Collin Hansen’s Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation is a book that defies comparison. Rather than a traditional biography, it is an attempt to explore the influences that shaped the well-known author, evangelist, and late pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. To accomplish this ambitious task, Hansen draws on his experience as a journalist, distilling dozens of interviews, deep background research, and hundreds of sources into an insightful introduction to one of the greatest preachers of his generation.

Organized in eighteen chapters divided chronologically into four parts (pre-seminary, seminary, early ministry, and Manhattan), Hansen introduces readers to Keller’s childhood in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and his experiences as an undergraduate at Bucknell University and as a seminary faculty at Gordon-Conwell. Throughout, Hansen ably outlines the thoughts and writings of thinkers as diverse as J. R. R. Tolkien, Meredith Kline, and Richard Lovelace, as encountered by Keller during his formative years.

Those familiar only with Keller’s ministry in Manhattan will doubtless be most surprised that three-quarters of the book deals with Keller’s life before planting Redeemer. While many may be more interested in Hansen’s analysis of recent events, the book has another purpose: not to evaluate Keller’s influence but to examine Keller’s influences. As Hansen notes at the book’s conclusion, “Future generations will honor Keller better by reading his library than by quoting him” (p. 266). Hansen’s book is thus an attempt not just to introduce readers to Keller but to the people who shaped him.

The greatest surprise of Keller’s influences may be that his exposure to some of the modern authors most associated with him came relatively late in life. It was not until he was in his fifties that Keller began reading Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre, Philip Rieff, and Robert Bellah (p. 238). In fact, Keller never mentioned Charles Taylor in a sermon until 2013! However indelible their impact, their influence came later. Thus, discussion of them is reserved for the penultimate chapter of Hansen’s book.

What other influences profoundly shaped Keller’s early pastoral and theological development? Hansen mentions many, including the growing InterVarsity movement, the woman who introduced him to the inductive Bible-study method, and his stellar faculty at Gordon-Conwell. But the chief place must be reserved for the Puritans. Early on, Hansen documents what he calls Keller’s “Puritan immersion” as a young pastor in Hopewell, Virginia, where he voraciously poured over Banner of Truth titles, including a careful line-by-line study through both volumes of The Works of Jonathan Edwards. Keller read Thomas Brooks, Richard Sibbes, John Flavel, George Whitefield, Thomas Charnock, and John Owen (p. 123). In Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Keller saw a model of embodying the doctrinal richness of the Reformed tradition for the modern age (pp. 124–25).

The subtle but resounding implication of Hansen’s study of Keller’s theological influences is this: You do not become Timothy J. Keller by just reading sociological studies of postmodernity. These books certainly helped Keller make better sense of our age and how to better present the gospel to nonbelievers. But for Keller, these writers were always supplements, not substitutes, for the doctrinal foundations dug deep into his bones during his twenties and thirties.

Those looking to learn from Keller’s success would do well to follow Keller’s example. They should read Hansen’s excellent book about Keller, but they should not stop there. They should read deeply in Calvin, Edwards, Owen, and the great foundations of the Reformed tradition. They should read widely in history, sociology, and literature, gleaning common-grace insights into our cultural conditions. And they should bring all of these influences to bear in freshly articulating the unchanging truths of Christianity for a modern age.

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