Book Review

Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Colin Hansen

I recently read Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Colin Hansen. Tim Keller was a very influential pastor, church leader, apologist, and best-selling author. I was saddened when he died recently. He would be the first to say that he is in a far better place now than ever before – but his absence will be felt greatly for years to come for those of us who remain.

I had already bought Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation before Keller’s death, and began reading it the week he died. The book is not a biography in the normal sense of the word. Rather, it is a description of the people, institutions, books, and ideas that helped shape him as a man, pastor, and thinker. In some ways, I found this even more helpful than a traditional biography. One of the things that impressed me the most about Tim Keller was the sheer volume of books he had read and the breadth of his knowledge. This book gives a peek behind the curtains to the development of Keller in these areas over time.

The book is of medium length (a bit over 300 pages) but it was a quick, easy read. It is broken into 4 major parts, and has a total of 18 chapters. These basically move chronologically through the various stages of Keller’s life, noting the major things influencing his spiritual and intellectual growth during each stage. These conclude with a chapter entitled “Rings of a tree” which uses that metaphor to describe how Keller never left former ideas and influences behind, but rather kept adding to them like new rings on a tree. This is why he was both broad and deep in both thought and practice.

As someone who has enjoyed and been influenced by Tim Keller, I found this book very enjoyable and insightful. It made me want to read and think more deeply, and especially to love and serve Jesus more faithfully. I would highly recommend the book as an excellent resource, both to understand the life and thought of Tim Keller, but also to be spurred to your own growth in these areas.

As a note, I actually listened to the audio version which is read by the author. For this book, print, digital, or audio will be fine. However, one big bonus in the audio edition was that it contained several sermons/talks as appendices. A couple of these were notable sermons by Tim Keller, and two were by others who greatly influenced Tim Keller (Edmund Clowney and Elizabeth Elliot). For this reason, I really preferred the audio version of this title. However, choose whichever version you prefer and enjoy!

In Christ,

Bret