Timothy Keller (1950–2023)

From Byron Borger at Hearts and Minds: I think this book snuck out without much ado, and the reference to Easter in the subtitle caused some to think it was too seasonal to be of lasting interest. Forgive me if I pull in the Apostle Paul to remind us all that if the Easter resurrection did not happen, then we are to be pitied. Which is to say, this book is perennial and you should overlook the publisher’s strategic error of pitching it as a holiday title.

Look: Keller is coping with a show more life-threatening form of serious cancer. He has struggled to be a person of integrity and care, perhaps too conservatives for our progressive activist friends and, curiously, has been criticized for decades by some in his PCA denomination and beyond. My respect for him has always been high and as he has navigated his illness, his politics, and his shift from pastoring to a broader role in resourcing churches (through Redeemer’s City-to-City movement) our appreciation endures. And this book is one we need, that is helpful and inspiring. It is intelligently written and well informed by excellent scholarship, but Keller is a preacher and writes with a pastor’s care for real people and their real, daily concerns.

There are several things going on here in Hope in Times of Fear and to say it explores the vast implications of the “great reversal” of things inaugurated by Christ’s death and resurrection is really to say too little. But in this short space allow me to just assure you it is a vital, solid, reasonable and faithful book, good for skeptics, for those unsure of the gospel-centered goodness of the Christian faith, and for anyone who needs to plumb the multi-faceted implications of the hope we have in the resurrection. Even for those going through painful times.

I grinned when I read the first line of the preface:

When I had thyroid cancer in 2002 I read an eight-hundred page masterwork, The Resurrection of the Son of God by N.T. Wright.

I suppose we know his love language: books! He gets a cancer diagnosis and dives into a huge, dense, theological tome. Ha!

Keller continues:

It was not only an enormous help to my theological understanding but, under the circumstances, also a bracing encouragement in my face of my own heightened sense of mortality. I was reminded and assured that death had been defeated in Jesus, and that death would also be defeated for me.

Now, nearly twenty years later, I am writing my own book on the resurrection of Jesus, and I find myself again facing a diagnosis of cancer. This time I have pancreatic cancer, and by all accounts, this condition is much more serious and the treatment a much bigger challenge.

He also notes, of course, that he is writing in the midst of the worst world pandemic in a century, in New York, no less. This, friends, is how it is done, preaching good, good news with realism and clarity. You may not even have heard of it, but Hope in Times of Fear is surely one of the best books of 2021. show less

Can Christianity survive in the 21st century? Is Christianity still credible? Is it even reasonable? In "The Reason for God," Keller offers a concise yet compelling defense of the Christian faith. In the first part of the book, Keller tackles seven contemporary objections to faith (e.g. "There Can't Be Just One True Religion," "Science Has Disproved Christianity," and "How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell"). While not a thorough treatment of any given doubt, Keller consistently show more demonstrates that these objections rest on unexamined presuppositions and their own sort of faith beliefs. In the second part of the book, Keller unpacks some of the reasons for faith. Although these reasons don't settle the argument, they are helpful clues as to work and nature of God in the universe. Keller makes some very interesting and forceful arguments here, and then turns his attention to the gospel, offering a clear and compelling telling of the gospel story. An engaging and thoughtful read. A+ show less

My favorite author Tim Keller discusses the problem of human suffering from three perspectives (So the book is divided into three sections): 1) How have human beings coped with the problem of suffering, from past to present? 2) What does the Bible teach about suffering? 3) What are some practical things to know/do when you are suffering? The book is surprisingly interesting. The author argues (and successfully persuaded me) it's important to ponder on how to cope with suffering, and Biblical show more truths about suffering, "before" you actually experience suffering, so that the truths are internalized in you and become an effective source of hope and strength in the event of suffering. The first and second sections laid out how the current secularized worldview cannot address the problem of suffering effectively (without giving an answer of total despair), how in human history four paradigms had developed that help people cope with suffering, and how the Biblical view on suffering differed from the four paradigms, with a complex, layered treatment of the problem. The author also discussed how many people rejected the existence of God because there are suffering in this world, and how this rejection came from an assumption that God exists to serve/intensify human pleasure, which was not a common view held by ancient or medieval people but have become increasingly popular over the past 150 years. show less

Summary: Twelve individuals from different walks of life discuss what Christian faithfulness and the pursuit of the common good looks like in a deeply divided culture.

