“Do you know Tim Keller?” It’s a question I have heard more than once after telling someone that I am a Presbyterian minister. I’ve heard it in a classroom in Malta, at a seminary in Turkey, at a church in Shanghai, and even once in the Oval Office of the White House (but that’s another story). The question is a reminder that for some time, Tim Keller was the leading global representative of Reformed thought to people around the world.
At the time, my answer to that question was “Well, I know of Tim Keller.” I met him as a young Master of Divinity student at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, FL while attending a class taught by Keller and his own teacher and then colleague Edmund Clowney on “Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World.” Now these lectures have been released as a joint effort between Reformed Theological Seminary and The Gospel Coalition, and I’ve had the opportunity to revisit this class that was so influential in my own pastoral development.
The course recording now available online is remarkable for both its abiding relevance to the work of pastoral ministry and for its value as an artifact of intellectual history. Here we find one of the clearest articulations of Clowney’s approach to redemptive historical preaching in literal conversation with Keller’s innovations in the area of contextualization and apologetics. As the audience, we get to listen in as the teacher (Clowney) and the student (Keller) discuss their respective approaches in light of one another’s unique contributions to modern Reformed homiletics.
The result is a rich conversation between two experts in their craft. They speak to more topics than the lecture notes suggest, answering more questions than their audience can ask. Among the many treasures here, several stand out for me.
First, Keller and Clowney were deeply committed to systematic theology at a time when systematic theology and biblical theology were thought by many to be in conflict. It might surprise some listeners to hear them speak at length about the importance of systematic theology to their homiletic method. In the early 2000s when the course was recorded, the pendulum had swung in the direction of redemptive-historical preaching, while systematic theology was unfairly maligned as passé and irrelevant. Nevertheless, our lecturers hold the systematic approach in high regard. While Martin Luther, G.C. Berkouwer, John Murray, and Cornelius van Til come in for mention, John Frame emerges as the most formative to Keller’s approach. The triperspectivalism of Frame lies behind many of the discussions, even forming the logical outline of the class. It would not be an overstatement to say that for Keller, preaching Christ in the postmodern world is best approached through a trisperspectival framework that engages the normative, situational, and existential perspectives, or, in the terminology of the class, the doctrinal, practical, and devotional.
Later in life, Keller would identify Herman Bavinck as a seminal influence in his thinking, but at this stage, Bavinck is largely untranslated and untapped. In these lectures, we see Keller in his pre-Bavinck stage, relying on other voices that emerge from the Reformed thought of Europe and America.
Second, Keller’s was a studied, apologetic style of preaching. At several points throughout the lectures, Keller cites Londoner preachers like Dick Lucas, John Stott and others who had influenced him since his arrival in New York City. He speaks of how he was drawn to the tone and manner of preachers whose audiences were largely unschooled in the teaching of scripture. Keller’s preaching always had a strong apologetic tone, which for him meant not only a defense of Christian orthodoxy, but also an introduction to the themes of Scripture and an appeal to the relevance of them for his congregation. Keller presented the scriptures to believers and unbelievers alike in his congregation. He knew that the apologetic sermon served the evangelistic purpose of bringing non-believers to faith in Christ, but he also recognized that it was crucial for believers who needed to be reminded and deeply rooted in the gospel. That a sermon was apologetic did not mean that it was shallow or theologically thin. The Christo-centrism of Keller’s approach gives opportunity for a deep mining of redemptive history and historical theology but always with an awareness of the unbeliever in the pew.
Every biblical text points us to Jesus because Jesus is the perfect revelation of God.Third, Keller was a champion of preaching to the heart. One of the most powerful aspects of his preaching was how his Christ-centered approach did not negate the application of Scripture in the individual Christian life. As both Keller and Clowney remind us throughout these lectures, the application is built into the Christo-centric approach. By focusing on Christ, we are enabled by the Spirit to gain sincere devotion in worship and sanctification. Using a paraphrase of Berkouwer, “sanctification is feeding off of justification,” Keller’s preaching was never anemic on the topic of personal life. Every biblical text points us to Jesus because Jesus is the perfect revelation of God. When we reflect on the wonderful glories of Jesus and the salvation that he has won for his people, we find empowerment and assurance for our own individual struggles with suffering, criticism, sorrow, and temptation. Christ’s righteousness is already ours, and we ought to feed on that blessed state of affairs as a nourishment for our souls. How can we doubt, fear, or flee when Christ has won for us all of the most important battles.
Years after taking this course from Keller and Clowney, I got to know Tim Keller when Reformed Theological Seminary launched a campus in New York City in collaboration with his City to City ministry. Now I am deeply involved in that RTS New York campus that he inspired and cared about so much. But he is no longer in New York. He has moved on to a better city. Even so, his homiletic wisdom continues to bear fruit as we pass it on to a second generation of students—and with the release of this recording, make it widely available to the church. Tim Keller’s legacy of preaching Christ is felt everywhere, among the saints of the five boroughs and around the world.
Audio from the “Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World” lecture series is available both on the RTS website and as an online course through a partnership with The Gospel Coalition.
