“The historical Christian positions on social issues do not fit into contemporary political alignments,” wrote superstar Presbyterian pastor Tim Keller in a September 2018 op-ed for The New York Times titled “How Do Christians Fit Into the Two-Party System? They Don’t.” Keller, who pastors a large church in New York City and has long characterized his intended approach to evangelism as “winsome,” has been critiqued by other thinkers such as James R. Wood and Aaron Renn of First Things Magazine for taking an approach that “did not denounce secular culture, but confidently engaged that culture on its own terms in a pluralistic public square,” as Renn put it.
But last week’s announcement of a Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, a project of Keller and The Gospel Coalition, offers hope that Keller is more intentionally engaging the reality of the culture war.
Tim Keller and the ‘Neutral World’
Keller has rightly earned his place as a leader in the modern evangelical church. While I haven’t digested every book and sermon of his, I’ve gleaned wise insight on the Christian life in the numerous ones I have read and listened to.
But Keller would be the first to admit he’s not all-knowing — and the way a shrinking Western church should engage the increasingly militant culture around it is fair game for debate. Keller himself has acknowledged that his approach to evangelism and cultural engagement is not a “one size fits all” approach for every generation or society. Throughout his ministry,
