Tim Keller is coming out with another book, this one with the provocative title of The Prodigal God: Christianity Redefined Through the Parable of the Prodigal Sons. I’m not sure how that makes God the prodigal, but I’d love to find out. Keller’s work on the parable of the prodigal sons has been very helpful for me. This will be a more exhaustive work on the subject. From the WTS Books website.
This short book is meant to do no less than lay out the essentials of the Christian message, the gospel. It can therefore serve as an introduction to the Christian faith for those whoa re unfamiliar with it or who may have been away from it for some time.
This volume is not just for seekers, however. Many lifelong Christian believers feel they understand the basics of the Christian faith quite well and certainly don’t think they need a primer. Nevertheless, one of the signs that you don’t grasp the unique, radical nature of the gospel is that you think you do. Sometimes long-time church members find themselves so struck and turned around by a fresh apprehension of the Christian message of grace that they feel themselves to have been essentially “reconverted.” This book, then, is written to both curious outsiders and established insiders of the faith, to both the people jesus calls “younger” and “elder” brothers in his famous Parable of the Prodigal Son.
This is due out in October, so save your change! (Update: the subtitle was changed to the Heart of the Christian Faith.)
Due out much sooner, June, is John Frame’s The Doctrine of the Christian Life, part of his Theology of Lordship series. I really like this series, and this would appear to be his course on ethics. From the WTS Books website:
The third volume of Frame’s Theology of Lordship series, this book focuses on biblical ethics, presenting a method for ethical decision-making, an analysis of biblical ethical teaching focusing on the Ten Commandments, and a discussion of the relation of Christ to human culture.
“John Frame’s magnificent work on the Christian life fully endorses the authority of Scripture and practically addresses the need to consider the situations and people involved in ethical decisions.”
-Richard L. Pratt Jr., President of Third Millenium Ministries
Can’t get better than that!
I bit the hook big time!
Prodigal God?
Those two books are on my list, too!
If you like Keller’s work on the Luke 15 parable then you should check out Dr. Kenneth Bailey’s work: Jesus the theologian and the parables of Jesus as understood from a Middle Eastern cultural perspective.
Bailey spent 30 plus years in the mid-East and nails all of the parables from Jesus and blows away our “Sunday school interpretations.”
Keller must have watched the videos or read the materials because they are hand in hand. Bailey did his stuff about 20 years back…but they are both PCA guys, so its cool.
The video lectures are out there and now on dvd too. Christians in the ‘East’ have been using them for years.