Gospelbound

Not long ago my son asked me about all the people King David killed in 2 Samuel 8. We’ve been reading through that book during family devotions before bed. He’s right to be disturbed. So we had a conversation about why he’s unnerved, how we develop moral instincts, and how we’d respond to someone who rejects God because of these and similar accounts in the Old Testament. 

We did apologetics together.

As he gets a little older I’ll point him toward the YouTube channel of my friend Gavin Ortlund, who does an excellent j...

Last month marked 20 years since my Christianity Today cover story “Young, Restless, Reformed.” And last year we recognized 20 years since the founding of The Gospel Coalition. During TGC’s most recent Colloquium, a private meeting of our Council, president Mark Vroegop asked me to reflect on the “Not-So-Young, Restless, Reformed.” I took his prompt as an occasion to reflect on four eras that have unfolded over those 20-plus years, noting distinctive characteristics of ministry amid the changing tides. Then I reflected on the perspective we bring to cultural change, with an emphasis on the benefits of focusing on the deeper str...

What if I told you that one of the most powerful evangelical revivals of the 20th century, and one of the greatest missionary success stories of all Christian history, gave way in one generation to the most enduring, notorious, oppressive, anti-Christian communist personality cult of all time?  

Now you know why I say that Jonathan Cheng’s new book, Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult, is one of the most important books I’ve ever read. I wrote about the famous 1907 Pyongyang revival for my 2010 book A God-Sized Vision...

I want to tell a story about how I learned something that changed my life. It was the first Keller Center retreat in 2023. Our inaugural fellows, a couple dozen of them, didn’t know each other well. We had just finished a team-building scavenger hunt crisscrossing Manhattan. We settled into a Sunday school room at Redeemer West Side on W 83rd Street. We were about to do a Zoom call with Tim from his hospital room. It was the last time many of us spoke with him. He would die within weeks. He left us notes on what he wa...

Like many others, generative AI has become a nearly daily part of my life in the last couple years. I’ve found help for home repairs. Diet and exercise plans. Meal preparation. Trip planning. Personal health assessments. Footnote formatting. Even baseball swing and pitching advice for my son. Combine the best of Google and YouTube, tailored to my specific needs and situations from changing windshield wipers to fixing sump pumps, and that’s how I’ve used AI so far. I know I’m not even scratching the surface of what agentic AI can and will eventually do. I’ve seen fr...

The patron saint of cultural apologetics is Augustine of Hippo, author most famously of City of God and Confessions. Second place is up for debate. But you’ll get a lot of votes for a 17th-century disciple of Augustine, the Frenchman Blaise Pascal.

Graham Tomlin describes Pascal as the “man who made the modern world” in a new biography. Tomlin is the director of the Centre for Cultural Witness in Oxford, England. He writes of Pascal that “it is hard to think of anyone who has impacted so many fields of human endeavour in such a short time.” <...

Back in 2024 Kevin Vanhoozer’s book Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically won the Christianity Today book award in the academic theology category and also won The Gospel Coalition book award in biblical studies. I couldn’t even begin to account for all the other awards he’s won for earlier works. 

I had the blessing of studying under Dr. Vanhoozer at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. And I was challenged in this book just as I was challenged and encouraged in his courses. Mere Christian Hermeneutics helps all of us who live on...

Only a couple years out of college, I told my coworkers that I looked forward to being old. They weren’t just dismissive of that comment. They were indignant. On one level, I know why. I understood little to nothing at age 23 about the hardships of aging and caring for the dying. I hadn’t yet suffered many of life’s inevitable pains.

At the same time, I looked forward to greater wisdom, maybe even defeat of some sins and temptations. I was excited about all I could learn if the Lord granted me years. Maybe I even h...

You might think AI is the most exciting technological development of all time, and you’ve been vibe coding before the rest of us had ever heard the term. 

Or maybe you think AI is the most dangerous technological development of all time, and you’re desperately hoping someone will step up to stop autonomous weapons and programs powerful enough to thwart any existing security system. 

Or maybe you’re somewhere in the middle. Maybe you still don’t know what all the fuss is about. 

No matter where you are, I know I can recom...

Andrew Wilson is one of the happiest guys I know. So it only makes sense that he would write a book called Happiness: What It Is, Where to Find It, and How to Make It Last Forever, published by Crossway. He’s the expert. I’m delighted when I see Andrew at a TGC conference, or a retreat for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. I look forward to every chance to spend time with him. He writes in this book, “Nothing is more honoring to a friend, a child, or a spouse than saying they make you happy. Nothin...

