Gospelbound

The Gospel Coalition
  • 5.0 (20)
  • CHRISTIANITY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Gospelbound, hosted by Collin Hansen for The Gospel Coalition, is a podcast for those searching for firm faith in an anxious age. Each week, Collin talks with insightful guests about books, ideas, and how to navigate life by the gospel of Jesus Christ in a post-Christian culture.

  1. 3 HRS AGO

    Top 10 Theology Stories Since 2000: Part 1

    Join Collin Hansen, Michael Graham, and Sarah Zylstra as they look back on the top theological stories from the last 25 years.  Since the year 2000, religion in America has changed dramatically. Back in the 1990s, religion in America was what Tim Keller called “thick,” meaning that 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.  That’s different now. Since 2000, the percent of religious Americans has dropped and the number of nones (no religion) has jumped up from 8 percent to 22 percent.   This is really important to talk about, because social commentators make a big deal out of how much time Americans spend on our screens—and rightly so! And we hear a lot about how our views on sexuality have drastically changed, how our politics have become sharply polarized, and how our mental health has tanked, especially for Gen Z. But what mainstream journalism almost always misses is that the thread running in and through and around those issues is how we think about and react to God. In This Episode: 00:00 — The Great Dechurching: belief vs. disaffiliation 00:32 — Sarah hosts: why a 30,000-foot view now 03:26 — “Factfulness” and why we overlook positive trends 05:00 — #10: Global church leadership moving south 09:02 — Theological education hasn’t moved south at the same pace 10:03 — #9: Rise of non-denominational congregations 14:49 — Data point: non-denominationalism grows from ~3% (1972) to ~14–15% today 17:27 — Why churches drop denominational labels; media amplification; scandal-by-association 20:00 — #8: China’s church growth—and crackdown 22:07 — India, Hindu nationalism, and persecution; Nigeria and the Africa frontier 25:41 — #7: The Dechurching of America 30:24 — Apologetics after dechurching: from hostility to apathy 34:25 — Are churches fewer but stronger? 36:39 — Retention vs. conversion: why evangelical identity declines less 39:09 — #6: The Great Awokening (Ferguson to Floyd) 47:20 — Four paradigms for navigating race in America 52:44 — Wrap-up: Part 2 teaser 53:10 — Outro + where to find the podcast/newsletter Resources Mentioned: Factfulness by Hans Rosling The Reason for God by Timothy Keller Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller A Secular Age by Charles Taylor Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby We Have Never Been Woke by Musa al-Gharbi — — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 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 ▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br ✅ SUBSCRIBE:  ▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition ▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    54 min

  2. FEB 24

    How Your Church Witnesses to the World

    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 same time the internet became ubiquitous. Or maybe they were expressing renewed appreciation for the gathered church after the COVID-era shutdowns and public disorder. Either way, they were going back to biblical concept rooted in Israel’s testimony to the nations, and the early church in the book of Acts that found favor with all.  Bob Thune is a fellow for the Keller Center and writes about this so-called ecclesial apologetics in a chapter for our new book, The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics, published by Zondervan Reflective. He’s also a featured teacher in an exciting new video small-group curriculum called Making Sense of Us, published by The Gospel Coalition and Keller Center. His session, recorded against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty in New York City, covers the cultural narrative we tell each other in the modern West about liberty. We believe this curriculum can help you, especially young adults, to both evangelize and edify. When you watch and study with other church members, and even non-Christians, you can learn together about the Bible’s better story about liberty, which we live out together in the church.  In This Episode: 00:00 – A deeper freedom: set free from self for love  00:32 – Keller Center fellows: why the gathered church matters for witness  01:41 – Introducing Bob Thune, ecclesial apologetics, and Making Sense of Us  02:39 – Lesslie Newbigin and a missionary posture toward the modern West  05:06 – Is Omaha post-Christian? Modern Western culture everywhere  06:34 – Ecclesial apologetics despite church messiness  09:17 – Gospel doctrine and gospel culture (truth, goodness, beauty)  11:03 – Christian hospitality: making room for outsiders with conviction and listening  17:03 – Why this differs from the seeker movement  19:10 – Transition to Making Sense of Us: liberty and the Statue of Liberty backdrop  20:16 – Modern misconception: freedom as “freedom from” (negative liberty)  22:17 – Galatians 5: freedom subverted and fulfilled—freedom for love and service  24:48 – Choice as happiness: dislodging the assumption pastorally  26:55 – Cultural pressure points: teen mental health, friendship decline, obligation  29:15 – Autonomy and assisted dying/euthanasia debates  31:56 – More choice, more frustration: speech platforms and “Netflix paralysis”  33:50 – Patience for contested proposals (post-liberalism, nationalism, etc.)  35:01 – “Freedom for” the common good and a shared human project  39:13 – Three church roles: solidarity-bringer, subversive fulfillment, alternative city  43:27 – Augustine’s lesson: church power, loss, and enduring hope  44:05 – Recommended reading and resources roundup  Resources Mentioned: The Gospel After Christendom by Collin HansenMaking Sense of Us by John Starke, Rebecca McLaughlin, Sam Chan, Trevin Wax, Rachel Gilson, Bob Thune, Glen Scrivener, Michael KellerThe Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis Democracy and Solidarity by James Davison Hunter City of God by Augustine of Hippo— — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 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 ▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br ✅ SUBSCRIBE:  ▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition ▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    45 min

