Product DescriptionNewsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller “a C. S. Lewis for the twenty-first century” in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, he uses one of the best-known Christian parables to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.
Taking his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity, Keller uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable. Within that parable Jesus reveals God's prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way.
What Others Say
Eye Opening Look at Luke 15
The Prodigal God is a short but powerful exposition of the major themes of Luke 15, centering particularly on the parable of the two sons. Keller, drawing his ideas from a sermon by Edmund Clowney which Keller says was "life-changing", writes of the two sons as two who were pictures of the two types of people in the crowd with Jesus on this occasion. On the one hand, the tax collectors and sinners were seen in the younger son, who sought self-salvation through self-discovery and experience. Then there were the Pharisees, who sought self-salvation through moralism just like the older son. The case of the younger son is resolved in the parable. He repents and is brought back into the family. But the older son's story is left open-ended, ... Read More
Prodigal Grace of God
Excellent book. Small enough to read in one evening. After I finished my wife read it without setting it down. She said is was the best book she ever read. For her it made clear some of the things we personally have dealt with in our family and community. The older brother in the parable is the main focus and that which in today's churches seem to get a free pass. Highly recommended! In my opinion Keller's theology is sound and the book is easily read and understood by those without a degree in theology or religious studies yet he does not dumb down the message of the gospel. A powerful little book on the parable of the two lost sons. It is now making the rounds to all who will read it.
Correct diagnosis on a major problem with the church.
Timothy Keller, in relating the story of the two sons, unintentionally (?) addresses another issue altogether. Many books have been written recently about the decline of the church in North America. Churches are filled with elder-brother types who have never been transformed into the likeness of Christ. All of their "good works" are done in the church, but the rest of their lives are no different from that of their secular neighbors. Church becomes nothing more than a good old boys' club where "sinners" are not welcome. As a result, people become disillusioned with the church and either leave it altogether or keep shopping around in hopes of finding something better. Many emerging churches are trying to find solutions to this problem and ... Read More
The Prodigal God: A must read! Excellent!
This short volume (139 pages) is about, as the subtitle says, Recovering t he Heart of the Christian Faith.
It's a look at the parable of the Two Lost Brothers and their Prodigal Father, commonly called The Parable of The Prodigal Son.
Both sons were lost, with the older son in a more dangerous lost position than his younger brother (please read the book to see why!)
Once Keller has developed the younger brother-type and the older brother-type, they both "portray the two basic ways people try to find happiness and fulfillment: the way of moral conformity and the way of self- discovery" (p. 29).
But I way to believe that most visitors and contributors to this blog are like the True Brother Keller ... Read More
Prodigal God Review from Greenleafblog.net
I wouldn't say that The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith radically changes my view of the gospel, I have been on a journey of discovering the true gospel for a few years now, and I assume that this journey will continue my entire life. However, The Prodigal God, Tim Keller's latest, definitely sharpens my view of the gospel.
Keller clearly gets at the heart of the Christian faith using Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, or as Keller calls it, the Story of Two Lost Sons. Keller chooses to aim much of his attention towards the "elder brother," who is equally as lost and unworthy of the father's love as the openly rebellious younger brother. The younger brother and the older brother are archetypes that Jesus uses to point out the route to spiritual fulfillment ... Read More