Different preachers get excited about different aspects of the sermon. Some collect and deploy excellent illustrations. Others just nail the application week after week. Others can really reach your heart. 

What really fires me up are the connections between the Old and New Testaments, the way God’s plan of redemption unfolds in familiar and new ways from Genesis to Revelation. So you know I’d be excited about an excellent new resource, the CSB Connecting Scripture New Testament, edited by G. K. Beale and Benjamin Gladd. This study Bible includes a robust cross reference system that will...

Alister McGrath remembers life as an atheist back in the late 1960s. He believed only what could be proven to be true. And he judged religious believers for trusting in an irrational fantasy.

Looking back, though, he can see an emotional basis for what he thought were purely rational conclusions. He didn’t want God to exist, because God would threaten his freedom. As an atheist he could do whatever he wanted. He could be the center of the universe. 

Now as a Christian and one of the most well-known apologists in the world, McGrath see...

Is there a fate worse than condemnation? 

Yes, say Allen Guelzo and James Hankins in their new textbook, The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition: Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West. Worse than everyone hating you is no one remembering you.  

Right now for Western civilization, the former is leading to the latter. Having been widely condemned as oppressive, imperialist, colonizing, and appropriating, Western civilization is sometimes not even taught, let alone celebrated for producing the moral, technological, political, economic, and lifestyle achievements that give shape to our world. The Golden Thread hel...

You will find many books on the biblical and practical importance of the local church. I wrote one myself a few years ago with Jonathan Leeman called Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. But few books can match the way Brad Edwards shows us the need for the church amid rampant anxiety, division, and individualism. Not only our churches but even whole societies would be transformed by implementing the wisdom found in this book, called The Reason for Church. 

Brad is the church planter of The Table Church in Lafayette, Colorado. His debut book ha...

Tim Keller preached a series of sermons in the 1990s called “The Faces of Sin.” It did not go over well in New York. Angered by the liturgical confession of sin, one woman waited until after the sermon and yelled at Tim, “Neither I nor any of my children will ever confess to being sinners!” 

Naturally, Tim’s wife, Kathy, decided these would make good sermons to turn into a book! That’s what we have in the new book What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid, published by Zondervan...

Western culture today largely lacks a sense of consecration, of setting apart the ordinary as holy. Yet somehow we still have a strong impulse toward desecration, of turning the holy into the ordinary. Why have we lost the taste of the good while developing a taste for the bad? 

That’s a core question at the heart of Carl Trueman’s new book, The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity, published by Penguin Random House’s Sentinel imprint. Carl is a professor of biblical and theological studies at Grove City College and a fello...

Join Collin Hansen, Michael Graham, and Sarah Zylstra as they continue to look back on the top theology stories from the last 25 years. In part 1, they counted down stories #10 to #6. Now in part 2, Graham and Zylstra walk with Hansen through his stories #5 down to #1.

In This Episode:
00:00:00 – Why homosexuality became a presenting issue dividing the church
00:00:41 – Sarah Zylstra introduces the second half of the top 10 list
00:01:34 – Recap of stories 10 through 6 from the previous episode
00:03:06 – Number 5: COVID-19 shuts the world down
00:04:57 – COVID, institutional mistrust, and the authority of scientists
00:06:25 – A decade of digital chan...

Join Collin Hansen, Michael Graham, and Sarah Zylstra as they look back on the top theology stories from the last 25 years. In part 1 of this two-part series, Graham and Zylstra walk with Hansen through his stories #10 down to #6.

Since the year 2000, religion in America has changed dramatically. As recently as the 1990s, religion in America was what Tim Keller called “thick”: In general, many clergy were held in high esteem, churches were respected, and people either belonged to a congregation or knew that would be a good idea.

Yet since 2000, the percent of religious Americans has...

When we receive applications for fellows at The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, we ask them to answer the question, “What one thing should Christians do right now to introduce their neighbors to Jesus?” It’s not that we think there’s only one answer. It’s that we want them to identify the top priority. Last year we were surprised when every applicant gave the same answer. They talked about the public witness of gathered Christians, the church.

Maybe they were responding to negative press about the church, going back 25 years to the Catholic abuse scandal at the sam...

