In his lifetime, pastor Tim Keller was most often compared not to any pastor but instead to an academic and novelist, C. S. Lewis. It’s easy to see why––apart from Scripture, no one’s words showed up more in his talks and writings than Lewis’s. Both men had a knack for connecting with people’s hearts and minds. But unlike Lewis, who poured his apologetic genius into beloved novels like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy, Keller stuck to nonfiction, sharing his insights through sermons and books. If we’re looking for a closer match to Keller’s style, two earlier pastors come to mind: Augustine and Jonathan Edwards, both of whom deeply shaped Keller’s thinking. Take Augustine’s idea of “disordered loves,” which Keller leaned into heavily in his book Counterfeit Gods. The idea is simple yet profound: When we love anything or anyone more than we love God, it throws our hearts out of balance. Only by putting God first can we love others and the world around us in a healthy way. Keller often pointed out that when we let something other than God define us, we end up hurting the people or things we cherish most. He had a saying that went something like this: “Show me what you daydream about, and I’ll show you what you think you can’t live without.” It’s a gentle but powerful way to get us thinking about our priorities. Keller also drew inspiration from Edwards, a pastor who blended deep theology, heartfelt spiritual revival, and thoughtful engagement with culture. For Keller, the best, most biblical ministry weaves together these priorities. Without confessional theology, our apologetics has no stable grounding. Without spiritual revival, confessional theology becomes dead orthodoxy. And without cultural apologetics, our spiritual revival becomes easily co-opted by the predominant narratives of our time, such as (especially in our day) the primacy of the self. What Augustine, Edwards, and Keller all shared was a passion for ministry that speaks to the whole person. Keller wasn’t afraid to reference modern cultural voices, but he always aimed to touch hearts while encouraging the church to live out its faith through good works that bless the people around us. That’s the beauty of Keller’s example—he shows us that when our hands are busy serving others, these loving actions can soften hearts and open minds. That’s a challenge worth tackling today: to live out a faith that transforms not just how we think but how we love and serve. And as we consider the work of the pastor as apologist today, I want to offer six recommendations from Keller that can instruct us in this cultural moment. 1. Don’t neglect the ministry of good works. For his doctor of ministry degree, Keller wrote what might be the longest dissertation in the history of Westminster Theological Seminary. He studied Thomas Chalmers and the Presbyterian diaconate of Edinburgh, Scotland, during the 19th century, along with similar Reformed works in Amsterdam and Geneva. Based on this historic example, Redeemer Presbyterian Church launched Hope for New York in 1992 to mobilize funding and volunteers for organizations meeting the physical needs of the city. If the church didn’t do this work, Keller warned, they would deserve the city’s scorn. The world may not be accustomed to a church that cares just as much about expositional preaching as about justice for the poor. But at Redeemer, these goals would be theologically inseparable. Keller insisted that genuine Christian faith affects every aspect of life, or else it’s not the best of biblical and historical Christianity. To stay faithful to the gospel, churches must break stereotypes, Keller argued in Center Church: A missional church will be more deeply and practically committed to deeds of compassion and social justice than traditional fundamentalist churches and more deeply and practically committed to evangelism and conversion than traditional liberal churches. This kind of church is profoundly counterintuitive to American observers, who are no longer able to categorize (and dismiss) it as liberal or conservative. Only this kind of church has any chance in the non-Christian West. Jonathan Haidt, a friend to Keller and professor of social psychology at New York University’s Stern School of Business, has been an atheist since his teenage years. He saw Christians as the enemy due to his perception of conflict between science and religion. So what lowered his hostility toward Christians? He began teaching at the University of Virginia and met Christian students who “radiated a kind of sweetness, a kind of warmth and gentleness and humility that [he] hadn’t seen before.” He visited evangelical churches for a class he taught on moral communities. Haidt says, “It was really beautiful, and it touched my heart. And when your heart is open, then your mind is open.” This is the theme for a class I teach at Beeson Divinity School on cultural apologetics: “When your heart is open, then your mind is open.” And good works are one of the primary means God uses to open hearts. READ THE OTHER 5 RECOMMENDATIONS | 
