Galatians Study

This book (available for free online from that link) is a Bible study by Tim Keller working through Paul's letter to the Galatian church. I've been working through it with my dad over the last few months, and would highly recommend it as a small-group study resource. The Galatian epistle is a potent little depth-charge of a book anyway, but Keller's insightful commentary and selection of passages from other theologians (especially John Stott and Martin Luther) who have written about the letter make this study extremely edifying and fruitful for thinking through Christian discipleship in powerfully provocative and helpful ways.

the Reason for God

This book by Tim Keller is a reasonably accessibly-written but thoroughly intellectually-robust apologetic for the Christian faith. I recently read Francis Spufford's marvellous effort at proposing an entirely irrational apologetic, so I thought I'd balance it out with something that appeals more to the head than the gut - and this did not disappoint. I have read this book before, the summer before I started this blog, so retained a sense of its general gist, but it was truly a pleasure to revisit the concrete arguments.

   Keller splits the book into two sections of seven chapters each.* After a brief introduction exploring the helpfulness and limits of doubt in our contemporary skeptical culture, the first half digs into some of the biggest obstacles in the way of people coming into meaningful contact with the Christian faith, and for each shows how all of these hurdles are actually based on unprovable "faith" assumptions in themselves. These issues are:

1. the problem of Christianity's exclusivity when there are so many other competing religions
2. the problem of suffering, which exists despite God being supposedly purely good & all-powerful
3. the restrictive limitations following Christianity places upon a human life
4. the historical injustices & present hypocrisies of the Church
5. the thorny issue of Hell - surely a good God wouldn't be so extreme as to condemn people to an eternity of suffering?
6. the challenge supposedly posed by science, which many consider to have disproved religion for good
7. the logical and ethical snafus entailed in taking the Bible literally
   
   Having dealt with some of the strongest and commonest arguments against Christianity, we then have a short intermission chapter which considers the subjective nature of rationality itself. Then we head into the second set of seven chapters, which pose some of the strongest reasons for Christian belief.
   
   
8. the orderliness (and indeed existence) of the universe & meaningfulness
9. the innate sense of moral standards that seems essentially universal to humankind
10. the existential hole that sin leaves in the human heart, which we try to fill with idols but can only be satisfied by God
11. the radically distinctive nature of the Christian gospel as compared to other religions
12. the rationally revolting but emotionally intuitive core of Christianity - the incarnate God crucified for our sake
13. the resurrection of Jesus & the explosive emergence of the early Church being the simplest & best historical explanations for each other
14. God's Trinitarian nature providing a cogent & appealing explanation for the natures of creation & humankind

   Having dismantled some of the strongest arguments against and illumined some of the clearest arguments for Christianity, the concluding chapter is a gentle but confident prod for the reader of what to do if they feel themselves approaching a faith that they can truly call their own. After the philosophical and theological weight of the chief portion of the book this provides a comforting pastoral cool-down, though for non-Christian readers this may well be the most challenging part of the whole text.

   Overall I think this is a great book for making the case for Christianity in as best reasoned a way as possible. Keller never lands on absolute proof, but his earlier chapters show that nor do critiques of faith; and his points throughout cohere to short-circuit "absolute rationality" into a more pragmatic reasonability to which I think Christian belief is well-suited. A highly recommended book for Christians who want to supplement their own skillset in arguing for the Kingdom, and moreso a must-read for those whose curiosity about Christian faith is drowned out by overwhelming presumption that the case against it is too strong.

* Summarising the arguments Keller makes in each of these chapters is beyond the scope of this post, so you'll just have to take my word for it that his treatment of all matters discussed is intellectually humble but compellingly-put. And hey, I am a completely fallible blogger so if you don't want to take my word for it, you'll have to read the book and decide for yourself.

the Prodigal God

This book by Tim Keller is an explosively insightful and well-considered re-exploration of the parable commonly misknown as the story about a prodigal son - when in fact, as Keller so adeptly points out, the story is a story about God's family, skewing its various three members narratively in ways that totally upend conventional contemporary wisdom about societal and religious norms. As a singular book I can only think of one or two that effectively provide a comprehensive theological overview of Christianity's core point more concisely and powerfully than this. Highly recommended as an apologetic evangelistic primer for believers looking to share their faith simply and authentically.

