InREVIEW: Book Look
By Michael J. Breznau | 2021
Ganssle, Gregory E., Our Deepest Desires: How the Christian Story Fulfills Human Aspirations (IVP, 2017)
Everyone wants a life of happiness. We long for our desires to be fulfilled, our purpose to be clear, and our lives to be meaningful. Yet why does happiness so easily evade us? How do we reconcile our deepest longings for love, freedom, and goodness with the many dissonant messages ringing in our ears? Is sexual love the highest ecstasy of life? Will the pursuit of pleasure and possessions satisfy? Will our altruistic efforts to serve and further the happiness of others fill-up the reservoir of our personal fulfillment?
As we stare into the mirror each morning, we are confronted with questions – that is, if we pause long enough: “What sort of person should I be? What kind of person do I want to be?” Yet even deeper still, humans wonder: “What sort of person am I becoming?” (p. 3)
Our desires and our direction flow together in the story of life. Yet their paths often run cross-current. In Greg Ganssle’s intriguing book, Our Deepest Desires, he claims “the Christian story makes sense of our deepest longings” (p. 11). Ganssle believes the essence of the Christian gospel best explains “why we have the aspirations we do” but also how to make sense of our desires in the real challenges and passions of life (p. 11).
Yet as a good philosopher, he does not leave his posit dangling with half a dozen loose ends. Like a master artist, he paints a poignant portrait of the Christian vision of life in contrast with the most predominant alternative in the western world, namely, atheism (cf. p. 12-13). He does not aim to develop a defense for the existence of God, the resurrection of Christ, or even the divine creation of the world (although he has done so in other works[1]). Instead, Ganssle weaves together the colors of four primary desires common to all humankind: Persons (relationship), Goodness, Beauty, and Freedom.[2]
These four categories are each developed with three short chapters. Across all twelve sections, the reader is drawn into a unique and remarkably well-crafted portrayal of the Christian story. The purpose of this book stands in contrast to many others one might find in the Spiritual Interest section at Barnes & Noble: Our Deepest Desires is written directly to atheists, agnostics, and other intellectually persuaded skeptics. Yet Ganssle’s work is also beneficial to Christians as they seek to winsomely and gently communicate the beauty of the Christian story to a questioning world.
Strong Points
Few books are written from a devoutly Christian perspective directly for a skeptical, unbelieving audience. Even fewer are produced by authors with sustained experience in this field of ministry and the academic credentials to maintain a conversation with a high-level student or professor at, perhaps, Yale, Princeton, or Harvard. Ganssle’s extensive experience at Yale and the Rivendell Institute (amongst other locales) places this book comfortably alongside Lewis’ Mere Christianity or more recently, Keller’s The Reason for God. Yet his approach is holistically unique from typical apologetic texts. Ganssle argues against atheism yet not on the basis of typical evidential arguments but on the foundation of what best resolves dissonance in the human soul. He deftly explains the many dissonances we experience[3] and how seeking to reconcile them can alter or reshape our core identity (p. 7-10). The reader senses that they, too, can journey from where they are to a new horizon of purpose and belief.
The tone is gentle, winsome, and persuasive. Gannsle objectively describes the best of what atheism offers to resolve our deepest desires and in, turn, paints his vision of the Christian story through a series of brief statements offered within the beginning and conclusion of each section. For example, “In the Christian story, the most fundamental reality is personal” (p. 22, 32) . . . and “is intrinsically relational” (p. 36-37). Similarly, “in the Christian story, goodness is primary, and evil is a distortion” (p. 54) . . . and goodness is good for us” (p. 66, 70), or “in the Christian story, the most fundamental reality is a Master Artist” (p. 82) … and “beauty points the way home” (p. 91). These concise, well-argued propositions serve as memorable handles to assimilate the overall message of the book.
“…in the Christian story, the most fundamental reality is a Master Artist” . . . and “beauty points the way home”
His content is immediately appealing to a well-cultured, intellectual mind. Ganssle draws from Shakespeare’s plays, Jane Austen’s novels, and interacts with J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and musical art from the Beatles and Bob Dylan. He interacts with the best original sources in the fields of philosophy and religion, e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Kant, Sartre, Nietzsche, Solzhenitsyn, Bertrand Russell, Robert Adams, Elaine Scarry, Christopher Hitchens, and David Hume. Herein is an excellent contemporary example of speaking “in the midst of the Areopagus,” as the apostle Paul engaged the men of Athens with the Gospel through corollary ideas from their own culture (Acts 17:16-33).
Weaker Points
In an effort to keep the book concise and readily accessible to those adverse to (or ignorant of) the Bible, Ganssle utilizes a rather small amount Scripture, especially in the first two-thirds of the book. Conversely, chapters 8, 11, and 12 wonderfully invite the reader into the beauty of the scriptures (see esp. 128-30). But many other portions are somewhat weak in introducing the Christian story through the brush strokes of the Bible.
