Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Tim Keller

The Reason for God DVD

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Jenni and I recently watched The Reason for God: Conversations on Faith and Life (Zondervan, November 2010).

It’s a stimulating two-hour DVD with six sessions (and a corresponding discussion guide ):

  1. Isn’t the Bible a Myth? Hasn’t Science Disproved Christianity?
  2. How Can You Say There Is Only One Way to God? What About Other Religions?
  3. What Gives You the Right to Tell Me How to Live My Life? Why Are There So Many Rules?
  4. Why Does God Allow Suffering? Why Is There So Much Evil in the World?
  5. Why Is the Church Responsible for So Much Injustice? Why Are Christians Such Hypocrites?
  6. How Can God Be Full of Love and Wrath at the Same Time? How Can God Send Good People to Hell?

Keller models how to discuss Christianity with non-Christians. The DVD corresponds, of course, to Keller’s New York Times bestseller The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (New York: Dutton, 2008).

D. A. Carson, “Editorial,” Themelios 34 (2009): 157:

In the world of Christian apologetics, I know no one more gifted in this Popperian form of argumentation than Tim Keller. Witness his The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (New York: Dutton, 2008). Keller manages to construct his opponents’ arguments in such a way that they are more powerful and devastating than when the opponents themselves construct them. And then he effectively takes them apart. No one feels abused, precisely because he has treated their stances more ably than they can themselves.

Related:

  1. Keller’s The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Cf. my review. See also the excellent corresponding DVD: The Prodigal God: Finding Your Place at the Table (Zondervan, 2009).
  2. Keller’s Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters. Cf. my review.
  3. Keller’s Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything (Zondervan, 2010). 90-minute DVD. Eight Sessions with a corresponding discussion guide.
  4. Keller’s latest book: Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just.

Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World

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I just listened to “Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World,” a D.Min. course that Tim Keller and Ed Clowney co-taught at RTS about a decade ago. It’s 22.4 hours long, and it’s stimulating, especially the Q&A and the lectures by Keller.

Related: “Tim Keller: Preaching to the Heart“

The Prodigal God

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Last May I listened to seven short sermons by Tim Keller on Luke 15 that convey the message of this book:

Timothy Keller. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. New York: Dutton, 2008.

This weekend I read the book and watched the corresponding DVD. The main feature of the DVD is Keller’s creative 40-minute readers-theater-style summary of the book. Both the book and DVD are first-class. And convicting.

Update: Cf. my brief review.

A solid church : a terrible church :: a solid church : incredible success?

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“The difference between a solid church and a terrible church is pretty much up to you. The difference between a solid church and incredible success has almost nothing to do with you at all. It’s like you are out there paddling on your surfboard, and suddenly the wave comes and you ride in, standing up like you’re a Greek god. That has everything to do with the wave.”

–Tim Keller, quoted in Tim Stafford, “How Tim Keller Found Manhattan,” Christianity Today cover story

Tim Keller on Luke 15

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I just listened to seven short sermons by Tim Keller on Luke 15, which convey the message of his book The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith (audio). Thoughtful. Stimulating. Convicting.

The first sermon is from Sept. 2005, and the latter six are from fall 2008:

  1. The Prodigal Sons (Luke 15:11–32)
  2. Give Me Mine (Luke 15:11–14)
  3. He Came to Himself (Luke 15:11–20)
  4. To Be Called Your Son (Luke 15:21–24)
  5. And Kissed Him (Luke 15:11–24)
  6. We Had to Celebrate (Luke 15:17–32)
  7. The True Older Brother (Luke 15:17–32)

Update: Cf. my brief review.

Tim Keller: Preaching to the Heart

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On October 19, 2008, Tim Keller presented two lectures at Oak Hill College on “Preaching to the Heart”:

Here’s how Oak Hill College describes them:

Jonathan Edwards believed that the ultimate purpose of preaching is not only to make the truth clear, but also to make it real—affecting and life-changing. This is usually covered under the topic of “application”, though framing the subject in that way often results in a “tack-on” of practical advice after a dry, academic exposition.

How can we preach the text from first to last in a way that exalts Christ, changes heart motivations, produces wisdom and wonder, persuades the sceptical and results in real life change? In his two lectures, Tim Keller explores these challenges to the preacher.