Romans 1-7 for You

This book by Tim Keller was a real treat. I read through the whole thing as a Bible study with my dad, which was a great means of digesting better the sheer amount of incredible commentary Keller brings to what many consider the theological cornerstone of New Testament systematic thinking - that being, obvs, the book of Romans itself. Tim writes to and for the laypeople, always considering well the many sides and dimensions to take into account when talking about the application of deeper passages of scripture to our modern lives, modelling ourselves as we must on Paul as he strives to emulate Christ... it was a bonus crossover for me having been reading through this weekly having also read Phoebe earlier this year, which is a great resource for understanding the original historical context and impact of the Romans' epistle.

Counterfeit Gods

This book by Tim Keller is a fantastically rigorous, counter-cultural deconstruction of probably our three biggest idols in contemporary culture: love/sex, power and money. Throughout he maintains the really helpful standpoint of not only showing why the pursuit of such things as Ultimate Goals is not conducive to healthy biblical living, but have deep-rooted & insidious negative tendencies within even the secular realms of psychological well-being, social justice and long-term human flourishing too. His discourse is replete with examples herein, and lends itself well toward equipping a discerning reader to better identify where idols are being worshiped or followed in their own lives as well as the lives of other individuals or entire cultures around them; as with any theological topic as dense & nebulous as "the god-shaped hole in the heart" it's far from a comprehensive survey of contemporary idolatry, but as a general introduction that isn't academically challenging and maintains Scriptural and pragmatic groundings, it's a really solid text on the subject and one I'd recommend strongly for Christians' fleshing out of relevant apologetics.

the Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness

This book by Tim Keller is a potent little* meditation on the nature of Christlike humility, and how we as Christians trying to live faithfully and lovingly for the good of others and glory of God must seek to transcend the whining itches of our own worldly desires: we do this not by putting ourselves down, concentrating on our faults and trying to pull ourselves up by whatever the moral-theological equivalent of a bootstrap is, but by resting in the grace of the gospel, and simply thinking of ourselves less - devoting more mental effort and space to how we can glorify God and serve others. Humility is not something you impose upon yourself, like cold turkey of the soul, but is something that grows naturally in a heart that is day-by-day moment-by-moment reorienting itself to the gospel, which implicitly inspires God-glorifying and other-serving attitudes and actions, and as we grow in this so will the itches slowly subside.
   It's a great booklet, and one I'd recommend church leaders or whoever to pick up a few dozen of to throw people's way when seemly; there are indubitably fuller, more practical, more theologically-enriched books on more or less the same topic out there, but honestly Keller boils it down to its doctrinal essentials here in a work that is simple, applicable, and truthful, and what more can you ask of this kind of book?



* Key word - this is a very short book. One could read it, without rushing at all, in an hour.

