Tim Keller

Timothy James Keller (September 23, 1950 – May 19, 2023) was an American Presbyterian pastor, preacher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He was the chairman and co-founder of Redeemer City to City, which trains pastors for service around the world. He was also the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

He attended the Lutheran Church in America during his upbringing, but was later ordained by the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Keller served as a pastor at West Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Hopewell, Virginia, for nine years and also served as director of church planting for the PCA. Keller shunned the label "evangelical" because of its political and fundamentalist connotation, preferring to call himself orthodox, believing in the importance of personal conversion or being 'born again,' and the full authority of the Bible." He identified with Calvinist theology, but was critiqued by some in that tradition for his interpretation of its doctrines.

Keller's preaching and writing in apologetics was characterized by a respectful orientation towards an educated and skeptical audience outside of the faith. Important themes in Keller's teaching were idolatry and the Ten Commandments. Keller stated that contemporary idol worship continues today in the form of an addiction or devotion to money, career, sex, power and anything to which people seek to give significance and satisfaction in life other than God.