Michael Keller

'Do what makes you happy.' 'Be true to yourself.' 'Live free.' If these slogans promise the good life, why do they so often leave us feeling hollow and empty? Could the very stories our modern world tells us about happiness, freedom, and identity be the source of our growing anxiety and disillusionment? The culmination of a journey Michael Keller began with his father, beloved pastor and bestselling author Timothy Keller, before his passing, The Stories We Live By unmasks the hidden cultural narratives that shape our lives, often without our knowledge. Michael and Timothy Keller examine seven dominant narratives of modern culture - concerning identity, power, freedom, morality, truth, happiness, and progress. The authors show how these stories contain elements of truth yet are built on flawed assumptions and internal contradictions that leave us fragile, divided, and unable to cope with the realities of life. The Stories We Live By helps us: Recognise where these stories appear throughout culture Understand why they leave us feeling hollow and unfulfilled Decode the specific ways these stories hijack our decision-making, and learn how to critically evaluate them going forward Understand why the Christian story offers a more satisfying answer to our deepest longings Make sense of both the beauty and the brokenness of the world Find a hope that can sustain us through suffering, grounded in a story that is bigger than death itself For the sceptic, this book offers a challenge to examine the unproven beliefs that drive our lives. For the Christian, it is an essential tool for recognizing where we have unknowingly absorbed cultural narratives that conflict with our faith. And for everyone, it is an invitation to discover a story that is big enough to make sense of both the beauty and the brokenness of the world - a story of grace that has the power to carry us through life's deepest joys and sorrows. Born from a conversation between a father and son, The Stories We Live By is more than a cultural analysis. It is a guide to finding a truer, more beautiful, and far more satisfying story to live by.

"You are the stories that you believe." Tim Keller used this phrase to make the point that stories transmit beliefs and assumptions in packageable sizes. Our culture has many such stories. We don't necessarily call them beliefs but rather say, "This is the just the way things are." They are everywhere in societies today—and are much more influential on our lives that we might think. In fact, just as fish are unaware of the water in which they swim, we can be completely oblivious to the narratives that surround us. Think about it for a moment. Every culture has provided answers to the fundamental questions of life that tell us why we are here (for happiness), what is wrong with us (we aren't being true to ourselves), what will put us right (achieving our authentic identity), how this will put us right (by being free), and how we can do this (by using power to get our freedom). Christians are just as affected by these faulty cultural narratives as everyone else. Even some devout followers of Jesus find parts of the Bible implausible because they've unknowingly absorbed secular narratives that conflict with biblical teaching. They have not engaged, challenged, or dismantled those underlying narratives, and so those stories continue to misshape their understanding of the truth. In Stories We Live By, Michael Keller—son of the late Tim Keller—draws on research collected with his father to identify seven of the most prominent hidden cultural narratives in our world: identity, power, freedom, morality, truth, happiness, and progress. Michael explores what we can affirm and appreciate about each narrative, based on what the Bible tells us and what we must reject. Only then can we see how Christianity offers a more complete story that fulfills our deepest longings. SESSION OUTLINE Session 1: The Problem with Cultural Narratives Session 2: Narratives of Identity and Power Session 3: Narratives of Freedom and Morality Session 4: Narratives of Truth in Our Modern Age Session 5: Narratives of Happiness and Progress Session 6: Christianity's Surprising Counter-Story Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2030. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.

