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Tim Keller

Tim Keller

Modern1950 – 2023

Pastor, author, and apologist who founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and helped a generation of urban professionals engage thoughtfully with the Christian faith.

Key Works

The Reason for God(2008)

A thoughtful response to common objections to Christianity, written for skeptics and believers alike.

The Prodigal God(2008)

A fresh look at the parable of the prodigal son, revealing that both irreligion and religion can miss the gospel.

The Songs of Jesus(2015)

A year-long devotional through the Psalms, co-written with his wife Kathy.

Prayer(2014)

A comprehensive guide to prayer drawing on Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and personal experience.

Timothy Keller was a Presbyterian pastor who planted Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City in 1989. In a city known for its skepticism toward organized religion, Keller built a thriving congregation by engaging honestly and intellectually with the doubts and questions of secular culture.

His Story

Keller grew up in Pennsylvania, studied at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. After pastoring in a small Virginia town for nine years, he moved to Manhattan with his wife Kathy and three young sons to plant a church.

Against all expectations, Redeemer grew rapidly — attracting young professionals, artists, and skeptics who found Keller's preaching intellectually rigorous yet warmly pastoral. His sermons circulated widely online, making him one of the most influential pastors in the English-speaking world.

His Legacy

Keller's unique contribution was bridging the gap between the evangelical church and the secular urban world:

  • He took the doubts of skeptics seriously, modeling a faith that was both confident and humble
  • His books reached millions who would never have entered a church
  • He mentored and inspired a generation of church planters in global cities
  • His integration of Reformed theology with cultural engagement offered a model for thoughtful Christianity in a pluralistic age

Why Read Keller Today?

Keller was a pastor-theologian who read widely — from Augustine to Dostoevsky to secular philosophy — and brought it all into conversation with Scripture. His writing is clear, winsome, and honest about the difficulties of faith. For anyone navigating faith in a skeptical culture, Keller is an invaluable guide.

Plans Featuring Tim Keller

10 daysintermediate
Chronic Pain and Prayer — When the Healing Doesn't Come

The prosperity gospel says God will heal you if your faith is strong enough. Many ordinary churches teach a quieter version of the same idea. But Paul prayed three times for his thorn to be removed, and three times the answer was no. This plan is for Christians whose bodies, minds, or families are not getting better — and who suspect Scripture has something more honest to say to them than they have been hearing.

Charles Spurgeon, John Calvin +32 Corinthians, Psalms, Philippians +4 moreFaith And Modern Society, Faith And Life
10 daysintermediate
Church Splits and Staying — Division, Denomination, and the Body of Christ

Christians have been arguing about other Christians since the day after Pentecost. Some splits have been faithful; many have been petty; most have been a mix. This plan walks through the New Testament's hard-won wisdom about church conflict, the long history of division and reform, and the practical question many believers wrestle with privately: when do you stay, when do you leave, and how do you tell the difference?

John Calvin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer +31 Corinthians, Acts, Galatians +5 moreFaith And Modern Society, Faith And Life
7 daysintermediate
Lament as Faith — The Lost Discipline of Holy Complaint

Roughly a third of the Psalms are laments. The book of Lamentations exists. The cross itself is wrapped in a psalm of complaint. Yet many modern churches sing only happy songs and treat sorrow as a problem to be solved on the way to victory. This plan recovers the biblical discipline of lament — not as despair, not as venting, but as a peculiarly Christian act of faith addressed to a God who can take it.

Charles Spurgeon, John Calvin +2Psalms, Lamentations, Job +4 moreFaith And Modern Society, Faith And Life
10 daysadvanced
Racial Wounds and the Cross — What 'One Blood' Doesn't Settle

Acts 17:26 says God made every nation 'from one blood.' That truth is essential, but it is not enough. The American church has had a long, ugly relationship with race — slavery, segregation, the silence of evangelical leaders during the civil rights movement, and the more recent fracturing over critical theory and 'wokeness.' This plan picks up where the basic biblical case for unity ends and walks into the harder territory: history, repentance, the limits of color-blindness, and what reconciliation actually requires when the wound is generational.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Augustine +3Acts, Galatians, Ephesians +5 moreFaith And Modern Society
7 daysintermediate
When Brothers Disagree — Conflict, Forgiveness, and the Limits of Reconciliation

Most Christian teaching on conflict skips straight to forgiveness. But Scripture takes the wound seriously first — and the New Testament knows that not every relationship can or should be repaired. This plan walks through personal conflict the way Jesus and the apostles actually did: honest about hurt, slow to escalate, willing to name sin, and clear-eyed about when reconciliation is not yet safe.

Tim Keller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer +2Matthew, Genesis, Psalms +5 moreFaith And Modern Society, Faith And Life
12 daysadvanced
Where Was God? — The Problem of Evil and the God Who Suffers

If God is good and God is all-powerful, why is there cancer? Why was there the Holocaust? Why did the child die? This is the oldest objection in the world, and it is more than a debating point — for many it is the moment faith breaks. This plan walks slowly through Scripture's strange refusal to give the kind of answer modern philosophy demands, and through the answer it does give: a God who, on the cross, takes the question into himself.

