Why am I a Christian?

It was on March 6, 1927, that Bertrand Russell delivered a lecture at Battersea Town Hall, South London, titled “Why I Am Not a Christian.” At the time, it caused quite a stir, partly due to the speaker’s recognized eloquence and partly due to his absolute frankness. Thirty years later, his lecture was published in a collection of his essays, occupying chapter 1 and giving its title to the entire book. In his preface, Bertrand Russell wrote: “I think all the great religions of the world are both untrue and harmful.”

In writing this short book titled “Why I Am a Christian,” I do not intend to refute Bertrand Russell’s arguments point by point, because I recognize his brilliance as a philosopher and mathematician, winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature and herald of logic and freedom, but I also recognize that certain arguments for Christianity must be presented that Bertrand Russell did not present and perhaps did not even consider. In his preface, John Stott writes: “Not because the Christian faith is attractive, but because it is true.”