Rediscover the goodness and beauty of the Body of Christ.The evangelical church is hemorrhaging. Over 40 million Americans have dechurched in the last 25 years alone, and multiple generations have been raised to believe the most spiritual thing they can do is follow God by following their heart - right out of the church. Yet, this shift is happening right as society is hitting record levels of loneliness, stress, and anxiety. In The Reason for Church, pastor Brad Edwards connects the dots of our current church crisis and provides compelling reasons to come back.In part 1, Edwards shows how individualistic beliefs make church implausible and compromise our spiritual formation:Marketplace logic and consumeristic approaches to discipleshipIntuitional spirituality and therapy speakSocial media's distortion of what is true, good, and beautifulPerformative politics and culture warsVirtuous victimhood, the decline of trust, and the rise of powerThese chapters show why individualism won't satisfy and can't provide the refuge it promises.In part 2, Edwards uses personal examples, church history, non-Western expressions of faith, and Scripture to show how the church is our existentially satisfying alternative to individualism. Equipped with an institutionally robust vision, we will rediscover the church as God's spiritual greenhouse where soul-tired sojourners and lonely exiles are restored and repurposed for life in the world.The Reason for Church offers an honest-yet-hopeful vision for church as a necessary institution. With radical individualism tearing us apart, we need compelling reasons to fall back in love with Christ's bride, now more than ever.

Expos as Great Urban Projects: Present and Future is an outcome of a multiyear design research project that has been conducted at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in collaboration with the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) since 2018. The overall research has been led by Professor Joan Busquets, with Dingliang Yang and Michael Keller as co-principal investigators. The research and publication explore the capacity of World Expositions as mega-event strategies in transforming and creating new conditions for urban development, and retrospectively reviews the innovative ideas on urbanism and architecture in Expos and examines future design strategies. The overall research is framed under the title “Expos as Great Urban Projects, Present and Future,” and the outcome is correspondingly organised in two volumes: Volume 1: Understanding Expos in an Urbanizing World, condense two parts: the urbanistic impact of expositions at the scale of the metropolis or territory and the catalog for Interpreting Expos in the Urban Context, that explores the design and legacy impact of expositions at the scale of the site and immediate locality. Volume 2: Learning from World Expositions, opens comparative studies of main Expos urbanistic features and conclusional analysis on the design of future expos.

Urban Grids: Handbook for Regular City Design is the result of a five-year design research project undertaken by professor Joan Busquets and Dingliang Yang at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The research that is the foundation for this publication emphasises the value of open forms for city design, a publication that specifically insists that the grid has the unique capacity to absorb and channel urban transformation flexibly and productively. Urban Grids analyses cities and urban projects that utilise the grid as the main structural device for allowing rational development, and goes further to propose speculative design projects capable of suggesting new urban paradigms drawn from the grid as a design tool. Text in Spanish.

Today, careful energy planning and design has become an integral component of every building task. The second volume of the SCALE series, Heat | Cool, picks up at precisely this point, providing strategies for an energetically sensible and suitable approach to building conditioning as well as its design and constructional integration. In addition to building and facilities services, it places special emphasis on construction and design measures. How much the building itself can achieve in the context of the given climatic, topographical, and town-planning framework conditions and to what extent additional installations are required for conditioning, which construction measures are appropriate for which types of tasks within a sustainable and integrated planning approach – all of these topics are discussed on the basis of project examples. The book highlights both the currently available heating, ventilation, and cooling systems as well as the supporting aspects of material properties and the building lifecycle, thus enabling the reader to make a balanced and well-informed selection. Heat | Cool provides a foundation for efficient and optimal building conditioning and its integration into construction and design.

Today, careful energy planning and design has become an integral component of every building task. The second volume of the SCALE series, Heat Cool, picks up at precisely this point, providing strategies for an energetically sensible and suitable approach to building conditioning as well as its design and constructional integration. In addition to building and facilities services, it places special emphasis on construction and design measures. How much the building itself can achieve in the context of the given climatic, topographical, and town-planning framework conditions and to what extent additional installations are required for conditioning, which construction measures are appropriate for which types of tasks within a sustainable and integrated planning approach – all of these topics are discussed on the basis of project examples. The book highlights both the currently available heating, ventilation, and cooling systems as well as the supporting aspects of material properties and the building lifecycle, thus enabling the reader to make a balanced and well-informed selection. Heat Cool provides a foundation for efficient and optimal building conditioning and its integration into construction and design.