Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller
Week 12: Chapter 11 — The Problem of Justice and Hope
Read Chapter 11 of Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller.
Previewing Week 12 of Making Sense of God
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 14-week guide when you’re ready.
In the penultimate chapter of his positive case, Keller addresses the two connected needs that may be most urgent in our moment: the need for justice that is truly just, and the hope that makes sustained moral effort possible.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Keller observes that one of the most striking features of our secular age is the intensification of moral outrage — the passion for justice, equality, and human rights — even as the philosophical foundations for those values have been eroded. What does he make of this contradiction?
2.He argues that secular accounts of justice ultimately 'borrow capital' from a Christian worldview — appealing to human dignity, universal rights, and moral accountability — without being able to justify those appeals within a purely materialist framework. Do you find this argument convincing? What is the strongest secular response to it?
3.Keller points to the problem of historical evil — atrocities committed by people who are now dead, victims who received no earthly justice. How does the Christian doctrine of final judgment address this in a way that secular progressivism cannot? Does the idea of divine judgment strike you as frightening, comforting, or both?
a.Think of an injustice — historical or personal — where no earthly accountability was possible. What does it mean for your sense of justice that such things exist?
b.How does the conviction that there will be a final reckoning shape how you live now?