While I was ordering my ESV Journaling Bible from Westminister Bookstore, I happened to see that Tim Keller’s got a new book coming out this October. It’s called The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. It’s based on his previous sermon “The Prodigal Sons.” Essentially Keller argues that there are two ways to live your life without Jesus as your Savior. The first is obvious, irreligion–live any way you darn well please (younger brother). The second is subtler, religion–live a good life so you will be accepted (elder brother).
Here’s the description…
This short book is meant to do no less than lay out the essentials of the Christian message, the gospel. It can therefore serve as an introduction to the Christian faith for those who are unfamiliar with it or who may have been away from it for some time.
This volume is not just for seekers, however. Many lifelong Christian believers feel they understand the basics of the Christian faith quite well and certainly don’t think they need a primer. Nevertheless, one of the signs that you don’t grasp the unique, radical nature of the gospel is that you think you do. Sometimes long-time church members find themselves so struck and turned around by a fresh apprehension of the Christian message of grace that they feel themselves to have been essentially “reconverted.” This book, then, is written to both curious outsiders and established insiders of the faith, to both the people jesus calls “younger” and “elder” brothers in his famous Parable of the Prodigal Son.
