The Gospel Coalition’s Foundation Documents include a “theological vision for ministry,” originally drafted by Tim Keller. I’d never heard of theological vision before I read this statement in 2007. Soon I learned that the concept originated by Richard Lints in his book The Fabric of Theology. Theological vision is the space between your doctrinal beliefs and your ministry programs. Theological vision helps you adapt your ministry to changing conditions while keeping centered on the unchanging gospel.

Richard Lints has published a new book, Uncommon Unity: Wisdom for the Church in an Age of Division, which includes a foreword from Keller. In this book Lints exposes problems with the inclusion narrative of democracy and offers a better way forward to find unity amid unprecedented cultural diversity in our day. He writes, “The main thing I want to do in this book is to view the gospel story as the interpretive lens through which we best understand the telos of creation as a rich, deep, and complex unity-in-difference.”

I asked Lints how he developed his concept of theological vision. But we also explored big questions about our changing society and moral order:

• If Christianity is no longer recognized as the moral framework of society, how can we restrain greed and abuse of power?
• Would we need a new political order?
• Can our post-Enlightenment age still make moral demands?
• On what basis?

Listen to the interview to learn more from the book and Lints’s constructive proposal.