Counterfeit

Gods

The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

TIMOTHY KELLER

riverhead books

New York

riverhead books

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA)

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Copyright © 2009 by Timothy Keller

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the Dutton hardcover edition as follows:

Keller, Timothy J., 1950–

Counterfeit gods: the empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters / Timothy Keller.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-525-95136-0 (hardcover)

1. Idolatry. 2. Christian life—Presbyterian authors. I. Title.

BV4627.I34K45 2009

241'.3—dc22 2009028142

First Dutton hardcover edition: October 2009

First Riverhead trade paperback edition: October 2011

Riverhead trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-59448-549-7

Book design by Leonard Telesca

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the author nor the publisher is responsible for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

To my sons,

David, Michael, and Jonathan,

who can detect the counterfeit

Contents

Introduction: The Idol Factory

one

All You’ve Ever Wanted

two

Love Is Not All You Need

three

Money Changes Everything

four

The Seduction of Success

five

The Power and the Glory

six

The Hidden Idols in Our Lives

seven

The End of Counterfeit Gods

Epilogue: Finding and Replacing Your Idols

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Introduction

the idol factory

There are more idols in the world than there are realities.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

A Strange Melancholy

After the global economic crisis began in mid-2008, there followed a tragic string of suicides of formerly wealthy and well-connected individuals. The acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, hanged himself in his basement. The chief executive of Sheldon Good, a leading U.S. real estate auction firm, shot himself in the head behind the wheel of his red Jaguar. A French money manager who invested the wealth of many of Europe’s royal and leading families, and who had lost $1.4 billion of his clients’ money in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, slit his wrists and died in his Madison Avenue office. A Danish senior executive with HSBC Bank hanged himself in the wardrobe of ...