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shelfreflectionofficial 's review for:
Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just
by Timothy Keller
I think my main reason for a 3 star rating instead of a 4 was that I went into this book thinking it was going to be about something else. For some reason I thought it was about how to give nonbelievers grace instead of acting from a framework of demanding justice. Nope- this was about social justice. Which is still a great topic to share and encourage in, it just wasn't what I was hoping to get out of the book.
That being said, Keller is always a good writer and backs up everything he says with Scripture. It did feel repetitive at times and some of the things he said felt idealistic instead of realistic solutions.
This topic has a tendency to become a topic of political division, but I liked how he addressed the fault in both the conservative and liberal stance on social justice. Conservatives blame the breakdown of families and the liberals blame racial prejudice and inequities. Keller points out that the Biblical reality is actually a balance of both, which is an important distinction to make of a politically polarizing issue.
The other thing Keller discusses which I think is vitally important to understanding and communicating about social justice is that 'justice' and 'freedom' do not mean the same thing to all people. In addition, people's definition of these words, whether they admit it or not, stem from their deeply rooted views and beliefs of right and wrong, human nature, and happiness which essentially boils down to faith. People want to keep 'religion' out of the social injustice discussion but there's really no way to do that and get to the root of the dissension and the heart of the matter- justice is rooted in the character and being of God himself.
I'm still processing some of the ideas he had about situations in which people are consistently given financial aid or money that they habitually use for unnecessary things. I guess it's a good challenge to me to think about God's unconditional grace- that he has habitually been faithful to me even when I didn't deserve it- but at the same time I struggle with how that translates to the tangible things of functioning in society.
Anyway- good book overall, definitely worth a read.
That being said, Keller is always a good writer and backs up everything he says with Scripture. It did feel repetitive at times and some of the things he said felt idealistic instead of realistic solutions.
This topic has a tendency to become a topic of political division, but I liked how he addressed the fault in both the conservative and liberal stance on social justice. Conservatives blame the breakdown of families and the liberals blame racial prejudice and inequities. Keller points out that the Biblical reality is actually a balance of both, which is an important distinction to make of a politically polarizing issue.
The other thing Keller discusses which I think is vitally important to understanding and communicating about social justice is that 'justice' and 'freedom' do not mean the same thing to all people. In addition, people's definition of these words, whether they admit it or not, stem from their deeply rooted views and beliefs of right and wrong, human nature, and happiness which essentially boils down to faith. People want to keep 'religion' out of the social injustice discussion but there's really no way to do that and get to the root of the dissension and the heart of the matter- justice is rooted in the character and being of God himself.
I'm still processing some of the ideas he had about situations in which people are consistently given financial aid or money that they habitually use for unnecessary things. I guess it's a good challenge to me to think about God's unconditional grace- that he has habitually been faithful to me even when I didn't deserve it- but at the same time I struggle with how that translates to the tangible things of functioning in society.
Anyway- good book overall, definitely worth a read.