"An Interview with Tim Keller" ... via ...
Q: Why didn’t you come out and say, “Look, I’m coming at this from a Reformed, Presbyterian, Calvinist perspective, because I think that best explains who Jesus is, what Jesus did for us, what the Church is.”
Because I’d like to be understood, Anthony.
Now I know that the average reader in a Barnes & Noble, picking up the book and reading it, will know the difference between Catholic and Protestant, but I don’t think they’re going to know what [Reformed Presbyterian, Calvinist] is.
I think the most important sentence in the book on that subject was, “All Christians believe all these things, but no Christian believes just these things.” So I said, “Here’s the Apostles Creed, and the Trinity, the deity of Christ, he died for our sins, saved by grace, you’ve got to be a part of the Church”—right? OK. I said, “All Christians believe all these things. If you don’t believe all these things, you’re not a Christian: You’re in a cult, you’re a member of another religion, or you’re a secular person.”
All Christians believe all these things, but no Christian believes just these things is my way of saying there’s no such thing as “mere Christianity.” There just isn’t. Because as soon as you ask “How do I get the grace of God?”—you’re a Catholic or a Protestant. Is it the sacraments primarily, or are the sacraments just a symbol of how you get it? As soon as you start talking about how do we relate to the Church, you know, or how does God open your eyes—then you’re Arminian or a Calvinist.
This puts me in a position where I don’t want to defend just one kind of Christianity. I think I want to defend the Apostles Creed. And I want you, as a nonbeliever, to buy the Apostles’ Creed, and then after that figure out where you want to go. I really think I can do that. But, at the same time, I don’t believe I can possibly speak to a lot of these things without [doing so from] within my particularity. So I actually say that there are certain chapters in which I’m going to be speaking as a Protestant because there’s no way not to speak as a Protestant or a Catholic.
And there are some places where, if you look really carefully, I think I do say I’m a Presbyterian minister. And I said, if you look really carefully, you will see I’m really speaking from inside my own tradition. Because there are places where you can’t talk without being in your own tradition.
Here’s what so misleading. If I say I’m speaking as a Reformed Protestant and I’m just going to defend Reformed Protestantism, 80 percent of what I’m going to say in that book will be defending a Catholic Christian’s faith, too. So why not admit that? . . . It was a real dance. It was a real tightrope . . . there are certain places in which, if you’re a Catholic—I’ve got some really strong friends who are strong Catholics, and they love the book, but I’m sure when they get to certain places they say, “Yeah, there we go . . .” But they don’t mind it, because they’re really happy to have a book that’s basically defending the whole Faith. And if I was just running up the flag saying, “I’m a Protestant, I’m Reformed, I’m Presbyterian, I’m Reformed, not Arminian”—I don’t know. This is my best guess, my best guess at how I can model the unity of the Church.
One of the things that non-Christians hate about us is how much we don’t like each other. How am I going to overcome their prejudices unless I show a certain breadth of spirit and generosity toward people with different views? And the best way to do that is not to be always talking about the fact that I’m Reformed.
Q: Don’t you run a risk, though? If they pick up the three authors you reference most frequently in the book—Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, and Flannery O’Connor—and investigate their backgrounds, and start getting into limited atonement and election and a sacramental notion of the church and the Anglican broad way, don’t you run the risk of someone saying, “It’s all relative: It all depends on where I’m going to be most comfortable,” as opposed to “Christ founded a Church—and this is it.”
I know there’s a danger. [...] Listen, I could probably do a better job than you, because you’re being nicer to me. But I could be meaner, and I could say, “This fits in with the spirit of the age,” which is, I’m coming to you as an individual. I’m asking you to make up your own mind, and then you can sort of walk around with this kind of relationship with God now, and it doesn’t stress enough that you’ve got to be a part of a church.
Now part of that is why I am Protestant. In other words, I think if I was Catholic I’d probably write this differently. You can’t help it.
Q: The Church would play a much bigger role.
A much bigger role. But I know that Catholics reading the book—I also know that Catholics are right about the importance of the Church. So, there we go.
Q: One last question: If you had to recommend one book that wasn’t the Bible and wasn’t The Reason for God to someone questioning Christianity, what would it be?
I’d still say Mere Christianity. Even though I wrote this book partly because I found Mere Christianity to be not as accessible as it used to be. But it’s still peerless and much better than my book. My book is Mere Christianity for Dummies.
I have Keller's book but haven't really started it. I'll probably skip around. I watched a lecture he did at Westminster (PA) so I have a sense of how he talks, how he sometimes doesn't finish a thought, as in this interview. I'm not too sure what's funny about the interview ... unless it's that he looks/deadpans like Newhart .. but he's taller.
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