• 49 minutes 19 seconds
    How Kevin Vanhoozer Bridges Biblical Studies and Theology

    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 the far side of the “demise of biblical civilization.” When Westerners want to tell the story of the world, we no longer open the Bible. Vanhoozer aims to reconnect us with Scripture as our means of enjoying “covenant fellowship with the triune God.” I loved this summary in the book: “How an unholy people can come into the presence of a holy God is the chief complication in the biblical narrative to which the gospel is the solution.”

    So let’s get into mere Christian hermeneutics, reading the Bible spiritually, the Transfiguration, and much more.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – The transfiguration of Jesus and the way Christians read Scripture
    00:39 – Introducing Mere Christian Hermeneutics
    01:58 – What makes this approach to hermeneutics “mere”?
    03:26 – How different reading cultures divide Christians
    05:01 – Polarization among Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians
    06:52 – The loss of Christianity’s cultural influence in the West
    07:46 – Does Catholic authority solve Protestant interpretive pluralism?
    10:43 – What does it mean to interpret the Bible spiritually?
    13:23 – How the transfiguration guides Christian interpretation
    16:08 – Why Christians should not separate Jesus from the Bible
    18:24 – Johannes Oecolampadius and Scripture’s Christ-centered scope
    21:57 – Bridging the divide between biblical scholars and theologians
    25:05 – Kant, critical thinking, and the rise of biblical criticism
    27:34 – The hidden assumptions modern readers bring to Scripture
    30:14 – Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and teaching systematic theology
    32:37 – Cultural hermeneutics and the formative power of culture
    36:24 – The current state of theological interpretation of Scripture
    39:29 – Potential dangers in theological retrieval
    41:40 – Protestant catholicity and unity amid secondary disagreements
    42:02 – Vanhoozer’s work with the Alexandrian Institute
    44:35 – His four-volume systematic theology project
    46:19 – Brahms, young theologians, and reasons for hope
    47:13 – What pastors can learn from Henry James
    48:54 – Outro

    Resources Mentioned:

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    11 August 2026, 4:00 am
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    Jen Wilkin Wants to Help You Age Wisely

    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 had a couple Bible verses in my head, like Proverbs 16:31: “Gray hair is a crown of

    glory; it is gained in a righteous life.” Or Job 12:12: “Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.”

    Both those verses are cited by Jen Wilkin in her excellent new book, Dust to Dust: Aging Wisely in an Anti-Aging World, published by Crossway. If you take my youthful naiveté at its best, I was recognizing what Jen distinguishes in her book: the world says to age is to diminish. But the Bible says to age is to deepen. Now in middle age, however, I experience the good and bad: the invisibility because no one would possibly notice my appearance. But also the freedom: because I have that middle-age dad’s superpower of not caring what other people think of my appearance. 

    I didn’t realize how much I needed Jen’s book, and I’m eager to ask a whole bunch of questions now on Gospelbound.

    In This Episode:
    00:00:00 – Jen Wilkin reflects on her mother’s death and the symmetry of life
    00:00:49 – Why Collin has long looked forward to old age
    00:01:20 – Introducing Dust to Dust and the contrast between cultural decline and biblical deepening
    00:02:31 – Why modern culture values youth over old age
    00:03:55 – Jen’s first moments of realizing she was aging
    00:05:46 – How aging feels different for men and women
    00:07:49 – Why many people fear becoming a burden
    00:10:08 – Assisted suicide, dependency, and surprising cultural opposition
    00:14:47 – The “chiasm of life” and how beginning and end mirror each other
    00:21:02 – Why midlife offers a unique vantage point for perspective and wisdom
    00:24:50 – Caring simultaneously for children and aging parents
    00:29:12 – Why caregiving is not a season but a default setting of life
    00:32:10 – How modern longevity has changed the experience of family and aging
    00:36:25 – “You will not surely die”: the anti-gospel of age denial
    00:37:52 – How suffering narrows our priorities
    00:40:34 – Honoring parents and the fuller meaning of the fifth commandment
    00:45:44 – Retirement, crystallized knowledge, and later-life vocation
    00:50:46 – A theology of aging before a debate about anti-aging practices
    00:55:33 – Jen’s regrets, sanctification, and learning to honor parents well
    01:00:26 – Final reflections on aging, family, and hope
    01:01:07 – Outro

    Resources Mentioned:

