Book Review of Socrates in the City by Eric Metaxas

I discovered Eric Metaxas through his very good, very big, and very accessible biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This book represents a similar effort in one respect--it seeks to bring issues generally reserved to thoughtful Christian readers to a broader audience. "Socrates in the City" is a collection of essays transcribed from talks given by a wide variety of Christian thinkers at events geared toward upscale New Yorkers. Metaxas has sought to capture the mood of these events, which are clearly heavy on ideas and light in tone. Some of the humor is entertaining and some of it comes off a bit corny in print, but it makes what might have been a dense read flow easily. The Q & A at the end of each talk is also included, and contains many of the best insights.

The contributors are a remarkable group, including Templeton prize winners John Polkinhorne and Charles Colson, best selling authors such as NT Wright, Francis Collins, and Os Guinness, and Alister McGrath. Many of the subjects deal with the compatibility of faith and science. Several others deal with faith in the public sphere.

The book presents itself as a sort of open-ended reflection on deep subjects, but make no mistake, it certainly has a Christian apologetic purpose. Each speaker seeks to defend the Christian faith to its cultured despisers. Many of them represent the conservative voice within their communions--Charles Colson among evangelicals, NT Wright among Anglicans, and Richard John Neuhaus among Roman Catholics.

The Socrates in the City gatherings are designed to attract successful New Yorkers and the events are held in posh settings. The book retains a sort of snootiness as a result, and that got tiresome. Intellecualism and anything that smacks of elitism seem out of place in conversation about a faith founded by a peasant who was killed on a cross as a common criminal.

Still, I appreciated the introduction the book offered to several important thinkers. Os Guinness on civility in public discourse couldn't be more timely or urgent. Paul Vitz's thoughts on the relation of fatherhood and one's perception of God are fascinating. Colson's essay is truly terrific, and I'm not always his fan. Socrates in the City certainly serves its purpose of giving bite sized pieces of important thinkers introducing their contributions in accessible ways.