the Meaning of Marriage

This book is an excellent extended series of explorations in the Christian concept of marriage by Timothy and Kathy Keller. I've been meaning to read it for a while, because my liberal-to-begin-with views on gender have broadened considerably over the last year or so and are increasingly at odds with much of what most other christians seem to think. While aware that some attempts to present a 'christian' position on gender are abysmal, I'm realising that my views are starting to risk conflict with the actual biblical basis of it all, and so, having trusted and massively grown thanks to his expositional guidance on work and justice, I turned to Tim Keller's book on marriage. Kathy, his wife, had a significant collaborative role in writing it, and she herself wrote the chapter and appendix on gender roles, so even further seeming like a legitimate source of argument on untangling the matter. I've had to be quite careful reading this book, as I'm sure any young single christian will be able to empathise with; as if anyone saw me reading it I would undoubtedly suffer a brief and awkward inquisition as to "oooh are you planning to marry someone sometime soon Isaac?" [no]. I also might have to be quite careful having read this book, as I'm mildly concerned that someone, upon seeing this blog post (or any of my other posts that discuss gender), may subject me to a disciplinary explanation of the real biblical case for complementarianism and why 'overly' egalitarian demands contradict God's plan for men and women. It was only my deep, habitual respect for this blog that drove me to write this post at all - and, since if anyone who's going to read it is going to be exposed to my honest exposition of my own views on the matter, I may as well try my best to make and justify my points of thought on the matter in full. As such, this will be a very long post, and quite a lot of it won't be about the book. In fact, I may as well get that out of the way early on.
   Kathy and Tim Keller have here written an extremely well-presented, strongly grounded in scripture, and persuasive account of the biblical notion of marriage. Chapter one explores the symbolic nature of it, with human union a physical imitation of God's interpersonal trinitarian love, an image fulfilled and perfected in Christ's marriage to the church as he unites it to himself and brings all those 'in him' into God. Chapter two explores how dependence not on each other but as a twosome on God through his Holy Spirit drives and helps sustain an ideal marriage. Chapter three explores the problem of marriage as a covenant bond of love, given the changeable nature of romantic feelings that we think of as necessary to 'love'; and how in changing our concept of what love is and how we can enact it, this failure of passion can be overcome by willpower. Chapter four explores the point of marriage as a worldly institution, and how it functions best when grounded on firm friendship. Chapter five explores what is entailed in getting to know, to a very full and deep extent, one's spouse, and having seen their best and worst, being able to consistently love them. Chapter six (and the appendix which is relevant to this chapter) explores how spouses can overcome the division of gender, loving and serving one another across it while recognising the social and theological constraint that it poses (more on this later). Chapter seven explores how marriage is actually not necessary for a human life; and how single people are to think about it and act accordingly. Chapter eight explores the purpose of sex as an aspect of human life in God's intention, and how and why it fits in with marriage in the ways that christians conventionally argue. It's all very readable and reasonable, laying out marriage's theological background and how the implications of this can be best practiced, with much food for thought throughout. I'd strongly recommend this book to any Christian, single or married.
   Right (if you were only reading this to find out about the book, you can stop now; from here onwards this post will be my attempt to explain how I've reconciled what has felt like a major inner conflict within my expanded worldview).
   So.
   I have saved, paused, and returned to the published-but-unfinished draft of this post so many times that it's now over a fortnight [make that a month] since I actually finished the book - I just can't bring myself to commence this explanatory bit. Please accept this apologetic placeholder until my motivation to justify my position coincides with a suitably long time in which I can sit and write it all. These posts, especially this post, can take a while, and I do have to do other things like eat and work and talk to people sometimes. If you really are itching for some of my liberal-Christian-feminist perspectives on gender to be aired, you're gonna have to wait. Sorry.
   [Finally getting round to tackling this, even though it shouldn't take too long. I'm leaving the placeholder in so that posterity can laugh at what a haphazardly procrastinatory blogger I am.]
   Basically, I believe that gender should be largely abolished. This is because it is responsible for upholding, and therefore perpetuating, deep-rooted inequalities and injustices. Susan Moller Okin convinced me of the moral/political points to this effect; my only qualms were that Christianity traditionally holds a fairly conservative view of gender that would not take kindly to a suggestion like this, and also, I wasn't convinced that gender was entirely normative. Cordelia Fine later persuaded me of the latter; she puts forward a pretty robust case that psychological sex differences are broadly unsupported by actual scientific findings, and instead makes compelling arguments for how socially normative constructs, such as gender, affect individuals in such an insidious way as to seem real and propagate themselves.
   Following conversations with Christian friends who seem naturally suspicious of 'feminism', I was repeatedly brought back to the idea of complementarianism. This is the theological view that men and women are created equal, but with differing roles, that complement each other in a relational sense as a man and woman together emulate the marriage-as-God's-love image that Tim and Kathy discuss in this book. The central part of this view is the man's headship; much as the Father is the most active agent of the trinity, the husband is to be the most active agent of a married couple. I still feel uncomfortable about this idea but the biblical case for it is quite clear. However. Kathy and Tim also explain, at great length, that the within-marriage dynamics of love absolutely should not be a power dynamic comparable to any human relationship that we are used to observing. If emulating trinitarian love, then both the wife and the husband should be constantly seeking to serve the other's best interests as reasonably and humbly as they can. This detooths all proper interpretations of complementarianism from excusing exploitation; the man's headship isn't to be seen as a heavenly justification of male dominance (and anyone who says or implies that it is should be outright challenged) but a trump card bestowed almost arbitrarily by God upon one of the genders so that individuals within a marriage have something to turn to if they ever come to an immovable standstill between their working out conflicts of loving each other in the best possible way. Of course, real humans are sinful, so we need to take such allowance of headship with a large pinch of salt and a much larger pinch of feminism-inspired church accountability. But headship in this very minimal final sense, something not supportive of inequality but demanding Christlikeness and self-giving, ultimately something that has only a theological component and is not intrinsic to the moral worth of either gender, is something with too strong a biblical case to ignore, and that I think can be included into a workable model of Christian feminist social justice in promoting equal rights and opportunities.
   The other thing I think should be kept, as it were, is the physical component; i.e. the direct correlation between sex and gender. I realise that when expounded even slightly within the Christian framework of marriage, this is literally homophobic, biphobic and transphobic - and that makes me very uncomfortable. Scripture is very clear on these points, and while my views on social policy are strongly pro-LGBT+ rights, my theological/philosophical view on the matter can't ignore the full weight of scripture, no matter how much I wished it weren't so. But anyway, the binary distinction between men and women in sexual partnership is another aspect of gender's theological basis that I feel has too strong a biblical case to disregard. Note however - this distinction is purely physical; any psychological, socioeconomic, cultural or otherwise normal personal variation in what one can reliably assume about a person's preferences and capabilities should be completely emptied out (thanks Cordelia). It's crucial to stress that the Christian view on gender need not be pegged to traditional views on gender; in fact I think the inegalitarian tendencies of those conservative views demand that with justice in mind Christians should move toward a more 'gender neutral' (in the cultural sense) position. Women having the same level of autonomy, in all social spheres, as men, is not an affront to God.
   So I'm left with a very minimal form of complementarianism, in which the entirety of gender can roughly summated in two points (each with hefty caveats):

