Week 12: Chapter 10 — The Problem of Sin

1.How do you typically hear the word "sin" used in culture — in churches, in media, in everyday conversation? What associations does it carry? How does Keller's definition of sin differ from the typical popular understanding?

2.Keller defines sin not primarily as "breaking rules" but as building your identity on anything other than God — making something a good thing into an ultimate thing, what Augustine called having "disordered loves." How does this definition expand or clarify your understanding of what has gone wrong in human life?

3.He argues that making anything other than God the center of your identity — even something genuinely good, like family, career, approval, or justice — will eventually produce the distortion, anxiety, and harm characteristic of sin. Can you think of examples — either from the book or from your own observation — where a good thing became a destructive thing by being made ultimate?