Brief, exegetically accurate placement of key passages might strengthen this book’s effectiveness in two ways: (1) it may avoid skeptical readers surmising the author is not being up-front about the Bible’s message, and (2) it may lift up the reader’s opinion of the scriptures as they behold its intrinsic qualities. Relationship, goodness, beauty, and freedom may be seen in the Christian story, but does Ganssle’s painting match up with the scriptural metanarrative? I believe it does. But a biblically illiterate audience may be left wondering. However, if sparking curiosity is the purpose of this book, then Ganssle accomplishes his goal.
Reflection and Interaction
Many people have a distorted perception of Christianity. Yet one can hardly blame them. Even now, international news syndicates are clamoring for all the juicy details of yet another highly acclaimed Christian speaker-apologist who, posthumously, was found out to be living an entirely double-life as a respectable Christian leader and a sexual abuser and pathological liar. What cognitive and existential dissonance!
Our Deepest Desires offers guidance and resolution to such crises through carefully painting the true, historic portrait of Christ’s gospel – often in contrast with many skewed yet popular caricatures. For example, Ganssle weighs the nature of evil against our longing for goodness. “Things ought not be this way” (p. 56) he reminds us. Every person experiences this base-line feeling. Each day, good things occur yet we fixate and fret about a singular bad thing that occurs in a given week. Even though there is clearly more good than evil in the world, we tend to see the evil more clearly than the good (see p. 53-54). Ganssle drives home this point: “There is too much goodness in the world for it to be an accident” (p. 60). If God is the source of goodness, then evil can be understood, grieved, and brought to justice. And, ultimately, goodness will win in the end, because God is the final victor.
If God is the source of goodness, then evil can be understood, grieved, and brought to justice. And, ultimately, goodness will win in the end, because God is the final victor.
Following Ganssle’s line-of-thought, the pastor or any Christ-following neighbor or co-worker may engage with an atheist not by defending the illicit actions of Christian leaders, but by resolving the dissonance through pointing toward God as the fulfillment to our desire for goodness. Each page provides a profound example of how to converse with the skeptic or atheist next door. In fact, I intend to offer this book as a gift to my atheist neighbor friends at the opportune time. The friendship we have developed with this dear couple already reveals their longings in all four categories that Ganssle brings to the foreground.
In the post-2020, pandemic-riddled world, we have experienced severe isolation and suffering. Ganssle’s work addresses both of these painful realities. He beautifully draws out our need for friendship – healthy human relationship. While governments seek to dole out money to bolster the economy or stem the tide of poverty, cash will never heal a soul broken by isolation.
He wagers, “Relational poverty is human poverty” (p. 36). We need I-Thou interaction. Surface conversations over social media do not suffice. One may have mountains of money, yet still be living in the dark, empty cellar of poverty. Deep, meaningful friendship is a necessity of life. As Christ-followers, we hold the words of hope for this deep longing to be fulfilled via union with Christ and within the family of Christ. Let us embody this reality and engage our wounded, isolated world with our experience of the trinitarian life with God (cf. pg. 37-39).
For our present suffering, atheism offers little hope and would struggle to dry a tear. But in the Christian story, Ganssle explains, “The presence of God does more than comfort us in our sorrow. His presence heals, strengthens, and restores our broken humanity” (p. 131). Yet as people living in the path of Christ, we also experience through our “response to suffering that we become the people we are meant to be – the people we want to be” (p. 129). Our neighbors and wider culture desperately need bearers of this story to bring its message to their home and hearth. Our Deepest Desires prompts me to consider how my family and I can further serve, love, and engage with those isolated and suffering in our community. The goodness and beauty of our God fills us with our desire for human flourishing!
The goodness and beauty of our God fills us with our desire for human flourishing!
Lastly, this book gives me reason to ask: Could it be that the job of the pastor is to open up the eyes of the congregation to the beauty of the gospel every Sunday (pg. 74-75)? Rather than rant and rave about why we need to believe, I’m praying and planning for how this text will help me show the flock of God how beautiful and healing it is to believe. As C.S. Lewis once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”[4]
FOOTNOTES
[1] For example: Thinking About God: First Steps in Philosophy (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004) and A Reasonable God: Engaging the New Face of Atheism (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2009).
[2] I have chosen to highlight the artist metaphor, which the publisher eluded to in their choice of cover art for this book: blue, purple, and white hues displayed in acrylic or oil paint brush strokes. In addition, Ganssle later points out that God Himself is the Master Artist, who “gives meaning to our creative endeavors” (p. 136), similarly, “In the Christian story, the most fundamental reality is a Master Artist,” (pg. 82) and that “We are artists, and our celebration of beauty has deep cosmic value because God is an artist” (p. 85).
[3] E.g. Cognitive, practical, moral, and existential dissonance (see pg. 5-10).
[4] From a paper presented by C.S. Lewis at the Oxford Socratic Club and later published as C.S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry? (London: Geoffrey Bless, 1962), 164-165.
