Array
(
[date] => Thursday, April 10, 2025
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 416237
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => Thursday, April 10, 2025
)
Overview
A Lenten Online Conversation exploring Timothy Keller’s book Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? Keller, a renowned evangelical thinker, addresses the challenges of forgiveness with depth and grace. This series will provide insight into the power of forgiveness and practicalways to apply it in our lives. Sessions will be held Thursdays in Lent from 6:30–8:00 PM (March 13,20, 27, April 3, 10).
Author
Timothy Keller (1950-2023) was the one of the most influential evangelical thinkers of our time and the long time pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. A gifted and influential communicator, he also was a prolific writer, and his book The Reason For God reached No. 7 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller. Although a conservative evangelical notably opposed to LGBTQ inclusion, he rejected culture-war antagonism, was committed to social justice, and was widely admired even by those who disagreed with him for his graciousness and his genuine effort to listen to others.
Today’s Topic
One of the reasons why we find forgiveness so hard to understand and even more to practice is that our inability or unwillingness to grasp the full extent of God’s unconditional love, uniquely displayed in the so-called parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15) – which should be called rather <strong‘The parable of the Father’s Love’. One of the most revealing features of Keller’s book is the focus on the parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Mt 18:23–35), with the insistence of sin as debt, and the complete absence of the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15). In the last of our conversations on forgiveness we will try to bring some light on the most outrageous of Jesus’ demands in the Gospel: “Love your enemies” (Mt 5.44)
Speaker
The Rev. Dr. Luigi Gioia is the Theologian in Residence at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York City, and Research Associate at the Von Hügel Institute at the University of Cambridge (UK). He is the author of several books including Say It To God. In Search of Prayer. The Archbishop of Canterbury Lent Book 2018 (Bloomsbury 2017), and The Wisdom of St Benedict. Monastic Spirituality And The Life Of The Church (Canterbury Press 2021). His books have been translated in six languages.
If you would like to take part in the Webinar please write to Fr Luigi Gioia. You can also watch a YouTube video on the book.
When: Thursdays of Lent, 6:30-8:00 pm
Thursday March 13, 20, 27 and April 3 and 10
