Do you remember what it felt like to read the books that changed your life?

That’s what I asked John Piper about the first time he read C. S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards, who would shape so much of his own writing and preaching. He shares these top influences with Tim Keller, who is five years younger than Piper. But Piper and Keller derived different lessons and deployed their learning in complementary ministries.

One of my greatest hopes in writing the book Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation is to add to our understanding of evangelical history in the second half of the 20th century and into the early 21st century. Piper and Keller’s lives span and intersect with many of the most significant people, events, and trends within Christianity during the last 75 years.

Together they helped found The Gospel Coalition. Between them built several other influential institutions of the “new Calvinism”—notably, their respective churches. They’ve studied in many of the most influential institutions of the post-war “new evangelicalism,” such as Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. They represent much of what that original generation of neo-evangelicals hoped God would do in their time.

In this special season of Gospelbound, we’re exploring, in depth, several key influences that appear in my book Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation. Thank you to John Piper for talking with me about Edwards, Lewis, evangelical feminism, and the reception to his own expansive writing and teaching.