• Theological component: male headship (though its assignment to 'him' is arbitrary between the genders, and in the context of proper Christlike love, as those within any Christian relationship but especially between members of a marriage should already by emulating, will also be invoked rarely and prayerfully and solely for the couple's good as a tool of lovingly jumping impasses in collective decision-making)
• Physical component: male and female partnership ('complementarianism' then is more or less reducible to heterosexuality and basic sex-related physical differences [i.e. cis-genderedness], as all other aspects of gender that one may expect here are normative and should have been abolished, by which I mean should not exist as restrictive forces on any male or female individual)

   What would this look like in practice? Hopefully a thoroughly fair co-incidence of Christian theology of sex and feminist social criticism. I'm sure, dear reader, you'll excuse me if I don't feel the need to draw a detailed picture of such a world, and let me finally finish this post, which, fortunately, I can now direct people to via hyperlink if ever I need to explain my views on gender, and therefore avoid having to ever think much about it again. Good night.

Generous Justice

This book, yep, another one by Tim Keller (what can I say? he writes excellent books), was also great. I think it's probably one of the most important christian books currently in existence. I'd kind of skim-read it a couple of years ago, but recently we've been trying to get more christian students at Sheffield uni involved with social justice campaigns, and so I reread it more thoroughly to refresh my theological motivation for Jesus-style activism. Having just finished it I feel very convicted and challenged and encouraged and joyously grateful for God's grace and goodness, so I guess that implies that to that end my rereading the book worked somewhat. We'll see over the coming months and years how truly I stick my life to it though (hopefully very). I'm also doing a philosophy module this semester about moral obligation, and christian ethics has a lot of interesting stuff to say on the matter (not least from everyone's favourite Danish existentialist with an "ø" in his name).

   The book itself is easy to explain. It's an instrument for kickstarting christians who aren't actively concerned with justice, and spurring onward those who are. Strong biblical foundations (from both old and new testaments) and theological bases are laid for a vision of justice that we should be striving toward. The reasons why we should be striving as such are given with Keller's usual calm clarity that drives home enormous truths warmly, comprehensibly, and in a way which forces you to reassess your attitudes and habits. Methods in which we could strive as such are explained broadly but helpfully. Powerful challenges are drilled down through the question of "who is my neighbour" through and extended analysis of the Good Samaritan, and powerful encouragements similarly offered through consideration of God's intentions, plans and character.
   We are to care about justice as Jesus did: serving and embracing and loving the marginalised poor. Doing so, argues Keller compellingly, is the true mark of the Spirit's work in one's heart.
   My reception, as a relatively-left-wing ethically-concerned liberal young christian aspiring-economist-and-philosopher, was as you may predict wholeheartedly positive. I don't think there was anything in the entire book which I disagreed with in any meaningful way (there was a certain aspect I thought maybe could have been good but I'll discuss later why I think its exclusion was probably a good thing). I sincerely hope and pray that this book is read and absorbed extremely widely across the world, especially in America (as God knows there's far too many "christian" bestsellers over there that turn out to be as heretical as they are badly-written and generally wrong). Much of what discourages non-christians from engaging properly with the gospel is the elitism, materialism, and general hypocritical evil which so many "christians" espouse. Such likely-to-upset-Jesus folk in the extreme form are fortunately quite rare, with a pseudo-theological preacher of prosperity here and an entire political party bent on remoulding christianity into neoliberalism there, but the vaguer attitudes of individualism and not-caring-about-the-poor have seeped into the wider christian community. This hasn't been too difficult given the overwhelmingly middle-class status of most western christians. Anyway, the prevalence of these hypocrisies make christianity unappealing, laughable, false in the eyes of observers who can very easy read Jesus' words about feeding the hungry and watch a churchful of his supposed followers do their utmost to ignore the homeless man sat in the doorway near where they parked their SUV. More christian involvement in active development of social justice would be as excellent for alleviating human suffering as it would excellent for creating opportunities to share the gospel by actually living its implications and demands out properly.
   The one gripe-that-isn't-really-a-gripe I had with it, as I mentioned earlier, was that Keller steered away from engaging with christian involvement in politics. The methods he outlined as ways in which to work towards God's justice in society were all to do with altering personal habits, reinvigorating communities, collectively solving problems - which is all very well and good, but I think if we have a moral responsibility from God to care for the vulnerable then that must influence whether/how we vote, protest, campaign and act politically. Keller avoided having to discuss this by allowing some flexibility in his readers' definitions of justice (especially economically), to cater to liberal and conservative readers, though I'm sure that thought through properly, his arguments strongly imply that a conservative position is simply contrary to Jesus' position.*
   However, he didn't include an extended discussion of how christians should engage with the political sphere: why? Because the book is a motivation-changer for all christians. In keeping his arguments as theological as possible without straying too far from political neutrality, he doesn't automatically alienate and so lose the readership (and potential to motivate into action) of more conservative christians. I therefore think it's reasonable for him to exclude such a section, but also I prayerfully hope that conservative christians, having read the book, will have their attitudes reshaped, and give serious thought to the implications Christ's ethics have on their politics.
   Anyway. Should you read this book? Well, as a general all-round, yes. If you're a christian who's actively concerned with social justice, it'll give you enormous boosts of motivation and plenty of theological grounding for your actions that will aid evangelism alongside it. If you're a christian who's not that actively concerned, it might start making you one. If you're not a christian, it may give you a radically new understanding of the character and purposes of God and the world and our place in it, which may provoke you to rethink your stance on them.
   Praise God for his glory as the Father's sovereignty, his grace in Jesus' death, his goodness in the Spirit's ongoing work - and for giving us Tim Keller as a popular, intelligent signpost towards his Kingdom!