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    28 July 2026, 4:00 am
  • 1 hour 1 second
    How AI Plays a Gospel Imitation Game (with Christopher Watkin)

    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 recommend a new single-season TGC podcast called Silicon Spiritualities, hosted by Christopher Watkin, a fellow at The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. My friend Chris also contributed two chapters to the forthcoming book I edited with Skyler Flowers, titled The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity. I love hearing Chris teach on just about anything. But his reflections on AI have been especially insightful for me, and I’m eager to welcome him back to Gospelbound to discuss these two new projects.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – The hidden human cost of AI training
    00:36 – Introducing Christopher Watkin, Silicon Spiritualities, and The AI Apocalypse
    01:48 – The gospel story Silicon Valley tells about AI
    06:01 – Investor hype, idolatry, and AI religions
    08:09 – Data workers, exploitation, water use, and the wider AI industry
    12:03 – Avoiding both AI doom and AI hype
    14:26 – Is AI more like the internet, electricity, or agriculture?
    17:20 – Why Christian anthropology is not threatened by AI intelligence
    21:01 – Why a frictionless life can become passive rather than free
    25:30 – Using AI with integrity in writing and creative work
    27:16 – Watkin’s practical uses of AI at home and in his work
    29:34 – AI companionship and the desire to be known and loved
    34:10 – Mutuality, reciprocity, and what AI cannot share with us
    39:19 – Consciousness, imitation, and participation
    41:51 – Transhumanism and the temptation to outgrow humanity
    45:22 – Why studying AI has made Watkin more excited about God
    48:29 – AI, existential risk, and the problem of the human heart
    54:31 – Alignment, sycophancy, Her, and the imitation game
    59:37 – Closing remarks

    Resources Mentioned:

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    21 July 2026, 4:00 am
  • 50 minutes 2 seconds
    Andrew Wilson Wants to Help You Pursue Happiness

    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. Nothing is more demeaning to them than telling them they don’t.” I can say, with no reservation, Andrew makes me happy when we’re together.

    Ok. But where does that leave the rest of us? If we’re not naturally happy? If we’re not feeling happy right now? If we’re not hanging out with Andrew? The Declaration of Independence, 250 years ago, put happiness at the center of life’s aim: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

    Andrew covered that statement in his excellent earlier book, Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West. Given the anniversary, I plan in this interview to sneak in a question or two about that fateful year. And we’ll discuss much more, including the difference between joy and happiness, whether God promises happiness, and why millennials grew up to be sad.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – What makes us genuinely happier
    00:40 – Why Andrew Wilson wrote a book about happiness
    04:29 – Happiness, sorrow, and biblical examples of deep joy
    07:26 – Is joy different from happiness?
    11:53 – Does God promise happiness to Christians?
    13:35 – Why millennials became less happy as adults
    19:41 – Freedom, responsibility, and the limits of liberation
    23:21 – The “problem of superfluous happiness”
    26:01 – How pursuing happiness helps us fight sin
    29:23 – Why virtue, gratitude, and humility make us happier
    32:53 – Compassion versus empathy
    34:15 – Turning delights into disciplines
    37:06 – Remaking the World and America’s 250th anniversary
    39:48 – What makes the United States unique?
    47:08 – Discovery, defense, temperament, and optimism
    48:55 – Closing and book recommendations

    Resources Mentioned:

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    30 June 2026, 4:00 am
  • 1 hour 5 minutes
    New Resources Help You See God by Connecting Scripture (with Ben Gladd)

    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 help you see Old Testament quotations, allusions, and parallels within the New Testament so you can see all 66 books as a unified story from God. You’ll also find book introductions, study note commentary, articles, charts, and infographics.

    In This Episode:
    00:00:00 – Why continuity between Old and New Testament wording matters
    00:00:41 – Introducing the CSB Connecting Scripture New Testament
    00:01:53 – Ben Gladd and the mission of the Carson Center
    00:04:06 – Why another study Bible?
    00:07:06 – Green and blue fonts: changing the reading experience
    00:08:24 – Quotations, allusions, and the “connective tissue” of Scripture
    00:11:06 – Why Old Testament allusions matter for Bible study
    00:12:46 – John 6, grumbling, and Israel in the wilderness
    00:13:46 – Mark 1, John the Baptist, and the burning bush
    00:15:41 – “Fishers of men” and Jeremiah 16
    00:18:55 – Reading Revelation through Old Testament “emojis”
    00:22:07 – John 1:1, Genesis 1:1, and Christology
    00:27:47 – How the apostles read the Old Testament
    00:31:19 – Guardrails for identifying legitimate allusions
    00:35:36 – Do English translations obscure biblical connections?
    00:42:27 – How pastors can use the study Bible in sermon preparation
    00:44:19 – Why pastors should use the Old Testament for illustrations
    00:48:31 – The Carson Center’s Concise Bible Commentary
    00:53:44 – Learning from Don Carson and G. K. Beale
    01:00:11 – Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
    01:00:44 – Biblical Theology Briefing podcast
    01:02:34 – A future Connecting Scripture Old Testament
    01:05:19 – Closing

