Wonderful Re-examination of a Multi-layered Parable
I was always troubled growing up with the various teaching I received that placed an emphasis on the younger brother in this parable to the near exclusion of the older. I believe Keller has done a wonderful job in righting this imbalance.
For the other reviewers who express the thought this book might also reach skeptics or the jaded, I would have to say while the insights are thoughtful, the basic thesis still requires someone to believe in Jesus as deity. For those who do not, this re-examination of one parable may not persuade.
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, which Keller says is an indication that Jesus was targeting the Pharisees with this story, urging them through his open ending to think through the implications of this story.
This book would be especially helpful, I think, to committed church members. It is easy for a person who is faithful in church life to become accustomed to thinking of themselves as deserving of God's favor and to think of themselves as better than those outside the church. Keller issues in the Prodigal God a wake-up call to people who are seeking, knowingly or unknowingly, to be made right with God through their religious activity.
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 books abound on the different theories of how to fix the ailing church.
Keller's book is the first one I've read that correctly diagnoses the problem. He says, "Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did."
The fault lies more with the message than with its hearers. So what is wrong with the message? Keller gives us a clue in chapter 3 on redefining sin. Many churches today focus almost entirely on God's mercy and grace and love and hospitality. But as Keller so adroitly points out, "the prerequisite for receiving the grace of God is to know you need it." We in the church have a tendency to give out the offer of grace before there is any evidence of repentance. We fail to preach about sin and the coming wrath of God on the sinner who refuses to repent. We forget that anybody who has graduated from a public school in America in the last forty years has been indoctrinated in the prevailing cultural worldview that teaches that man is basically good. So we end up with a church full of people who think they are pretty good and don't have a clue how desperate they really are--a church full of elder brothers.
Keller hits the nail right on the head when he points out that there is an order in which things must be taught. He says we need to assume that the elder brothers are just as lost as the younger brothers, which means we must start from the beginning with them. Jesus preached repentance and used the law of Moses to show people how hopeless it was to try and keep the law. We need more of the same kind of preaching. Rather than getting on the fad-wagon of the emerging churches that are devising new ways to "do church," we need to get back to the ancient message as Keller suggests in The Prodigal God.
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 presents as the alternative to the younger brothers and the elder brothers.
P.S.
Do yourself a favor and read this book as quickly as you possibly can. It will make you smile and cry at the same time.
