Timothy Keller (1950-2023)@timkellernyc
Some have said that my being attacked by both the “right” and the “left” is a sign I am teaching truth because truth is found in the middle between extremes. I appreciate the support, but that’s not accurate.
First, it's important to note everyone occupies SOME middle because there’s always someone to one side or the other on issues who thinks YOU have compromised. Nearly everyone is in a ‘middle’—the question is: which middle is the right one?
Second, Christians should never seek a middle ground for its own sake. The goal should be to take positions that do justice to the Biblical teaching, regardless of whether the world sees you—in its categories-- as an extremist or a moderate.
Third, often Christians look like they are taking a “Third Way,” not because they are moderates but because, in being biblical, they combine what the world considers extreme positions that normally cannot go together. The Bible’s view of humanity in the imago Dei is far more optimistic about human nature than Rousseau's, & yet its view of human sin is far more pessimistic than Hobbes'—both at once! It might be fair to call that a 3rd way between alternatives, but it is not a half-and-half middle way.
Fourth, when Christians formulated the doctrine of Christ’s person, was it a halfway between Docetism (Christ isn’t really human) and Ebionism (Christ isn’t really divine)? No, Jesus is not half God and half human but fully God and fully human. The biblical doctrine IS NOT a middle way. It “diagonalizes” the alternatives (C.Watkin). It “subversively fulfills” the alternatives (D.Strange) That is, it fully critiques both and yet fulfills the best aspirations of both at the same time, without merely combining them or borrowing from them. The biblical position is not somewhere on a spectrum between alternatives—it is off the spectrum yet acknowledges the concerns of all the positions.
5th, my main criticism of so many Christians on social media who attack from the “Right” or from the “Left" is that they unknowingly wed the faith with secular political ideologies. On the right, people make idols of individual freedom and of the market and demonize government. On the left, people make idols of sexual expression, racial identity, and the State, and demonize religion and love of country. Biblical faith sees all of these as good things, but relativizes them before God and his love and grace. All things were made good (Gen 1), all things are fallen (Gen 3)-yet God through Jesus is redeeming all things. For more 1) On social-cultural idols see R.Niebuhr, “The Christian Church in a Secular Age” 2) On personal-inner idols see D.Powlison, “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair” 3) For a deep dive on idolatry see M.Habertal and A.Margalit “Idolatry”.
