Excellent book! I liked hearing from the various authors and found the text cohesive, informative, and still engaging.

It's important to note with this book that it is not primarily a Timothy Keller book - he wrote a small portion of it. That aside, it is a great book for someone who is seeking to be a light in a pluralistic context. It covers a broad swath of material and helps one understand how to navigate their Christian faith in the context of public life.

I love everything I've read by Timothy Keller and this was no exception! A beautiful collection worth reading and rereading.

Excellent! The variety of writers, the practical and theological ideas presented. What a great conversation starter in our churches and ministries. I thought it was a great call for unity in our diversity.

This is one of the best books I've read this year. It's rare that in a collection like this, with essays by twelve Christian authors from very different backgrounds and experiences, that all of them challenged and encouraged me. In this year that is filled angry, unloving speech, they all called me to a better way of being in relationship with those with whom I disagree. It's a sign of a good book that I plan to get a paper book to complement my digital copy because I want to be able to mark it up and share it with others.

At Made to Flourish, we often focus on the three flourishings. We argue that a flourishing pastor should lead to a flourishing church, and a flourishing church should result in a flourishing community.

We are living in a moment fraught with questions, uncertainties, and fear. All of which do not often lead to the three flourishings mentioned above. The challenges of our current moment: a global pandemic, protests around systems that treat people differently because of the color of their skin, and economic struggles make me grateful for Timothy Keller, John Inazu, and a group of authors who came together to write the recent book, Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully In A World of Difference. The goal of this book is to help Christians understand our cultural moment and what Christian faithfulness looks like in spite of pervasive differences.

In other words, Uncommon Ground helps us understand why so many of our communities are not flourishing.

We live in deeply divided, even antagonistic times. Americans today lack agreement about the purpose of our country, the nature of the common good, and even the meaning of human flourishing. These differences affect not only what we think but also how we think, as well as how we see the world. In light of these profound divisions, how can Christians interact with those around them in ways that show respect to those whose beliefs are radically different while remaining faithful to the Gospel?

Keller and Inazu assembled a team of thoughtful writers, theologians, entrepreneurs, songwriters, pastors, and business owners to answer this question.

If there is one Scripture that embodies the spirit of this book, I think it is Ephesians 4:1-2: “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.”

The genesis of the book came from correspondence Keller and Inazu had over a period of years. They sought to understand how people can find common good across deep and seemingly insurmountable differences. Conflicts have existed since the fall, though it seems they are only getting worse and are amplified every four years when there is a presidential election in the United States. This year is no exception.

The goal of Uncommon Ground is not a description of the gospel for this generation. It is, however, to reframe the gospel for a particular context. Before you can reframe, you must understand.

Keller and Inazu as editors chose stories as the guiding pedagogy for the book. Part one unpacks the roles through which we think about our engagement with others. Kristen Deed Johnson, a professor at Western Theological Seminary, helps readers understand the contributions of a theologian. Keller explores the role of a pastor. Tom Lin, president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship describes the adventurer, and Rudy Carrasco, program officer at Murdock Trust, the entrepreneur.

Part two presents the ways in which we speak to our neighbors in this cultural moment. Tish Harrison Warren, an Anglican priest, reflects on the role of the writer. Sara Groves, a songwriter; Lecrae, a recording artist, and producer; and John Inazu, a professor of law and religion write about how we can communicate with others through songwriting, storytelling, and translating.

Finally, part three helps us understand our embodied engagement with culture. Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, and Warren Kinghorn, professor of psychiatry and theology at Duke discuss bridge-building and caregiving. The book concludes with presentations regarding our roles as reconcilers and peacemakers by Trillia Newbell, an acquisitions editor for Moody Publishers, and Claude Alexander, Jr., senior pastor at The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Each of these stories is rich on their own, giving the reader a window into the author’s story, and the ways in which they have approached their engagement with a world of difference.

Building bridges: four principles

We are living in a highly divided moment. Politics, race, justice, education, church, and so much more divide rather than unite our country and our churches. Hoogstra provides four essential principles of bridge-building that apply to our cultural moment.

