"He saw Nothing. Beyond the shrubbery in his front yard, he saw Nothing. The landscaping pointed simply to itself and not to a grand designer in the sky. The bushes didn't host fairies or goblins. They had nothing to do with gods or holy books. They just were."
This, Dan DeWitt explains in the introduction of Jesus or Nothing, is how Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein described his conversion to atheism - from God to Nothing. For Bauerlein, when he saw that he rejected Christ, he realized all that was left for him was Nothing with a capital "n." And so begins Dan DeWitt's book on the distinction between Christianity and atheism - Jesus or Nothing.
With lots of different versions and ideas of atheism or "Nothings" out there, DeWitt provides clarity in the introduction as to exactly what he is referring to when he writes "Nothing." He is using it to mean "a worldview that accepts the earth as an end in itself. This outlook is free from all religious beliefs and explanations." So if there's not Jesus, there's Nothing.
Written for high school or college students by the dean of Boyce College, DeWitt writes winsomely but tactfully, with concepts both simple and complex. He uses the book of Colossians as his outline of sorts to examine the false worldview that atheism is, while showing that for every failure of atheism, the gospel gives answer. Five of his main points are under the following chapter headings:
2. The Gospel Offers an Explanation for Our Existence
3. The Gospel Offers Clarity for Our Confusion
4. The Gospel Offers Grace for Our Guilt
5. The Gospel Offers Meaning for Our Mortality
6. The Gospel Offers Answers for Our Adversaries
Throughout the book, DeWitt uses a fictional college student named Zach to represent the Nothing side of the equation. Zach was raised in a Christian home but as he grew older, he grew skeptical and abandoned his faith in college. DeWitt explains how this book is for every Zach that he has known or will know:
This is a book for Zach, and many like him who have considered walking away from their childhood faith in favor of a different worldview. I hope to contrast the narrative of the gospel with what I believe to be an inevitable nihilism that permeates a godless universe. [...] (I)t is my aim, and my prayer, that this short book will encourage believers in their love of the gospel, challenge skeptics in their rejection of it, and assist Christian parents and leaders as they contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).
I would absolutely recommend this book and, as graduation season is upon us, recommend picking up a copy for a graduate you know. As a side note, if you're interested in hip-hop or rap music, several Christian artists got together to record an album that goes along with the book. Produced by Clear Sight Records, its name is the same as the book's, Jesus or Nothing.
DeWitt closes this excellent little book with a final emphasis on the utmost importance of this distinction. There is no middle road. There are two stories to choose from. There is a wager at hand. But, as DeWitt says, "(d)on't let the word wager fool you. This is no game. And you should not bet lightly. All of humanity stands at a cosmic crossroad facing the consequential choice between two stories: Jesus or Nothing. Choose wisely."
Buy Jesus or Nothing here.
*I received a copy of this book from Crossway through their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review.