    Resources Mentioned:

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    16 June 2026, 4:00 am
  • 50 minutes 2 seconds
    C. S. Lewis, the New Atheists, and the Failure to Disprove God with Alister McGrath

    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 sees how much desire determines what we believe about the universe. He says, “The human desire for unaccountability leads to the metaphysical conclusion that there should not be a God.”

    Last summer McGrath and I caught up when he was the keynote speaker at a Beeson Divinity School conference on Persuasive Preaching. I was invited to engage and respond to his presentation. Alister is a theologian and Christian apologist with a particular interest in the relation of science and faith. In fact he recently retired as a professor of science and religion at Oxford University. 

    I know him as a godly encourager and kind interlocutor. I’ve learned a lot from him on various subjects, especially C. S. Lewis. In fact, I was listening to him at Lanier Library in Houston when he inspired me to begin work on a book about Lewis and Winston Churchill. So I’m excited to talk with him again about atheism and apologetics and a heavy dose of Lewis.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – Why belief cannot always be proven
    00:37 – Collin introduces Alister McGrath, atheism, desire, and C. S. Lewis
    02:19 – McGrath’s move from atheism to Christianity in 1971
    03:58 – Conversion as a process rather than an instant transformation
    05:07 – C. S. Lewis’s “Is Theology Poetry?” and Christianity as a big picture of reality
    06:30 – Christianity as aligning with the deep truths of the universe
    08:01 – The New Atheists and the power of rhetorical certainty
    11:06 – Why the New Atheist movement faded
    13:26 – How apologetics has changed over the decades
    16:29 – Tim Keller’s apologetic influence
    20:25 – Integrating apologetics into preaching
    23:22 – Faith versus fact—or faith versus faith?
    24:28 – Enlightenment assumptions and the limits of proof
    26:33 – Morality, Christianity, and secularized Christian values
    28:31 – Truth, meaning, and transformative belief
    30:07 – “Bleakness is not an indicator of truth”
    31:53 – C. S. Lewis, Winston Churchill, and wartime apologetics
    35:03 – Lewis, The Problem of Pain, and the BBC broadcasts
    36:52 – Lewis’s faith, academic career, and public apologetics
    39:53 – The Weight of Glory and spiritual flourishing in wartime
    42:39 – Lewis on marriage, forgiveness, and the Holocaust context
    45:29 – The Guardian, archives, and The Screwtape Letters
    48:44 – McGrath’s storytelling apologetics and closing reflections
    49:38 – Gospelbound outro

    Resources Mentioned:

    — — —

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    2 June 2026, 4:00 am
  • 1 hour 1 second
    How to Save Western Civilization with Allen Guelzo

    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 helps in remembering and teaching without ignoring the failures and shortcomings of Western civilization.

    The textbook collaborators Guelzo and Hankins have been acquainted for more than 50 years. Hankins wrote volume one, and Guelzo has written volume two. Guelzo is the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Research Scholar and director of the James Madison Program’s Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship at Princeton University. Guelzo is a long-time favorite writer of mine, not least for his work on the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, for which he last appeared on Gospelbound in 2024. I’m honored to host him again as we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, one of the hinge points in Western civilization in that memorable year of 1776.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – Why Western civilization slips away when taken for granted
    00:25 – Introducing Allen Guelzo and The Golden Thread
    02:24 – How should we define Western civilization?
    08:02 – The fall of communism and the West’s crisis of confidence
    11:23 – China, radical Islam, Russia, and civilizational conflict
    12:47 – Self-criticism as the West’s strength and danger
    15:38 – World wars, Darwin, Freud, communism, and lost confidence
    19:49 – The atomic age and the misuse of scientific achievement
    22:09 – Defending the West without triumphalism
    25:38 – Winston Churchill, trauma, and Christian civilization
    30:15 – Adenauer, de Gaulle, and rebuilding Europe after 1945
    32:38 – Strange defeat, German memory, and Russia’s missed moment
    38:37 – C. S. Lewis, John Paul II, and Christianity in a skeptical age
    39:28 – Contingency, crisis, and the decisions that shape history
    42:24 – Christianity, Greece, Rome, and the “layer cake” of the West
    51:33 – Technology, memory, and the future of civilization
    53:39 – Lincoln, King, Augustine, and recovering the tradition
    58:17 – Could artificial intelligence revive classical education?
    59:37 – Closing encouragement