First, we must show respect. Respect starts with the understanding that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. This view allows for a high view of everyone regardless of their relationship with Jesus, or what their past. Respect is not the same as agreement, though it influences the way people disagree with each other.

Second, we must demonstrate humility. Anyone who seeks to remove divisions must be a learner. We should seek to understand someone from their point of view. Like respect, humility does not require agreement, but it does require patience, empathy, and a desire to listen. Humility builds on the foundation of respect for an individual’s imago Dei, by remembering the mercy and grace God shows us.

Third, we must show ourselves to be trustworthy. Trust is the currency of the realm. We will not break down barriers if there is not a foundation of trust. Hoogstra notes that trustworthiness is built by not talking about someone behind their back or seeking to malign their reputation. We build trust by demonstrating generosity and giving someone the benefit of the doubt.

Finally, we must show love. Building bridges is an act of love, but increasingly, we cannot show love in our own strength. We need the Holy Spirit’s power for any act, perhaps especially building bridges because of the real fear of failure if we do not do this well. Bridge builders must have the self-awareness to know if they are acting from a place of love or fear.

Uncommon Ground is full of stories of individuals building relationships with people with whom they differ. Whether it was Hoogstra building a bridge with a lawyer or Inazu working with an interfaith leader, they both adopted a bridge-builder mindset, seeking common ground across differences, advancing common interests, and bringing people together.

If you are not satisfied with the Christianity you are normatively seeing online, if you are not feeling at home in either political party, if you are unsure about the best way to engage with the culture and love your neighbor in this unprecedented moment, if you care about the future of the church, this is a book for you.

Uncommon Ground is a collection of biographical essays in which ten people tell their stories and align those stories with the theme of how to live among others with whom they don't agree or who believe differently than they do. I appreciated being able to learn from voices I wouldn't ordinarily be invited to hear from and was encouraged by the many ways these Christians are learning how to live out their faith in the world. But there is no single path. If you are looking for an instruction manual, this is not the book for you. But if you want to hear about faithful people still figuring out what faithfulness looks like on the ground, I highly recommend it.

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley and have reviewed it willingly.

The release of this beautifully written book is so timely when it comes to the tension in our nation and world today, both due to the coronavirus, and due to the racial and political unrest in America. Each chapter is written by a different author with their own perspective, and every chapter points us to the common ground we have, which is Jesus. Uncommon Ground communicates through different voices the truths that can unite all of us. As we are all being encouraged to be more informed on things we may not understand, I highly recommend that this book is on your list to read.

It’s one thing to collar a Christian and hand them a list or a job description:
“Hey, did you know that you are to engage with the culture as a theologian, pastor, bridge-builder, story teller, translator, caregiver, reconciler, peacemaker?”
Each contributor to Uncommon Ground has interpreted his or her own calling or story in light of the role God has asked them to fulfill, using the gifts, abilities, and opportunities he has provided.

Christ’s death and resurrection has empowered them and will empower us to engage the world we find–not on the basis of our political party, race, or other aspect of our identity more superficial than the bedrock of our identity as a Christian. In spite of all evidence to the contrary, Christ continues to reign in the world. The twelve essays of Uncommon Ground were a bracing reminder that should transform my interaction with the culture going forward.

Making sense of our lives in light of the gospel involves an understanding of our role as a sinner, rescued by grace, and neither better nor worse than others. “We bear witness to the gospel from a position not of strength but of weakness.” (596) As we tell and retell “the story that weaves together divine transcendence and earthy human experience” (1031) we bear witness to a kingdom that has come while offering hope that the kingdom is also yet to come in all its fullness for all to see.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which, of course, is offered freely and with honesty.

As always Timothy Keller helped me to consider my faith and how I live it out in an effective manner while being very readable. His books continue to be some of my favorites in my Christian walk.

As a book reviewer, I love books like these that make the job easy: this is an absolutely excellent book which I have already recommended to friends and family, and which I heartily recommend to you, dear reader. My average review for a good book is 4 stars, because I want 5 stars to really mean something. This book earns 5 stars without breaking a sweat.