Cs Lewis, John Calvin +3Job, Habakkuk, Psalms +6 moreFaith And Modern Society, Faith And Life
10 daysadvanced
Before I Formed You — Life, Death, and the Hardest Questions

The debate over abortion has been reduced to slogans on both sides. This plan refuses slogans. It examines what Scripture teaches about the unborn, the ethics of life and death, real reasons women seek abortions, the church's obligation to both mother and child, and extends to a consistent ethic of life including euthanasia and capital punishment.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Tim Keller +2Genesis, Acts, Psalms +13 moreFaith And Modern Society
14 daysintermediate
Beyond Left and Right — What the Bible Actually Says

A 14-day exploration of the most divisive issues in modern public life, read through the lens of Scripture rather than partisan platforms. Discover what the left gets right, what the right gets right, what both get wrong, and what the Bible actually teaches.

Tim Keller, Cs Lewis +2Psalms, 1 Samuel, John +19 moreFaith And Modern Society, Faith And Life
7 daysbeginner
Dominion and Dust — Creation Care in a Warming World

Is environmentalism a Christian cause? Francis Schaeffer argued in 1970 that Christians should be the foremost environmentalists — because the earth belongs to God, not us. This plan examines what 'dominion' actually means, what 'creation care' requires, and how to hold the Bible's high view of humanity with its demand to steward the earth.

Francis Schaeffer, Cs Lewis +1Genesis, Psalms, Leviticus +7 moreFaith And Modern Society
7 daysbeginner
Faithful Citizenship — A Biblical Framework

A 7-day beginner-friendly guide to thinking biblically about civic life. Learn how to pray for leaders, vote with conscience, disagree without dividing, and hold earthly citizenship loosely while living as citizens of heaven.

Tim Keller, Cs LewisJeremiah, 1 Timothy, Psalms +7 moreFaith And Modern Society, Faith And Life
10 daysadvanced
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made — The Bible, Gender, and Sexuality

The question of gender, sexuality, and marriage is splitting churches, ending friendships, and forcing every Christian to take a position. This 10-day plan refuses easy answers. It traces what Scripture actually teaches about the body, gender, desire, marriage, and love — and honestly confronts the failures of both traditional and progressive positions.

Tim Keller, Cs Lewis +2Genesis, Romans, Matthew +10 moreFaith And Modern Society
7 daysintermediate
The Measure of a Nation — Wealth, Poverty, and Biblical Justice

Is God a capitalist or a socialist? Neither — but He has much to say about wealth, poverty, generosity, work, and government's role. The Bible's economic ethic affirms private property, demands radical generosity, condemns both laziness and oppression, and holds the wealthy to a terrifying standard.

Tim Keller, Cs Lewis +2Psalms, Leviticus, Proverbs +9 moreFaith And Modern Society
10 daysadvanced
One Blood — Race, Reconciliation, and the Church

The American church is one of the most racially segregated institutions in the country. This plan examines what Scripture teaches about ethnicity, justice, reconciliation, and the church's complicity in racial sin — while honestly assessing contemporary frameworks like CRT.

Tim Keller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer +2Acts, Genesis, Exodus +15 moreFaith And Modern Society
10 daysintermediate
The Politics of Jesus

A 10-day study of how Jesus navigated the explosive political landscape of first-century Palestine. Discover why he rejected every faction's agenda and inaugurated a kingdom that subverts all earthly power.

Nt Wright, Tim Keller +1Isaiah, Daniel, Luke +8 moreFaith And Modern Society
7 daysintermediate
Render Unto Caesar — Christian Faith and National Identity

Is America a 'Christian nation'? The rise of Christian nationalism has forced believers to reckon with the relationship between faith and country. This plan examines what Scripture teaches about the dangers of fusing religion with political power — and the equal danger of privatizing faith into irrelevance.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Augustine +2John, Hebrews, Jeremiah +9 moreFaith And Modern Society
7 daysintermediate
The Stranger at the Gate — Immigration Through Scripture's Eyes

The immigration debate has become a proxy war for deeper questions about identity, security, and compassion. This plan cuts through political rhetoric by examining the Bible's extensive teaching on foreigners, refugees, borders, and hospitality — confronting both 'open borders' and 'close the borders' camps with what Scripture demands.

Tim Keller, Nt Wright +1Deuteronomy, Exodus, Genesis +9 moreFaith And Modern Society
7 daysintermediate
Swords into Plowshares — Violence, Guns, and the Way of Jesus

America is the most heavily armed and most churchgoing Western nation. This plan examines what Scripture teaches about violence, self-defense, protecting the innocent, and the radical nonviolence of Jesus — asking whether Christians have confused constitutional rights with biblical commands.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cs Lewis +2Genesis, Matthew, Romans +7 moreFaith And Modern Society
12 daysintermediate
The Bible and Women — Patriarchy, Power, and the Stories the Church Often Skips

Critics call the Bible irredeemably patriarchal. Some Christians defend it by ignoring the parts that make them uneasy. This plan does neither. It walks through the actual stories of women in Scripture — including the violent and uncomfortable ones — and asks what kind of revolution Jesus and the New Testament writers were actually starting in a deeply patriarchal world.

Nt Wright, Augustine +1Genesis, Joshua, Judges +11 moreFaith And Modern Society