| abstract |
The ministry of the Rev. Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City was one of the most significant developments within
twentieth-century evangelicalism in the United States. Starting in 1989 with a core group of around a dozen, Keller grew Redeemer over the next couple decades
into a multi-site megachurch in which thousands met for worship in multiple locations on the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. Keller tailored his
ministry to attract young urban professionals who came to New York City in the late twentieth century to "make it" in their careers, and his success in drawing
them into the worship at Redeemer in such large numbers was unprecedented. Keller targeted these young urban professionals, because he believed they were the
key to accessing the cultural influence of New York City. Yet the majority of people who attended Redeemer's worship services were middle- to upper-class
whites. Therefore, Keller inadvertently linked his drive to increase the cultural influence of his evangelical brand with gathering in a large, white, middle-
to upper-class following.
Keller's ministry was not the only instance of this linkage within twentieth-century evangelicalism in the United States. Through a socio-historical analysis, I
was able to place Keller within a long line of white, twentieth-century evangelical leaders who worked tirelessly to increase the cultural influence for their
evangelical brand. Through a content analysis of Keller's sermons at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, it became clear that Keller's evangelical brand, much like
that of his white evangelical predecessors, reflected the prevailing racialized social order. This insatiable drive for increased cultural influence for a
particular evangelical brand and the resulting complicity of that evangelical brand with the racialized social order were two defining characteristics that
recurred within major evangelical ministries throughout the twentieth century.
My aim in this dissertation is not simply to show how Keller's ministry was shaped by these two defining characteristics. It is also to name the reality that,
in spite of their best intentions, Keller and other white evangelical leaders of the twentieth century allowed their evangelical brands to become complicit with
maintaining and reinforcing the racialized social order, and ultimately white supremacy, within the United States.
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