Uncommon Ground is a set of 12 deeply thoughtful essays answering the question, "In our day and age when it seems that disagreement abounds and common ground is a sentimental dream of the past, how can those with diverging views of the world find ways to see one another, speak to one another, and hear one another?" Each contributor conceptualizes his or her work in this endeavor from a different angle, from roles like the theologian or pastor to the writer to the translator to the bridge builder to the reconciler.

Each essay is pretty straightforwardly a retelling of that individual’s life and work coupled with their reflections upon the division they see and the ways in which they have worked to find common ground. I’d tell you which one was my favorite, except that they’re all just exceedingly excellent. I am pretty well-acquainted with many of the names within the evangelical world, and so I knew a fair number of the contributors to this work. The fascinating thing for me to realize is that I know I’m not on a different theological wavelength than some of these folks, and yet I found myself nodding along in each chapter, recognizing that while there’s a place for those disagreements, it is also very possible to find the common ground that sometimes seems so elusive.

I’ve been wrecked by the past few weeks of racial violence, police brutality, and seething resentment that has bubbled to the surface in our country. Some days I feel absolutely hopeless that we could ever see eye to eye, or that we could ever look our enemy in the eye and see a brother (to loosely quote a song by The Brilliance). This was exactly the book I needed right now to assert that yes, finding common ground is difficult work, but yes it’s very much possible. I strongly recommend you pick up a copy for yourself and imagine what your role might be in bringing disparate people together.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

Uncommon Ground by Timothy Keller; John Inazu is a book that is needed today! It had some really great chapters! It basically helps the Christian to see how to walk/live in this world. How we can look for Gods grace! This was a good read and I would recommend it for any Christian.

Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference is a recently released book of essays edited by Timothy Keller and John Inazu. The individuals who contributed essays to this work represent a wide variety of perspectives and careers from ministers, lawyers, authors, songwriters, and more. Some of the individuals will be very well-known such as rapper Lecrae while others may not be as familiar.

Uncommon Ground is organized into three sections Framing Our Engagement, Communicating Our Engagement, and Embodying Our Engagement. The emphasis truly is on how to engage others by finding a common ground with others who do not necessarily share beliefs. Each section has four essays that relate to the overarching topic. Each essay stands alone although the authors demonstrate that they have engaged with each other regarding the essays. I found each essay to be thought-provoking and delightful as the authors truly shared from the heart about their own experiences. However, each essay must be savored. This book is not one to be read quickly but needs to be mulled over. Uncommon Ground would be a wonderful selection for a discussion group. It also has potential as textbook for a class on how to engage culture.

I received a complementary copy from Thomson Nelson via NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not rquired to provide a positive opinion.

Timothy Keller’s name was the first thing that caught my attention. Next the subject itself was definitely one I wanted to explore further. I thought it was an excellent idea to bring together all these stories that delve deeply into the thoughts and experiences of the group of people who contributed to this book.

It definitely gives Christians a lot to think about in light of a world filled with people who don’t always feel they could be welcomed by Christians.

Uncommon Ground provides a sorely needed starting place for Christians to begin thinking about how to live in a pluralistic society. The contributions from Christians in a wide variety of professions dispel the myth that America is a "Christian nation" and can be engaged as such. I especially appreciated the bold voices calling for Christians to be faithful to the gospel, recognizing that this will mean eschewing political power and will result in being criticized for different reasons by both the political right and the political left. This is an accessible and engaging introduction to challenging issues for lay Christians, and I hope that some of the authors who contributed to this work will continue to tackle these topics in greater depth and with even greater courage.

A very conflicted 3.5 stars. The premise of this book caught my attention and, paired with Tim Keller’s name, I was sure this would be a perfect fit. We all interact with people with different beliefs than ourselves and it’s clear that most people aren’t doing an awesome job of it-- thank you social media. I am the first to raise my hand that I needed a book with this title. I am still processing what I read, but overall I was pretty disappointed with the execution of this topic.
This book is a compilation of essays written by 10 different people based on their own experience in our conflicted culture. There were a lot of true and good things advised- like interacting with humility, tolerance, and patience- but it all felt so vague and abstract. Maybe the specifics of what I’m looking for is unrealistic to expect to fit into a book and would make for better in-person discussion. I guess I still need to wrestle with that.