    Resources Mentioned:

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    19 May 2026, 4:00 am
  • 57 minutes 5 seconds
    Why Therapy Can’t Replace the Church

    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 has been justly acclaimed. He won the 2025 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award and also finished first in the Church and Pastoral Leadership category. He was the winner of The Gospel Coalition's award for First-Time Author that year as well. I’m grateful that he joins me now to talk about everything from authority and institutions to anxiety and whether unity should be the goal for a church.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – Opening: power, trust, and the temptation toward conformity
    00:26 – Introducing Brad Edwards and The Reason for Church
    01:41 – Ranking the causes behind declining trust in church authority
    04:05 – Accountability, social media, and the limits of online justice
    08:25 – Churches, institutions, platforms, and marketplace logic
    11:17 – What changes people’s minds about the need for church?
    13:27 – Church planting in Boulder County and Colorado’s anti-institutional culture
    17:01 – Therapy culture, spiritual abuse, and what the book could not fully address
    22:19 – Institution building, movements, and building a remnant
    26:30 – Technology, schedules, and the challenge of spiritual formation
    29:09 – Individuality versus individualism
    34:39 – Should unity be the goal of a church?
    37:49 – What surprised Brad most about becoming a pastor
    39:21 – AI, agency, and the future of formation
    43:07 – Hartmut Rosa, resonance, gambling, and the desire for control
    46:55 – AI, education, responsibility, and authorship
    52:05 – The church as remnant and refuge in a changing world
    53:19 – What pastors want their congregations to know
    56:41 – Closing and Gospelbound outro

    Resources Mentioned:

     

    — — —

     

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    5 May 2026, 4:00 am
  • 42 minutes 26 seconds
    On Losing Tim and Why Kathy Keller Published a Book of His Sermons on Sin

    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.

    One quote I think captures the book’s argument: “When we realize we are not a victim of our circumstances but a sinner who can call on someone much greater than ourselves to care for us, we can begin to truly live.”

    That’s the surprisingly hopeful message of the gospel: our sin is the problem with the world. But all of us can be saved by grace when we confess that sin, repent of that sin, and trust in Christ. Easy enough, right? Remember that woman in New York. It’s no small thing to confess your sin. And ALL of us must confess our sin. Here’s what Tim wrote: “No other religion says that the lowest person in the gutter and the most moral, upstanding citizen in the world are equally lost, equally need to be saved by grace, and can only be saved by grace alone.”

    What an honor to be joined again on Gospelbound by Kathy Keller about sin, grace, and the gospel.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – Cold open: “the sin beneath the sin”
    00:39 – Introducing Tim Keller’s Faces of Sin sermons and the new book
    02:25 – Idolatry, grief, and losing what feels like “everything”
    04:15 – Blind spots, community, and uncovering hidden sins
    07:14 – “What’s wrong with the world?” starting with ourselves
    08:13 – G. K. Chesterton and the sins of omission
    11:31 – The gospel is bitter at first bite and sweet within
    15:55 – Missing Tim and resting in God’s grace
    16:48 – “Nathans,” correction, and giving one another “hunting licenses”
    18:30 – Parenting regrets and learning consequences the hard way
    22:22 – Why the gospel gives hope in the face of failure
    22:52 – How Tim Keller is misunderstood today
    30:43 – The Hopewell years and learning mercy ministry
    34:55 – Kathy’s favorite Tim Keller book: Jonah / The Prodigal Prophet
    37:57 – The books Tim Keller hoped to write
    40:25 – “Identity received or achieved” and unfinished work
    41:35 – Closing reflections
    42:02 – Outro

    Resources Mentioned:

     

    — — —

     

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    21 April 2026, 4:00 am
  • 56 minutes 17 seconds
    What Keeps Carl Trueman Awake at Night

    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 fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He was a guest on Gospelbound in 2020 for his highly acclaimed, bestselling book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. 

