Whenever a giant of the faith passes into glory, there are two equal and opposite temptations: to deny his strengths, or deny his weaknesses. The passing of Tim Keller is no exception. In life, perhaps no single little “o” orthodox Protestant Christian figure inspired more vigorous reactions from defenders and detractors. In the wake of his death, warm eulogies have proliferated around social media, while even people who had strong critiques of his methodology have added their respectful appreciation for the man who defined a generation of evangelism and church-planting.
Still, there will be those who, quietly or openly, declare in sweeping tones that there’s nothing good in Keller’s legacy. Some are leftists who resent the fact that he never made a radical departure from sexual orthodoxy, or that he wasn’t vocal enough in campaigning against church abuse. Others have harshly criticized his so-called “third-way” approach to politics and evangelism from the right.
In his last years, he drew particularly intense criticism for various much-discussed “Twitter moments,” where he would double down on a tweet or thread in response to conservative backlash. Most notably, he argued that disagreements on abortion policy, among other “debatable political differences,” shouldn’t create “disunity” among Christians. He then linked a New York Times article briefly outlining his philosophy of how Christians should transcend the two-party system.
Of course, Christians needn’t insist that they are bound to a two-party system in order to take issue with Keller’s proposal that abortion policy is “debatable” among mature