I just didn’t feel like they really gave me any concrete examples to follow. Yet they all came across as if they had an idea in their mind of what they wanted everyone to do or say, but no one was willing to just say it bluntly. They were all beating around the bush of really portraying: this is right and this is wrong. Act like this, not like this. Say this, not that. Because honestly, I think we all already know we’re supposed to be humble, patient, and tolerant, but I think we’re all walking around with our own definitions and ideas about what each of those look like. We all think we’re doing them but we’re probably not.

I also feel like there was this negative generalization of white evangelicals by most of the contributors (and really people everywhere) that I’m exasperated of. It’s this idea that all white evangelicals, because of their privilege, somehow have an incomplete or illegitimate faith, living in some la-la land, unable to see or understand hard reality and that, though it’s not necessarily our fault, we are these immature and unenlightened Christians whose opinions and faiths don’t really matter because we haven’t personally seen, experienced, or struggled with racism or oppression of some kind. We are a group ‘to be reached with the truth.’ How am I to respond when I happen to be white and I’ve chosen the beliefs of evangelical Christianity? How does that automatically make ‘my gospel’ ‘white and wrong’ when we’re reading the same Bible? Additionally, there’s this vibe that if we’re not out advocating for social justice every day then we are part of the problem, not the solution. And I realize these are extreme and exaggerated statements to make, but I read and hear it time and time again with no clear ‘solution.’ Books like this aren’t giving any other sort of practical and realistic suggestions of how this actually would look like for a normal US citizen. And I’m just at a loss.

You can’t just say the church and white evangelicals are getting it wrong and then provide vague directives like ‘be humble, patient, and tolerant,’ ‘listen more than speak,’ ‘choose our words carefully,’ ‘be willing to take action,’ ‘have a posture of embrace rather than fear,’ and ‘don’t overidentify with a political group.’ These are not new concepts. We all think we’re doing these. Give us examples of what this does or doesn’t look like for the average person. How do conversations actually look? What particular action steps make sense for my life as a stay-at-home mom in a mostly white suburb with not a lot of people I interact with on a regular basis?

All of these contributors have significant areas of influence- professors, pastors, book-writers, song-writers, doctors, etc. It’s great what they are doing and the influence they are able to have to bring about change, but we don’t all have the ability, capacity, or opportunity to have our lives look like that. I just want a book on this topic that is more accessible and answers questions rather than avoids them.

It’s probably clear by now that I was disappointed, and I didn’t agree with everything that was written, BUT I don’t condemn this book by any means. I think it’s probably worth everyone reading because we’re all coming at it with different experiences, expectations, and questions. What I found to be abstract and unhelpful may make a lot of sense to you. Like I said, I’m still processing and trying to figure out what I’m going to take away from this book. Try it for yourself and see if you can find the answers you’re looking for.

This is a deeper read. Some may not want it but others will thrive because they have been looking for something deeper. The different essays are each stand on their own merit.

A great book from differing viewpoints within the Christian community. A lot written on racial reconciliation to think about.

This was such an interesting book during which the same few phrases kept coming up again and again; bridges, peacemakers, connectors, joiners. This book is told from the perspectives of 10 different people and while I may not agree completely with all of their viewpoints I appreciate their goals in connecting together.

We so often focus on what makes us different that we don't consider what makes us the same and I think that is what this book helps us to look at. I appreciated all of the different voices that were told through this book and how they all brought a little bit of a different perspective to the book.

We all have uncommon ground, but we can still build bridges.

“with all humility and gentleness , with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love” (Eph. 4: 2 nasb).　The premise of this book is that we need to know who we are in Christ in order to have the tolerance we need to find common ground with which to engage with the world. With all the hostility in the world towards a Biblical world view, some Christians have reacted in an argumentive and defensive way. Some have tried to isolate themselves from the fray thinking that to much exposure to the world leads to corruption. Because neither of these responses reflects Christ own response, the authors use this book to define a better way using the characteristics from Ephesians 4 and the testimonial stories of 10 people engaging head on with the world in various walks of life to show how these characteristics can work in reality. I enjoyed hearing insights from so many different voices engaged in embodying Christ in so many different ways.