    In his new book Trueman writes, “Transgression of the sacred is exhilarating precisely because it makes us feel like gods, the creators of our own meanings and our own selves. All we need to do is cross lines previously enforced by the idea of God and we thereby assume the role of being gods.” Desecration is how we communicate authenticity, perhaps the most important value for the modern self. 

    This entire project has backfired. Let’s hear from Carl about why.

    In This Episode:
    00:00 – Carl Trueman on desecration and the modern crisis of humanity
    02:30 – Why write another book after The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self?
    04:22 – Why the sexual revolution sits at the center of the story
    06:11 – Cultural Christianity, conversion, and why truth still matters
    10:30 – Nietzsche’s “madman” and the collapse of moral meaning
    12:56 – Authenticity, evangelism, and the uphill battle against expressive individualism
    18:23 – Do the revolutions of modernity actually deliver what they promise?
    21:04 – Genetic selection, artificial wombs, and the moral vacuum of tech culture
    27:29 – Social acceleration, anxiety, and the instability of modern life
    30:23 – Technology, human limits, and the need for a normative view of humanity
    35:58 – Assisted suicide, autonomy, and why stories matter more than abstractions
    41:53 – The transgender movement, fairness, and transhumanism
    45:44 – Why Christian nationalism is not the answer
    49:40 – Creed, cult, code, congregational singing, and hospitality as a plan of consecration
    55:53 – Outro

    Resources Mentioned:

     

    — — —

     

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    7 April 2026, 4:00 am
  • 1 hour 14 minutes
    Top 10 Theology Stories Since 2000: Part 2

    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 change compressed into one year
    00:09:22 – What COVID did to church attendance and online ministry
    00:11:38 – Rediscovering embodied worship after metaverse-era predictions
    00:14:11 – Number 4: The Trump era and its theological consequences
    00:15:41 – Supreme Court appointments, religious liberty, and legal change
    00:18:50 – Dobbs, abortion, and evangelical disengagement from the pro-life cause
    00:19:54 – Immigration as a leading social and theological issue
    00:22:13 – Executive power, post-liberalism, and Christian nationalism
    00:24:05 – Number 3: Obergefell and the moral transformation of marriage
    00:25:20 – Sexuality, family, and the collapse of shared moral norms
    00:27:48 – Don Carson’s 2005 warning about homosexuality as a presenting issue
    00:29:22 – Mainline denominational splits and the global Methodist divide
    00:32:11 – Why many evangelicals held to historic sexual ethics
    00:33:17 – How race and sexuality became bundled in public discourse
    00:36:56 – Rebecca McLaughlin and navigating race and sexuality faithfully
    00:37:21 – Number 2: The iPhone and the shift to digital life
    00:38:05 – Smartphones, fertility decline, and changing social habits
    00:39:13 – Social contagion, gender identity, and online plausibility structures
    00:40:08 – Podcasts, YouTube, AI, and the reshaping of knowledge
    00:43:44 – Mike Graham on screens, AI, and the future of epistemology
    00:48:00 – Individualized media diets, institutional decline, and gender divergence
    00:50:06 – AI sycophancy, abuse scandals, and algorithm-shaped reality
    00:53:51 – Why digital life felt like it could have been number one
    00:54:26 – Number 1: Why 9/11 tops the list
    00:56:23 – Christianity, Islam, and civilizational conflict
    01:00:07 – 9/11, the new atheism, and the category of “fundamentalism”
    01:02:01 – Theodicy, suffering, and major disasters after 9/11
    01:03:12 – Mike Graham on why 9/11 is civilizationally decisive
    01:06:17 – Middle Eastern Christians, Iraq, Syria, and migration into Europe
    01:07:11 – Signs of God’s providence and good emerging from tragedy
    01:09:18 – Tim Keller, New York church planting, and the young, restless, and Reformed movement
    01:12:58 – Closing reflections on God’s providence over the last 25 years

    Resources Mentioned:

    — — —

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    https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/gospelbound

    🎁 Help The Gospel Coalition build up a renewed church for tomorrow. Let's Build Together: Donate Today at https://www.tgc.org/together

    🎧 Don’t miss an episode of Gospelbound with Collin Hansen

    ▫ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gospelbound/id1499898207

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    Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email [email protected] for group pricing and discounts.


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    24 March 2026, 4:00 am
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