My grandson often climbs into my lap with a book in hand. Almost two years old, he has discovered Winnie-the-Pooh. As I read these stories to him, I’m impressed by how complex concepts are conveyed through simple storytelling. You learn about morality, emotions, relationships, and much more through Pooh’s adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood.
Stories shape how we look at the world. Whether the author is Aesop, A.A. Milne, or Don Delillo, every story contains a vision of the good life, how we lost it, or how we can experience it. Stories are not confined to books. Every day, our culture tells us stories through books we read, media we consume, and even expressions we use (“You be you”).
In a new father-son project, Tim and Michael Keller identify and examine the stories that currently dominate American culture. Tim Keller (1950-2023) served as the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Michael Keller, his son, is the lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church Lincoln Square.
“The Stories We Live By” (Zondervan, 2026) was a joint venture Michael finished following his father’s death, drawing from the 40,000 words Tim had already typed on the subject. “For years we talked about writing a book together that would clearly name the stories we live by and how they quietly shape our lives and behaviors” (12).
The Kellers operate under the assumption that only the story of Scripture holds together. In “The Stories We Live By” they show how all the other stories “crack under the weight of real life” (15). The book diagnoses the stories that are shaping our lives and how they are failing us.
Examining Cultural Narratives
Every culture has its own operating system. It is easy to travel to another country and identify the foundational beliefs that drive the culture’s habits and customs. It is much more difficult to do the same in your own backyard. We are like the frog in the kettle, often unaware how the conditions around us are impacting us.
As the authors put it, “Everyday expressions like ‘Follow your heart’ and ‘You do you’ are not throwaway phrases. They are powerful mini-stories of our modern culture that subconsciously inform our choices and actions. Nursed on these narratives from birth and barely conscious of them, our understanding of the world and our place in it has been shaped by these stories” (13).
In this volume, the Kellers enable readers to step back for a moment and map the primary stories which animate American culture. They identify seven primary stories that serve as our culture’s operating system:
- “A story of identity: Listen to your heart and be true to yourself, to your innermost desires.
- A story of power: The only way to bring change is to take power from the ‘bad’ and give it to the ‘good.’
- A story of freedom: Live free, just do no harm.
- A story of morality: Moral right and wrong are socially constructed. Work for justice.
- A story of truth: Science and reason alone can tell us what is true and fix our problems.
- A story of happiness: Do what makes you happy, and don’t let anyone keep you from it.
- A story of progress: Be on the right side of history, which is always moving toward more liberty and prosperity and away from superstition (religion) and oppression” (25-26).
Every person finds themselves drawn to one or more of these stories. But beneath them all is a core belief: “there is no authority outside of the self, and life will go well only when society recognizes this” (25). These cultural narratives don’t put themselves forward as hypotheses to be tested and examined. Rather, they function as presuppositions which cannot be questioned.
Christian discipleship challenges basic assumptions we all have about the way things are and the way they should be. And this is where the Kellers are at their best in this book. Mixing biblical instruction with pastoral concern, they direct readers to how we unconsciously conform to the world and how the Bible teaches us a better story.
The Pursuit of Happiness
For thousands of years, humans operated under the belief that the meaning of life is found outside of you. This is still true in some cultures in the Majority World. Your parents decide whom you marry, what your vocation will be, and where you will live. Life’s meaning is received.
In modern America, we are told something far different: that the meaning of life is found inside you. Look inside yourself, decide who you want to be, and don’t let anyone stop you. Life’s meaning is self-generated.
In their chapter on happiness, the Kellers show how modern culture has a core belief that “there are no higher goods than your individual right-now happiness” (117). Of course, there are grains of truth underneath this basic belief. We were designed to experience physical, emotional, and relational well-being. And when we lack these things, we feel that something is broken. We have convinced ourselves that the remedy is making personal happiness our ultimate aim.
The Kellers acknowledge that they are painting the problem in broad strokes. In reality, there are a number of variations of this story to be found across the American landscape. Every community has a vision of the good life.
As someone who has moved around the country, I’ve experienced this personally. When I lived in Los Angeles, the good life was maximizing personal happiness and physical appearance.
When I lived in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, personal happiness was often centered around educational achievements and the professional success that follows. When I lived in a small town in southern Mississippi, personal happiness was found in preserving and enjoying the traditions passed down by your ancestors, whether it’s hunting or your grandmother’s cornbread recipe.
We all have a vision of the good life, and we orient our lives to pursuing it. Every person, family, and culture tells itself a story about what gives us a sense of purpose and significance.
The problem with making personal happiness our primary goal is that it is elusive. Once your dream comes true, the excitement wears off, and you find yourself wanting more. Whether it’s your dream job, dream vacation, or dream home, you discover that getting what you want doesn’t bring the lasting joy it promised.
In their chapter on happiness, the Kellers note that God doesn’t want us to love material things less (jobs, homes, vacations, etc.). The Bible doesn’t call us to demonize these things. “Our current culture says the material things are all that exist, so we must latch onto them. Christianity says the problem is that we love the most important things too little and the least important things too much. We need to reorder them” (123).
The Scripture teaches that happiness is found in Christ. “He took the loss, pain, and death we deserve for all the ways we focus on our own happiness rather than on the happiness of others, in order for us to have the happiness he deserves.” (125)
In a culture built around the pursuit of happiness, the church’s message isn’t that God designed us for unhappiness. Instead, the message is that we have to “reorder our desires by making the one who loves us the most the one we love the most. Then happiness will be ours as well” (125).
This treatment of happiness is just one of the seven cultural narratives tackled in the book. In each, the authors show how Scripture both challenges and changes the story we tell ourselves, whether it’s happiness, justice, or progress.
The Rest of the Story
This book is deeply personal in two ways. First, it would be easy to write a book on cultural apologetics like this and simply write at an intellectual level. This is not a book for those interested in a history of ideas. Rather, the authors always bring the reader around to the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus. The goal of the book isn’t merely for you to question the validity of modern thought. Instead, these two pastors want you to believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Second, it is obvious throughout that this project was deeply personal to Michael. He shares numerous anecdotes and observations about growing up under his father’s influence. Readers learn that Tim Keller read the Book of Psalms monthly and that “The Music Man” was his favorite musical.
Readers also get a glimpse into the final moments of Tim’s life, as Michael describes the experience of keeping watch with him as he neared his final breath. He shares how his dad changed after his cancer diagnosis. Michael is also honest about his own grief, which shows up at moments both sacred, like during worship services, and mundane, such as watching “The Princess Bride.” As he puts it, “Since Dad’s death, I’ve called out more to Jesus, and I’ve needed him more” (165).
If there’s anything that will make you pause and reflect on your priorities, it is staring death in the face. Chasing the wind becomes less enticing as you realize your need for something firm to grasp. This book helps readers see why the dominant narratives in our culture prove to be incomplete. With a sense of urgency, these two pastors invite us to experience the fullness that is found only in Jesus.