“Do any of us really want to be in the position where our retirement account grows in sync with the cancer ward?”

That’s the question posed by Robin John about tobacco, responsible for 100 million deaths in the last 100 years. Naturally all of us would say no, we don’t want to benefit from other people dying. Yet as Robin points out in his new book, The Good Investor: How Your Work Can Confront Injustice, Love Your Neighbor, and Bring Healing to the World, many of us do hold mutual funds that invest in tobacco companies. We just don...

At the end of the class on cultural apologetics I teach at Beeson Divinity School, I assign a group exercise. The students need to compose 10 questions and answers from a modern-day catechism. Historically catechisms have emerged during times of cultural transition and confrontation—such as our own, in the aftermath of Christendom and the Enlightenment, awaiting whatever develops in post-liberalism.

So catechisms are not merely a relic of our past but a vital resource for the present that prepares us for the future. I’m delighted with how The New City Catechism, especially our devotional, still serves read...

Here in Birmingham, Alabama, I often teach about the civil-rights movement as the most effective faith-based movement for social change in American history. We have a bitter heritage of violent segregation. But the same city produced the heroes of the struggle, the ordinary men and women (especially children) who stared down the police dogs and fire hoses in the march for their freedom. 

Justin Giboney honors such heroes as pastor Fred Shuttlesworth and commends their example for today in an informative, provocative book, Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church’s Public Witness Leads...

Work is the meaning of life.

Got your attention?

Your identity is tied to what you do.

I bet I have it now.

So argues David Bahnsen in his book Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life. Bahnsen is the founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, a national private wealth management firm. He’s also the author of several books, including Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It.

In This Episode
00:00 – Why Christians shouldn’t pit work a...

Join Collin Hansen and Melissa Kruger for their annual discussion as they look back on the top theology stories of 2025 and look towards the year to come. They also share their favorite interviews and books from 2025, updates on personal projects, and what they’re each looking forward to in life and ministry in 2026.

Resources Mentioned

For many, apologetics is associated with arguments over rational, philosophical proofs. It’s a matter of the head instead of the heart, a debate over facts instead of feelings. But no matter what kind of apologetics you practice, you’re arguing according to a certain set of rules, in a particular language, attuned to what you expect to resonate in your time and place. In other words, it’s always cultural, never purely timeless. And it’s never purely rational.

We need to recover apologetics as a matter of the heart and hands as well as the head. We...

If gender is constructed, it can be deconstructed. Think about it: if we built it, we can tear it down. Now you know why some activists have been so determined to convince us that gender is something we assign, rather than something we receive. If we assign it, then we can reassign it as we wish. We don’t receive our bodies. We can remake our bodies.

No doubt you’ve observed the rise of transgender theory in Western culture. It’s the denial that the sexed body reveals and determines the gendered self. That’s the helpful...

In this commentary, I reflect on my recent trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, and the broader implications of living in the post-Christendom West. Walking the ancient streets and talking to seasoned church leaders I pondered two major factors that contribute to secularism, and how Protestantism has become a victim of its own success. Yet some European countries and U.S. regions buck the secular trend. Why? Considering the story of secularism—and resilient Christianity—helps us pass down a robust, durable faith to the next generation. 

———

In This Episode

04:00 – Faith and decadence on Copenhagen’s streets

Imagine you could save your life through one simple, regular act. You wouldn’t always want to do it. Every week you’d come up with multiple excuses. The night before would often be a struggle. Same with the morning before. Every time you finish you feel refreshed, energized, eager to undertake that day’s agenda. But then when it came time to do it again, somehow you’d still struggle to do it.

Ok. I don’t know what comes to mind for you. Maybe the gym. Maybe a quiet time of Bible reading and prayer. Maybe a ca...

When I see whiffle ball, and I hear the piano, I know we’re probably doing ok as a family. And when I turn on the news and see what Meta has been programming AI to engage in sensual conversations with children, I don’t feel bad about keeping my children away from social media. 

I wouldn’t have my job if not for social media. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve made and maintained many friends. I would miss social media. But I’m glad I had a childhood without it. Just a computer with internet cont...

“Does it feel like you should be happy, you want to be happy, and you try to be happy, but somehow you can’t?” 