* Yes, this is genuinely my position. I think that someone who both holds the gospel to be true and holds a neoliberal (or similar) political stance has either not given enough thought to the relationship between their faith and their ethics, or is just an unrepentant hypocrite stubbornly trying to force camels through needle-eyes.

Every Good Endeavour

This book, a treatise on work from super-reasonable super-accessible theologian Tim Keller, was a cracker indeed. Yet another bargain from last year's Forum bookstall, I'd been taking occasional strides through a chapter at a time for pretty much the year since, which worked out nicely as the chapters are self-contained enough to make potent points on their own and yet reinforce enough of the general theme to continue building the wider perspective of the book in an easily-retained way.
   The topic is, of course, work. In our modern western economies, "work" has become something very dissimilar to God's biblical plan for it, argues Keller. With his piercing gospel-centred biblically-grounded insights and characteristic clarity of argument, he outlines God's original intentions for the design of human work, as dignified, diligent, and delightful, taking joy in serving together and cultivating the natural, social and cultural elements of creation. Then he explains why we have problems in our relationship with work, as it all too often becomes selfish, fruitless or pointless; and these shortcoming are rooted in our idolatrous heart, which in striving to immerse our lives in self-service and sin lead us to approach all things, including work, wrongly. Our working lives can lay bare those disjointed attitudes and idols; be they prestige in posterity, a stable family, material security, raw power, whatever - the way we approach our work reflects our heart's priorities, and if we've put something other than God in top place then problems will arise in our relationship with the world (including work). Finally he brings the gospel to bear on our relationship with work and shows the liberating power it has on it; by rooting our attitude to work in the framework of God's plan for creation, our adoption into Christ, and the Spirit's influence in us, we as working christians can embrace work as something both humble and dignified, to take pride in doing but not root our value in, to strive for loving practice to the wider world both in our conduct and choice of workplace, to commit to excellence in service yet recognise the importance of rest. The new perspective offered is starkly different to how our world treats work, and is far more appealing with the christian worldview taken into account.
   I found this book really helpful. As per the stereotype of humanities students, even though I love my degree subjects and am passionate about other projects I'm involved with, I'm not prone to the best work ethic. Reading through Keller's book though made me think through a lot more thoroughly about the meaning and motivation of the work I do, finding purpose in its outcome and joyful service in actually doing it, by showing how my work and other people's work fits into God's bigger work - which is a good work. I'm trying to prayerfully reshape my attitudes to work to do it not for the salary, prestige, feelings of self-fulfilment, pride at social betterment, or even ethical outcomes themselves; but for the glory and spread of the kingdom of God. Old attitudes and habits die hard though, and having the truth laid bare in very lucid terms applicable to most working lives helps show us where to start. So, if you're a christian I strongly recommend this book to give you a solid grounding of practical theological applications of the gospel to the work that you do, and how it relates to the work that God's doing.