  3. FEB 10

    How Your Investing Could Change the World

    “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’t know it. Come to think of it, how much do we know about any of our investments, especially in long-term retirement accounts? Robin John is the cofounder and CEO of Eventide, an asset management firm dedicated to honoring God and investing in companies that create compelling value for the common good. His vision for Eventide's values-based investing shows how our work can benefit everyone and not just bolster the bottom line for a fortunate few. I’d go so far as to say our world can be a much better place if investors—and employees of all kinds—will learn from his example and prioritize what really matters now, and in eternity. In This Episode 0:00 – Joy, purpose, and God’s design for everyday work 1:49 – Why The Good Investor is ultimately a book about joy 2:48 – Growing up in Kerala, India, and immigrating to the U.S. 4:42 – Community, individualism, and caring for the vulnerable 7:41 – Returning to India and confronting workplace injustice 10:49 – Rethinking success, profit, and the purpose of work 11:53 – Why Christians must examine their investments 14:33 – What does it mean to “root for” a company’s success? 15:36 – Discernment, gray areas, and biblical values in investing 18:07 – Avoiding evil and actively pursuing the common good 19:43 – Weaponry, conscience, and consistency at Eventide 20:13 – The cautionary story of Bill Hwang and ill-gotten gain 23:19 – The false divide between faith and work 25:07 – How investing has changed since 2008 27:14 – What ESG investing is—and where it diverges from Christianity 31:19 – Mission alignment vs. values alignment 32:23 – Encouragement for ordinary, faithful work 34:44 – Legacy, goodness, and hearing “well done” Resources Mentioned The Good Investor by Robin John— — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 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 ▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br ✅ SUBSCRIBE:  ▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition ▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    37 min

  4. JAN 27

    A Tool for Spiritual Formation in a Secular Age

    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 readers. And I’m delighted by a new volume, The Gospel Way Catechism: 50 Truths that Take on the World, published by Harvest House and written by my friends Trevin Wax and Thomas West. Tim Keller said, “We need a counter-catechism that explains, refutes, and re-narrates the world’s catechisms to Christians.” And what’s what Trevin and Thomas have done in The Gospel Way Catechism. Trevin is vice president of research and resource development at the North American Mission Board. Thomas is the pastor of Nashville First Baptist Church. In This Episode 00:00 – What’s wrong with the world: deeper than ignorance or injustice 00:34 – Collin’s “modern catechism” assignment and why catechisms return in transitions 01:03 – Introducing The Gospel Way Catechism and Keller’s “counter catechism” vision 01:36 – Welcoming Trevin Wax and Thomas West 01:54 – “Can Baptists write a catechism?” and Baptist catechesis history 02:57 – Influential catechisms: Keach, Spurgeon, Heidelberg, Luther, Calvin, Westminster 03:23 – Most controversial truths today: sexuality and deeper “me-first” narratives 04:51 – “What has gone wrong?”: ignorance, injustice, expressive individualism 07:14 – Moving beyond whack-a-mole to the Bible’s deeper diagnosis 09:37 – Western self-centeredness and sin as being “curved in on ourselves” 12:24 – Writing process and Keller’s influence: every catechism is counter-catechesis 13:48 – Origin story at The Kilns (C. S. Lewis’s home) and testing in a London church 15:45 – Objections: “we don’t need this” and why cultural frames change catechesis needs 20:18 – Returning from London: seeing American wealth, waste, and politics differently 24:13 – Why Leviticus gets a chapter: sacrifice, scapegoating, and modern idols 27:59 – Catechesis and spiritual formation: tools, Word-centeredness, and Gen Z hunger 31:38 – Encouragement from readers: cultural narratives filtered, doctrine re-centered 33:09 – In 20 years: transhumanism, bioethics, reproductive tech, assisted dying 36:06 – “What is human?” and “What is truth?”—new iterations of old questions 36:39 – Closing thanks and sign-off Resources Mentioned The Gospel Way Catechism by Trevin Wax & Thomas WestNew City Catechism by Kathy KellerA Heart Aflame for God by Matthew Bingham— — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 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 ▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br ✅ SUBSCRIBE:  ▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition ▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    38 min

