The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith

Timothy Keller

Penguin, Oct 30, 2008 - Religion - 160 pages

The New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable.

Newsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller "a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century" in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, Keller takes his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity and uses the parable of the prodigal son to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation. 

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.

Contents

• The People Around Jesus All gathering around to hear him: 7
• Why People Like Jesus but Not the Church: 11
• The Two Lost Sons There was a man who had two sons: 17
• The Younger Brothers Plan: 20
• The Lost Elder Brother: 25
• Redefining Sin All these years Ive been slaving for you: 29
• Two Lost Sons: 33
• A Deeper Understanding of Sin: 37
• Both Wrong Both Loved: 44
• Redefining Lostness The older brother became angry and refused to go in: 48
• Slavishness and Emptiness: 57
• Who Needs to Know This?: 65
• The True Elder Brother My son everything I have is yours: 73
• Who We Need: 79
• Redefining Hope He set off for a far country: 90
• The Difficulty of Return: 98
• The Feast at the End of History: 102
• The Feast of the Father He heard music and dancing: 105
• Salvation Is Experiential: 106
• Salvation Is Material: 110
• Salvation Is Individual: 113
• Salvation Is Communal: 124
• Babettes Feast: 127
• Acknowledgments: 134
• Notes: 136

About the author

Timothy Keller was born and raised in Pennsylvania and educated at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. His first pastorate was in Hopewell, Virginia. In 1989 he started Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City with his wife, Kathy, and their three sons. Today, Redeemer has nearly six thousand regular Sunday attendees and has helped to start more than three hundred new churches around the world. He is the author of The Songs of Jesus, Prayer, Encounters with Jesus, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering, Every Good Endeavor, and The Meaning of Marriage, among others, including the perennial bestsellers The Reason for God and The Prodigal God.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
• Author: Timothy Keller
• Publisher: Penguin, 2008
• ISBN: 0525950796, 9780525950790
• Length: 160 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Biblical Criticism & Interpretation / New Testament; Religion / Biblical Studies / New Testament / Jesus, the Gospels & Acts; Religion / Christian Living / Spiritual Growth