Tim Keller’s new book, The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith, will be released in a few weeks, on October 31. In the book Keller presents a powerful expression of the gospel, rooted in the parable of the Prodigal Son.  Having heard Keller teach from this parable, I am looking forward to the written form.

But Keller’s insights were not developed in a vacuum.  They were cultivated by careful and thoughtful study and prayer. They were built upon a foundation of those who had walked before him, like Edwards and Chalmers. And they were influenced by the wisdom of those who invested in him. Among them, Dr. Ed Clowney, former president of Westminster Seminary, whom Keller credits in the Introduction of this upcoming book as having provided the inspiration: 

Many excellent studies have been written on this Biblical text over the last several years, but the foundation for my understanding of it was a sermon I heard preached over thirty years ago by Dr. Edmund P. Clowney. Listening to that sermon changed the way I understood Christianity. I almost felt I had discovered the secret heart of Christianity.  (Click: article.)

Crossway Books has made available Clowney’s sermon, Sharing the Father’s Welcome.  I hope it not only whets you appetite for Keller’s upcoming book, but that it opens your eyes to see how high and wide and long and deep is the love of God for we, his children.

(NOTE: My thanks to Justin Taylor of Between Two Worlds for tipping me off about this.)