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The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller
Read: for several reasons: 1) Jen sent it to me as a gift a while back, 2) People mentioned it in comments on my What Has Influenced Your Faith post a few days ago, and 3) my pastor referred to it in a sermon recently. I thought it was high time I picked it up. (Dutton Adult, 160 pages)
Rating: 9 out of 10 (finished 3/9/10)
Synopsis: 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.
Overall Impression: prod-i-gal / adjective: 1. recklessly extravagant, 2. having spent everything. I guess I never really thought of the definition of the word prodigal before. I always assumed it meant “comes back” (the younger son lives a crazy life and then he comes back; therefore he is “prodigal”). So when I saw the word applied to God, I really was interested in its true definition. In the book, the reader learns that God is recklessly extravagant with us. He’s spent everything on us. He is truly a prodigal God. I found this concept to be achingly beautiful.
The book takes the story of the Prodigal Son (read it here) and flips it on its head. Most times, the focus of the parable is on the younger son who leaves home and lays waste to his life, only to return into the gracious, open arms of his father. This is a great and important lesson. But in this book, Keller focuses on the elder brother. The one who stayed, did everything right, but who is just as lost as his younger brother. Keller points out that for all his religiosity, the elder brother is no closer to his father than the younger son. In fact, he might be even more lost.
I know that I lean toward elder-brother tendencies. I’m not one to rebel and go and extravagantly live my life, not caring what God or my family think. I’m more likely to follow the rules and (usually subconsiously) think that I deserve something because I follow the rules. It’s “fair.” It’s the “right thing.” But Keller’s book points out that we need rescuing from both our crazy wrecklessness and our morality. We need to be forgiven for the things we’ve done wrong as well as the things we’ve done right with the wrong intentions. The church is full of elder brothers, which is why so many younger brothers bail on the church.
I encourage you to read this book. It opened my eyes and made me truly think about how I live and why I behave the way I do. I want to “do good things” because God is good and I love him. For no other reason beyond that.
Pros: It’s almost an apology to people who have been burned by “elder brothers” in the church; the book takes a familiar story and reaches further into it and pulls out deeper truths.
Cons: I felt like the last third-ish of the book got away from Keller just a bit. It seemed to get away from his core thesis a little.
Favorite quote: “I was intrigued. I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: “If I was saved by my good works — then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace — at God’s infinite cost — then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.”
Extras: Visit the book’s website, read an excerpt, and view the book trailer.
Other books I’ve read by Timothy Keller: none
Other blogger reviews: none (have you reviewed this? If so, I will link you!)