How are Christians to live in this time where we seem deeply divided about everything from wearing masks to the status of an embryo in the womb to the seriousness of the changes we are witnessing in the world's climate? Not only are divisions around these and a host of issues deep, but engagement between those who differ seems show more nearly impossible. So what is a Christian to do? Many have decided that the only options are to "go to ground" and talk about vacations and share cute cat memes. Others have concluded that you must side up on one side of the divide and "unfriend" all those one disagrees with. How is a Christian to live if one cares about the common good and about faithfulness to a kingdom-of-God-shaped life that anticipates the peaceable kingdom and beloved community of the world to come.

These are the questions addressed by the twelve people who contributed to this book edited by Tim Keller, whose Redeemer Church has had a redemptive influence in New York City, and John Inazu, a law professor from St. Louis engaged in a program called the Carver Project whose stated mission is framed in these terms:

We empower Christian faculty and students to serve and connect university, church, and society. We work toward uncommon community, focused engagement, and creative dialogue.

Joining them are theologian Kristen Deede Johnson, InterVarsity/USA president Tom Lin, social entrepreneur Rudy Carrasco, writer and Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren, songwriter Sara Groves, rap artist Lecrae, Christian college network leader Shirley V. Hoogstra, psychiatrist Warren Kinghorn, African American community engagement leader in the Southern Baptist Convention Trillia Newbell, and Pastor Claude Richard Alexander, Jr. a peacemaker in Charlotte, North Carolina, leading a multi-site, socially engaged church, The Park Church.

Some essays are more inward looking as is Tish Harrison Warren's describing her discovery of a calling as a writer, that of naming reality through words. Tim Keller traces his calling from a rural pastorate to New York City and his sense that the gospel critiqued both rural conservatism and urban secular culture, and the sense that in planting a church, Redeemer was called to be salt and light in the city, citizens both of an earthly and heavenly city with the latter taking priority.

Others think more about the terms of engagement of Christians with a divided and pluralistic society. John Inazu advances the virtues of humility, tolerance and patience as he seeks to translate between the church and the university. Warren Kinghoen talks about walking with the psychologically wounded. Both Trillia Newbell and Claude Richard Alexander, Jr. explore what it means to be reconcilers, peacemakers in a racist society.

Keller and Inazu tie up the strands of the different essays by calling attention to one of the most significant works on Christian engagement written in the last thirty years, James Davison Hunter's To Change the World. They single out Hunter's idea of faithful presence and articulate four themes from the essay of what it takes to find "uncommon ground" in our culture while living faithfully to Christ:

1. Christians should not overidentify with any particular political party or platform.
2. Christians should approach the community around them through a posture of love and service.
3. Christians should recognize that the gospel subverts rival stories and accounts of reality.
4. Christians should reach out to others with humility, patience, and tolerance.

My one hesitance with the language of faithful presence is that it needs more definition to avoid being reduced to a life of service, integrity and niceness. Particularly considering the issues of justice roiling our culture with women, people of color, immigrants and more, is there something more to be said about Christians stance with those on the margins? Perhaps that is implicit in the idea of a subversive gospel. Several do touch on this. Lecrae talks about the narratives that color our perceptions around race and the necessity of telling different stories. Claude Richard Alexander, Jr. gets closest to "edgy" in stating that "[m]aking peace and striving for justice are intimately intertwined."

I've always wanted to be in the place of reconciling differences, of finding the common ground, even if it is a third way shaped by the gospel. What I wrestle with is knowing when it is not possible to find common or uncommon ground. Are there things with which we cannot reconcile--for example white supremacy? Are there "brightline offenses" that must be called out and resisted without equivocation? What does it mean to love across these kinds of differences? How does one do this without becoming a partisan?

At the same time, the writers cast a vision for being very different Christians from what the world expects, and what is often portrayed in the media. The use of personal narratives helps us identify different examples of what it looks like. Yet this is not engagement "lite." Most of the writers couple theological frameworks with personal stories, offering us rich fare for thought and community and life. Keller and Inazu not only contribute substantive essays but set up the collection and tie it together well. Even more, they created a conversation among the contributors, who often play off each other, giving the work a coherence not often found in a collection of essays. This was an "uncommon" conversation on "uncommon ground."

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own. show less