Learn From Many

Like Timothy Keller Does

We all develop our theology differently. For me, I went on a search for the new, then for the old, then for the new again. The influence of Timothy Keller was there through it all.

I first desired a disconnect from the drab faith of institutional religion. I wanted modern music and mission and movements. I was young and restless so I joined a church plant. Then I joined another. A repeated theme of my few journal entries at this time is frustration with “the status quo.”

But movements rise and fall; I needed an anchor. So instead of just giving lip service to the reformed tradition, I dove in. I read Calvin, the Creeds and Confessions, and church history books for fun.

Then everything in society changed, seemingly all at once, as theological tribes shifted over systemic racism, masks, and vaccines. I realized I needed new thoughts in our new day, so I read more recent Christian cultural analyses and books on technology. (I still read old books these days, too.)

Unlike other leaders in my first phase, Timothy Keller is one of the few that remains a strong influence in my life. I’ve never met him. But his sermons and books have helped me connect the old Christian faith with our new modern moment.

Collin Hansen values theological journeys and influences, which is why he wrote a book about Keller in Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation. It’s not so much a biography of Keller’s life as a bibliography of Keller’s mind.

Image credit: Westminister Bookstore.

There are still personal anecdotes. I learned Keller grew up under pressure to achieve which Hansen ties to Keller’s later critiques of works-based religion. I learned how Keller leaned on his wife throughout his ministry career; Kathy acted as an ongoing editor of Tim’s words. And perhaps most surprising to me, Keller grew a deep desire for broad evangelical collaboration and revival (he co-founded TGC) in his days in campus ministry in college. I just had never imagined Keller as a campus leader.

But all the personal stories play a supportive role in Hansen’s broader concern of sharing theological influences. Hansen hopes fans of Keller, like myself, would not simply mimic Keller but will learn from a large collection of thinkers, both dead and alive.

As told in the book, Keller’s theological traditions include the evangelicalism of J. I. Packer, the reformed tradition of Calvin and Luther, the Neo-Calvinism of Herman Bavinck, as well as various Puritan and Presbyterian thinkers. Most of all, the preeminent voices that shaped Tim Keller outside of Scripture were: C.S. Lewis, Edmund Clowney, and his wife, Kathy. I also found it interesting that in the last decade, Keller got to know Charles Taylor and James Davison Hunter, which is why he reference them so much in his later work.

I’m not sure if it’s just me or my narcissistic tendency but whenever I read a biography I think of my own story. Perhaps you do, too.

By reading this unpacking of Tim’s influencers you’ll better appreciate that Tim’s great apologetic skill and persuasive preaching are much more to do with his nurturing of his curiosity than the nature he was born with. Yes, Keller is brilliant with an amazing memory. But he also is rarely found not reading a book.

Too many of us think we’d be famous if only a publisher gave us the opportunity, or if a church big enough were to let us preach, or if the right influencer just endorsed us. We’d do well to learn from Collin Hansen’s book and Timothy Keller’s life; great men are not made through their good luck but through their good friends.

So befriend a book, a mentor, and a spouse. Then befriend a few more (though only one spouse!). Learn from them as Tim would and you’ll be a better thinker and leader for it.