What a simple, common, yet poignant question. It’s in the preface to the new book Everything Is Never Enough: Ecclesiastes’ Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness, written by Bobby Jamieson. He is the senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge and previously served on the pastoral staff of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

This is a book about happiness that explai...

Music and family have always been connected for me. My grandfather taught me the Christian faith largely through our Welsh heritage of signing. Shortly before he died, our family gathered around the piano as my mother played and we sang many of his favorites from the Methodist hymnal. Every night with my own family we open the hymnal and sing some of these famous Welsh hymns, including “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.” The great Methodist hymn writer Charles Wesley wrote “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” commonly set to the Welsh tune “Aberystwyth” (a-ber-ist-with). If you’re a fan of the TV show...

In a special crossover episode of The Everyday Pastorand Gospelbound, Wesley Huff joins Lig, Matt, and Collin to discuss the role of apologetics in pastoral ministry. How can pastors excel in giving a compelling reason for the hope within us—and train others to do the same? Drawing from both academic expertise and personal experience, Huff offers various cautions and tips for everyday pastors and believers. He shares examples of good apologists today, recommends books, and answers a lightning round of classic objections to the Christian faith.

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Summer is a time for reading. Work slows down a bit, at least for some. I’m not traveling as much to speak and teach. School’s out. I spend more time at the lake. In fact, I have probably spent more time reading on a couch next to a lake than any other place. I’ve read everything from history to fiction to theology on that couch that helps put my mind in the right place to relax then concentrate.

One of my favorite guests is back on Gospelbound to talk about summer reading as we close...

In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen looks back on the decade since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in the 2015 Obergefell decision. He explores why support for same-sex marriage is now declining and why transgender activism hasn't followed the same trajectory. Hansen also reflects on how the church responded to this cultural upheaval and why many ministries didn’t cave under pressure.

Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition.

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In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen talks with Molly Worthen about her new book Spellbound, which explores how charisma has shaped American history. Worthen explains charisma not just as charm, but as a powerful story that invites followers into something morally meaningful. She traces its roots from the New Testament to modern politics and culture, showing how our desire for control—and to give it up—reveals the stories and idols that shape us.

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Collin Hansen speaks with Matt McCullough about his book Remember Heaven, exploring the themes of vulnerability in our future, the relevance of heaven in Christian life, and the motivations behind our longing for heaven. They discuss the disconnect many Christians feel towards heaven, the role of suffering, and the significance of Judgment Day. McCullough emphasizes the importance of understanding heaven not just as a distant hope but as a central aspect of Christian faith that shapes our lives today.

Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition.

Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@down...

Collin Hansen and Bryan Chapell dive into the multi-generational challenges facing the church, exploring the growing disconnect between older and younger Christians as outlined in Chapell's new book, The Multigenerational Church Crisis: Why We Don’t Understand Each Other and How to Unite in Mission. They discuss cultural polarization, the need for theological unity, and the importance of godly leadership, offering hope for revitalization through understanding, compassion, and shared faith. 

In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen and Matt Smethurst reflect on the lasting impact of Tim Keller’s gospel-centered teaching and legacy. Smethurst shares insights from his new book, Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel, which distills Keller’s most influential content on Christian living, emphasizing Keller’s ability to engage both heart and mind with grace-filled clarity. Hansen and Smethurst explore Keller’s unique communication style, his evolving focus on topics like idolatry, suffering, and friendship, and the deep theological roots that shaped his ministry. 

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In this episode of Gospelbound, Paul Putz joins Collin Hansen to examine the deep connections between American Christianity and big-time sports, drawing from Putz's new book, The Spirit of the Game, American Christianity and Big Time Sports.

They trace the historical development of Christian involvement in sports, starting with the influence of "middlebrow" mainline Protestants and the pivotal role of the FCA. The discussion highlights the shifting perspectives of sports journalism, from celebratory to critical and now often politically charged. They also touch on the complex intersections of faith, race, and cultural issues within the sporting world...

Collin Hansen, Brett McCracken, and Ivan Mesa discuss how digital technology affects culture, especially social media and information overload in younger generations. They explore themes from Scrolling Ourselves to Death, highlighting the need for wisdom, memory, and history in navigating the digital age. 

The conversation covers parenting challenges, the role of technology in shaping society, and the importance of meaningful family interactions and outdoor experiences. They emphasize the church’s role in fostering community and encourage a balanced approach to technology that prioritizes real relationships and local church engagement.

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