Generous Justice
By Timothy Keller
Published by Dutton Books
Reviewed by Clint Walker
Stereotypes die hard. One stereotype that haunts the church today is that conservative churches believe in evangelism without social action, and that liberal churches are concerned with social justice but do not care about evangelism. Like most stereotypes, there are some groups of Christians that critics of the church may point to as clear examples that this caricature is true. Most of evangelical Christianity; however, is rejecting this false dichotomy. Many Christians of a variety of theological and denominational backgrounds are realizing that personal evangelism and social action are both core commitments of disciple of Jesus Christ.
Timothy Keller is one of the leading lights in the New Calvinist movement. His writings combine a thoroughly missional vision of the church with thoroughly Reformed theology. In Generous Justice Keller focuses his considerable intellect upon the place of social justice in the ministry of the local church. The result is a concise, intelligent, and methodical argument in favor of Christians being passionately involved in social justice concerns in the church and in society.
Generous Justice is a very thorough book. It examines the issue of social justice through in depth study of both the Old and New Testaments. After doing this, Keller puts considerable attention toward how we live out the ancient commands in our contemporary lives, and explaining how God's specific emphasis on social justice is integral to strong, healthy Christians and strong, healthy churches.
Keller has done his research. Throughout Generous Justice he references the works of historic theological luminaries such as Jonathan Edwards and Abraham Kuyper. He also discerningly references more contemporary studies in academic disciplines other than theology.
One weakness of the book is that it primarily addresses justice as a domestic issue, and as a neighborhood concern. I would have liked to hear Keller say more how to be generously just in the global village, instead of simply the social conscience we should have within our comfortable North American bubble.
Generous Justice is a very heady work. In my opinion, it is also easily accessible reading for most of the folks in the pews on Sunday morning that have questions about social involvement and equality. The New Calvinist movement needed a thorough, theologically-grounded statement on what the Bible says about social justice ministry and how to be involved in it. Keller does the church a great service with the publication of this wonderful book. I will recommend it to many of my friends.
CONTEST:
I have an extra copy of this book, and am going to give it away. If you want to win a copy of this book please do the following:
Post a link to this blog post on your facebook profile
Write a comment or explanation w/ your link that shares why you find the concept of "generous justice" interesting
Let me know you did both these things
Wait for the winner to be chosen randomly on 3/17/
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