He has moved increasingly from theology toward psychology and from working within an institutional structure to one much more individualistic and free-lance. Throughout this varied professional career, Keen has focused on finding personal answers to life's meaning. Taking his clues from Gabriel Marcel and Paul Tillich, Keen has understood the theologian's task to be that of describing a means of healing for humankind's "disease," its estrangement. Thus his theology has been functionally synonymous with his therapy. This is the key to understanding Keen, for when one realizes that he thinks that theology and psychology are functionally equivalent, there emerges a general shape and common direction to his otherwise many-faceted endeavors.