The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

Great Book

This book explains this important parable in ways I never considered. His historical and cultural insight uncovers facets previously hidden. Christians need to read this book.

I can not recommend highly enough Tim Keller's The Prodigal God, which was just published this past week. The book is both easy on the eyes at 160 pages (an easy afternoon's read) but challenging to the heart. Keller takes us back to Jesus telling the story of the Prodigal Son, but he reminds us that "prodigal" does not mean "rebellious" or "wayward" but rather lavious and "recklessly spendthrift". As such that definition fits the father in the story as much as the son. Keller, helps each of us relate to either the younger son (as those who rebel against God in outright and outward rejection of God), or to the older son (as those who rebel against God by trying to manipulate Him by our moral behavior). As he does he shakes our understanding of what it means to be lost and helps us all see how we have run away from home. While we might not consistently express the attitudes and actions of one brother or the other, Keller explains: "Are we to conclude that everyone falls into one or the other of these two categories? Yes and no. A great number of people have temperaments that predispose them to either a life of moral conformity or of self-discovery. Some, however, go back and forth, trying first one strategy and then the other in different seasons of their lives. Many have tried the moral conformity paradigm, found it crushed them, and in a dramatic turn moved into a life of self-discovery. Others are on the opposite trajectory." Keller, thus, uses Jesus' story to help explain the culture wars we are experiencing today and to challenge each of us to examine how we approach God. His use of contemporary illustrations are remarkable, but most impressive is his helping us see the Gospel anew and know and feel the need for us to be refreshed in it continually. This book is a must read for both new and mature Christians as it does rediscover the heart of the Christian faith.

"This short book is meant to lay out the essentials of the Christian message, the gospel." So begins Timothy Keller's new book The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. Keller targets both seekers who are unfamiliar with the gospel and longtime church members who may not feel the need for a primer on the gospel. Keller's book, as the provocative title suggests, is built on one of Jesus' most famous stories: the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15). Keller consents that "on the surface of it, the narrative is not all that gripping." But, he contends that "if the teaching of Jesus is likened to a lake, this famous Parable of the Prodigal Son would be one of the clearest spots where we can see all the way to the bottom." Keller has taught from this passage many times over the years, and says, "I have seen more people encouraged, enlightened, and helped by this passage, when I explained the true meaning of it, than by any other text." The book is laid out in seven brief chapters which aim to uncover the extravagant (prodigal) grace of God, as revealed in this parable. Keller shows how the parable describes two kinds of "lost" people, not just one. Most people can identify the lostness of the "prodigal son," the younger brother in Jesus' story, who takes his inheritance early and squanders it on riotous living. But Keller shows that the "elder brother" in the parable is no less lost. Together, the two brothers are illustrations of two kinds of people in the world. "Jesus uses the younger and elder brothers to portray the two basic ways people try to find happiness and fulfillment: the way of moral conformity and the way of self-discovery." Both brothers are in the wrong, and when we see this, we discover a radical redefinition of what is wrong with us. "Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated nothing on the list of moral misbehaviors may be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life." As these quotes hint, Keller's exposition of the two sons lays the groundwork for a penetrating analysis and critique of both moral relativists on the liberal left and religious moralists on the conservative right, showing that the latter are just as lost as the former. What both need is Jesus, whom Keller presents as "the true elder brother," the one who comes to our rescue at his own expense. Through his grace, we are given hope and invited to the great feast of the Father. As with Keller's preaching, this book is intelligent and winsome, combining thoughtful reflection on both text and culture with searching heart application. Keller's book is effectively illustrated with a liberal use of stories and quotations from literature, movies, and the arts. Mos

The parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke 15, is one of the best known stories of Jesus. In short, a son leaves home and squanders his inheritance. When things get bad, the son decides to return home to work as a servant. To his surprise, his father welcomes him back and throws a lavish feast to mark his return to the family. The father in this story represents God, and the son represents sinners who are forgiven and embraced despite their past. But this isn't the full story. There are, of course, two sons in the story, and the targets of this parable are not the "'wayward sinners' but religious people who do everything the Bible requires." Jesus told this story "not to warm our hearts but to shatter our categories," writes Tim Keller. In The Prodigal God, Keller helps us understand: * There are two ways to rebel against God: the younger brother way (openly rebelling) and the elder brother way (keeping moral laws and never rebelling). Both are self-salvation projects, but the second is more dangerous. * The gospel is radically different from religious moralism. The gospel is for the rebellious, but it's also for the righteous and their "damnable good works." * The gospel provides what we need to change, and it provides us with all that we truly hope for. Keller writes: "During the years I was working on these two books, my provisional titles were 'The Gospel for Non-believers' (The Reason for God) and 'The Gospel for Believers' (The Prodigal God). This second book is my way of doing what Martin Luther directed us Christian ministers to do. 'This...truth of the gospel...is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.'" In some ways, The Reason for God expanded on Keller's approach to apologetics. You got more than you would encounter just listening to his sermons. The Prodigal God, on the other hand, is more like a distillation of his preaching. You get less than you'd get in a year of listening to his sermons, but you get at the heart. It's a much smaller book too, by the way. If you are familiar with Keller's preaching, then the material in this book will not be new to you. But don't underestimate its power. The gospel is for both the irreligious and the moralistic. It may just be what we moralistic elder brothers need to join the Father's feast for the very first time.