The Prodigal God (book review)

Title: The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
Author: Timothy Keller

Like many people, I assumed the word prodigal meant "wayward or wasteful." So when Timothy Keller's book first hit the book shelves, I remember looking at the front cover, noticing the "NY Times Bestseller" sticker on the label and thinking to myself, "Bah, this must be another self-help 'spiritual' book about a god who wants to be in a relationship with man in order to bless him but needs some help finding his way." But after noticing this book under the arms of men whose faith I admire and seeing it distributed with the Angel Tree gifts our church sent out last Christmas, giving the book further investigation seemed like a wise choice.

Keller's book starts out by clarifying the definition of prodigal—1) recklessly extravagant, and 2) having spent everything—which gives understanding for the book's title, The Prodigal God. He then puts the story in context with the rest of the chapter of Luke, noting that this parable is Jesus’ response to the grumbling Pharisees and scribes around him and that Christ starts the story by saying, "There was a man who had two sons." By the end of the first chapter, I realized that Timothy Keller's careful handling of Biblical exegesis would not allow this book to just be another dry re-hashing of a wayward son who wound up gnawing on pig feed because of his disobedience to God, and the reader can come away with more than just the knowledge that God is rich in mercy and grace no matter what we've done.

Keller goes on to lay a solid foundation to the story by drawing attention to the fact that the older brother does not enter into the feast at the end of the parable. So what we have is two lost sons; the moralistic older brother who follows all the rules, trying to merit his father's good graces, as well as the wayward and reckless younger brother. These are two personalities everybody can identify with; and apart from walking in God's grace, these two brothers represent the way in which man alienates himself from God.

Our society is divided into two cultures, as Keller points out. The culture of the "older brother" is the conventional moral conformist, commonly known for "stability" as well as striving to please authority figures. The "younger brother" culture lives by their own rules, walking a path of self-discovery. Every person gravitates to one of these two categories, and some combine the two. Both cultures proclaim, "If those people would follow our example, the world would be a better place." Our problem is that, no matter what side of the cultural divide we land on, we still play the role of the two lost sons, alienating ourselves from the Father by a self-centered focus on either keeping all the rules or breaking them all.

Within every person's heart is a hunger for home. The Prodigal God seeks to show us there is no satisfaction in our own efforts and pursuits to fill that longing with the things of this world since they are only here to serve as signs and reminders pointing to the feast—Christ's saving work. If you want a deeper understanding of how we live next to the feast without entering or wander far from it, and if you want a better idea of what this feast looks like, then I recommend reading this book.



Book Reviewed: The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller (2008) Dutton Adult, 160 pp. For more information and resources, including access to the sermon series, visit www.theprodigalgod.com

edited by Erin Smith

"What must we do, then, to be saved? To find God we must repent of the things we have done wrong, but if that is all you do, you may remain just an elder brother. To truly become a Christian we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right. Pharisees only repent of their sins, but Christians repent for the very roots of their righteousness, too. We must learn how to repent of the sin under all our other sins and under all our righteousness – the sin of seeking to be our own Savior and Lord. We must admit that we’ve put our ultimate hope in both our wrongdoing and right doing we have been seeking to get around God or get control of God in order to get hold of those things.

It is only when you see the desire to be your own Savior and Lord—lying beneath both your sins and your moral goodness—that you are on the verge of becoming a Christian indeed. When you realize that the antidote to being bad is not just being good, you are on the brink. If you follow through, it will change everything—how you relate to God, self, others, the world, your work, you sins, your virtue. It’s called the new birth because its so radical”

– Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God pp 77-78