homosexuality will divide some followers. But these opinions do not detract from the central message.

God Actually is available for loan on the CBTB bookshelf and can be purchased at most mainstream bookstores.