In part 1 of this interview, Tim Keller discusses his most recent books, including King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus. Keller gives an overview of his experience in ministry within the diverse religious landscape of New York City. While you can’t generalize diverse needs and viewpoints, he talks about some similarities. Older secular people will base their disagreement on reason and say there’s no good way to prove God exists. Younger secular people just won’t see Christianity as relevant to them, or they’ll be angry at the Christian church for promoting injustice.
The Reason for God, one of Keller’s most recent books, outlines several reasons people give for being unable to believe in God and his answers to them.
Keller also discusses another of his recent books, The Prodigal God, and the way it has challenged the way many view forgiveness. If we are saved, it’s just because of God’s extravagant love…we’re not saved by works or legalism, but by the grace of God. But for some reason people still cling to a type of phariseeism, he says.
Listen to Part 2 of the Interview
About Tim Keller
Tim was raised in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Bucknell University (B.A., 1972), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1975), and Westminster Theological Seminary, where he received his D.Min in 1981. He became a Christian while at Bucknell University, due in large part to the ministry of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, with which he later served as a staff member. He was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and served as a pastor in Virginia for nine years, while also serving Mid-Atlantic Presbytery’s director of church planting for the PCA. He was an associate professor of preaching on the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1984-1989 while also serving as the Director of the Doctor of Ministry program.
Tim is the founder and senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Tim and his wife Kathy, along with their three sons, moved to New York City to plant Redeemer in 1989. Since then the church has grown to a weekly worshipping community of over 5,000 people, meeting at five services in three different rented locations in Manhattan. The average age of the church community is 33 years, and over 60% are single. Known for sermons that illuminate the truths of scripture and engage the contemporary mind, Christian and skeptic alike, Dr. Keller’s ministry extends beyond NYC. He is the New York Times best-selling author of The Reason for God; as well as The Prodigal God; Counterfeit Gods; Generous Justice; and latest book, King’s Cross (available 22 Feb 2011).
[Go to Part 2 of this interview.]