Ei Forum: Creation and Creativity

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Tim Keller

Religion & Spirituality, Religion, Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Christianity, Spirituality

4.8 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we talk about creativity, we mean artists of course. But we also actually mean entrepreneurs—whose creativity is as important to what they do as anything else. So thinking about creativity, what does Christianity have to say to it? The answer is a lot. Your deeper beliefs about the meaning of life and the world actually does shape your work. The Bible says the world was created, has fallen, is being redeemed, and is going to be restored. How does that affect or shape our creativity? The Christian understanding of creativity is that creativity is something you do 1) because you want to, 2) out of love, 3) in full knowledge of the risk and the cost, and 4) knowing that there will be satisfaction. This talk and Q&A was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 16, 2010. Series: Center for Faith and Work. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Gospel and Life.
0:05.8	Are you struggling to find meaning and purpose in your work?
0:09.5	We spend much of our lives at our jobs, but our work can often be the area where we feel
0:14.0	the most frustration and futility in our lives.
0:17.5	Today on the podcast, Tim Keller helps us understand how the gospel frees us to have hope and joy in our vocations.
0:28.5	I'm, yes, I'm tasked to talk to you about Christianity and creativity, and I only have, for about half my time here, I'd like to share four theological thoughts about creativity.
0:49.7	Artists maybe don't want to admit this, but actually entrepreneurs are creatives.
1:06.1	And entrepreneurs are that part of the business world in which creativity is as important to what you do as anything else you do.
1:08.7	So entrepreneurship is about creativity.
1:27.0	You know, even though I'm sure he wasn't thinking of entrepreneurs, one of the late Bobby Kennedy's, one of his most, maybe the most famous statement he ever made was, and it was quoted at his funeral, I remember, he says, there are those who look at things the way they are and ask why i dream of things i dream of things
1:29.8	that never were and ask why not and that's the charter of an entrepreneur the charter of a creative
1:37.7	but what does christianity have to say to creativity a lot? One of the main foundations, Planck's and Center for Faith
1:49.9	at Works platform, is that everybody's work is being shaped by their faith. I know that in the modern world,
1:57.7	everybody says, no, no, no, you keep your beliefs about the universe,
2:06.9	human nature, God, spiritual things. You keep those private, and when it comes to your work,
2:11.9	it should just be business. And we know that that's just not true, that people are kidding themselves,
2:17.1	that your deeper beliefs about the meaning of life and what the world is like actually do shape your work.
2:19.3	And so I'd like to just get out, remind you of what the Bible says that the world is about.
2:25.2	It's about creation. The world was created. Fall. The world is fallen because of sin. It's broken.
2:30.9	It's being redeemed through what Jesus Christ has done and is doing, and eventually
2:36.2	it's going to be restored. And no other religion, no other view of the world says that. And if you
2:41.7	take creation, fall, redemption, restoration, and you ask, what does that have to say to creativity?
	...

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