Timothy Keller - Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference

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PRAISE FOR UNCOMMON GROUND

Loving engagement with folks with whom we disagree does not come easily for many of us with strong Christian convictions. Tim Keller and John Inazu are not only models for how to do this well, but in this fine book they have gathered wise conversation partners to offer much needed counsel on how to cultivate the spiritual virtues of humility, patience, and tolerance that are necessary for loving our neighbors in our increasingly pluralistic culture.

RICHARD MOUW, PROFESSOR OF FAITH AND PUBLIC LIFE, FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

For anyone struggling to engage well with others in an era of toxic conflict, this book provides a framework, steeped in humility, that is not only insightful but is readily actionable. Im grateful for the vulnerability and wisdom offered by each of the twelve leaders who contributed to this book. The task of learning to love wellneighbors and enemies alikeis long and urgent, and it can be costly. And yet, as this book shows us, because it is the work of Jesus, we can pursue this love with great hope.

GARY A. HAUGEN, FOUNDER AND CEO, INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION

CONTRIBUTORS

Claude Richard Alexander Jr. is senior pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rudy Carrasco is a program officer for the Murdock Charitable Trust and past board member of the Christian Community Development Association.

Sara Groves is a singer and songwriter.

Shirley V. Hoogstra is the president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

John Inazu is a professor of law and religion at Washington University in St. Louis.

Kristen Deede Johnson is a professor of theology and Christian formation at Western Theological Seminary.

Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Warren Kinghorn is a professor of psychiatry and theology at Duke University.

Lecrae is a recording artist, songwriter, and record producer.

Tom Lin is the president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Trillia Newbell is the director of community outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Tish Harrison Warren is an Anglican priest at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

2020 John Inazu and Timothy Keller

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ISBN 978-1-4002-1960-5 (HC)

ISBN 978-1-4002-2107-3 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-4002-2315-2 (ITPE)

Epub Edition February 2020 9781400221073

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952549

Printed in the United States of America

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For Willie

Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.

EPHESIANS 4:12 NASB

CONTENTS

THIS BOOKS CENTRAL QUESTION IS HOW CHRISTIANS CAN engage with those around us, while both respecting people whose beliefs differ from our own and maintaining our gospel confidence. The idea for this book grew out of correspondence we have had with each other over the past few years. Too often, the fact of pluralism is obscured, at least in the United States, with idealized visions of one nation, indivisible and the pursuit of a more perfect union. But our actual existence is often characterized more by difference and disagreement than by unity. Americans, like citizens of most Western nations today, lack agreement about the purpose of our country, the nature of the common good, and the meaning of human flourishing. These differences affect not only what we think but also how we think and see the world. This is the fact of pluralism today: deep and irresolvable differences over the things that matter most.

Understanding pluralism means understanding our past. The fact of pluralism is one reason the United States is not, and has never been, a thoroughly Christian nation. To be sure, a white Protestant culture, or what in some circles is called Judeo-Christian culture, influenced this countrys founders and shaped middle-class norms and values for much of its history. That shared cultureand its assumed consensus about public morality and the nature of religious practicebrought with it important social benefits, among them the building and sustaining of institutions and infrastructure. The vast majority of todays charitable sectorprivate colleges and universities, hospitals, and social service organizationshas its roots in Protestant (and later Catholic and Jewish) communities.

But this shared Protestant culture failed to recognize, and sometimes perpetuated, significant injustices. Protestants were often indifferent and sometimes hostile toward the religious freedom claims of religious minorities. White Protestants were largely absent from the civil rights movement, and some white Protestants engaged in personal and structural racism that exists to this day. The social and legal power of the Protestant culture often stifled differing views about race, religion, gender, and sexuality.

Within this dominant Protestant culture, many Christians forgot the biblical counsel that on earth we have no lasting city (Heb. 13:14) and are not to place our trust in earthly princes (Ps. 146:3). Over the course of many generations, some Christians surrendered to the trappings of an earthly citizenship that obscured their deeper allegiances. While we are called to love our neighbors, our proper citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).

Recently the assumed consensus of the Protestant culture has weakened, in part from a growing awareness of differences in religious (and increasingly, nonreligious) beliefs. At the same time, deep and accelerating social trends toward individualism and autonomy have eroded trust in social institutions: business, media, government, church, and even the family. Yet as Protestant culture has declined, no successor has appeared. Neither evangelicalism nor Roman Catholicism nor secularism has replaced the previous assumed consensus.