  5. JAN 13

    What We Learn from the Black Church About the Culture War

    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 Us Out of the Culture War, published by IVP. Justin is the cofounder and president of the AND Campaign. The endorsement of this book by Bob Roberts calls Justin a “strange mix of Tim Keller and Martin Luther King Jr. wrapped up in his own personality and voice.” High praise! In This Episode 00:00 – Jesus, truth, and critiquing our own side  00:33 – Birmingham, civil rights, and faith-based social change  01:00 – Introducing Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around  01:40 – The burden behind writing the book  03:07 – Family history and the Black church tradition  04:05 – Why Fred Shuttlesworth matters  05:14 – “Biblicist and actionist”: faith and public courage  06:05 – Nonviolence, moral discipline, and leadership  07:11 – Shuttlesworth and King: contrasts and complements  09:23 – Why moral progress isn’t inevitable  12:10 – Moral imagination and Christian hope  15:57 – What is the culture war? 18:44 – Humility, self-critique, and redeemable opponents  21:29 – Justice, moral order, and refusing false binaries  22:51 – King, the late 1960s, and the cost of a “third way”  25:26 – Militancy, frustration, and historical context  28:01 – Why Christians can’t abandon character  31:12 – Tyranny, violence, and ending debate by force  33:18 – Advice for young activists  35:19 – Frederick Douglass and critiquing your own movement  38:37 – Accountability, power, and political humility  43:36 – Christian nationalism and historical amnesia  47:24 – Final encouragement: civility, faithfulness, and hope  Resources Mentioned Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around: How the Black Church's Public Witness Leads Us out of the Culture War by Justin Giboney— — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 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 ▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br ✅ SUBSCRIBE:  ▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition ▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    49 min

  6. 2025-12-30

    Work and the Meaning of Life

    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 against family or church 01:10 – Why Full Time Work and the Meaning of Life matters so deeply to Bahnsen 02:11 – Losing his father and discovering purpose through work 03:56 – The church’s discomfort with ambition and vocation 06:00 – Identity, salvation, and what our work says about us 09:06 – “Work is the meaning of life?” A biblical case from Genesis 12:55 – The crisis of men not working and its social consequences 16:12 – How Reformed theology shapes Bahnsen’s view of vocation 19:41 – The influence of Tim Keller and Every Good Endeavor 23:14 – Rejecting the zero-sum view of family vs. career 31:41 – Productivity, early mornings, and modeling joyful work 36:10 – Why in-person work still matters after COVID 44:39 – Conviction, politics, and resisting tribal thinking 54:21 – Overcoming resentment by telling the truth Resources Mentioned Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David BahnsenCrisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It by David BahnsenEvery Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work by Tim Keller— — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 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 ▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br ✅ SUBSCRIBE:  ▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition ▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    56 min

  7. 2025-12-16

    Top Theology Stories of 2025

    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 Theo of Golden by Allen LeviBelieve by Ross DouthatSuperbloom by Nicholas CarrEverything Is Never Enough by Bobby JamiesonBlaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World by Graham TomlinFuture Tenses of the Blessed Life by F. B. MeyerA Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise PerryI Seek a Kind Person: My Father, Seven Children, and the Adverts that Helped Them Escape the Holocaust by Julian BorgerThe Deep Dish PodcastThe Rest Is HistoryTGC Church DirectoryThe Keller Center for Cultural ApologeticsMaking Sense of UsTGCW26 — National Women’s ConferenceRTS Women’s Bible Study— — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 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 ▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br ✅ SUBSCRIBE:  ▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition ▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    1h 42m

  8. 2025-12-02

    Why We Should Recover Cultural Apologetics

    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 need to recover apologetics as a project for the whole church and not just for those who enjoy arguing. What we call cultural apologetics is not a new academic discipline. It’s a means to reconnect the church to the best biblical and historical resources for presenting and defending the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).  That’s the vision behind a new book, The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics, which I edited for Zondervan Reflective and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. I’m joined now by two of the contributors, both fellows for The Keller Center. Josh Chatraw is the Billy Graham chair for evangelism and cultural engagement here at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. Visiting us here at Beeson this week is Christopher Watkin, associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. ——— In This Episode 02:00 — Apologetics as Cultural: Head, Heart, and Hands 03:00 — Biblical Models for Cultural Apologetics 05:10 — Retrieval: Learning from Church History 09:16 — Augustine, Rome, and Biblical Critical Theory 13:00 — Diagonal Thinking, Third-Way Debates, and Politics 16:00 — Confrontational vs. Winsome Apologetics 20:00 — How Jesus Engaged Different People 26:00 — Apologetics for the Whole Church and for Pastors 34:00 — Retrieval Models: Pascal, Montaigne, and Modern Idols 41:00 — Audience Q&A: Out-Narrating, Doubt, Catholicism, Facts vs. Heart Issues 51:46 — Closing Reflections Resources Mentioned The Gospel After Christendom by Collin Hansen, Ivan Mesa, & Skyler FlowersTelling a Better Story by Josh ChatrawBiblical Critical Theory by Christopher WatkinCity of God by AugustineConfronting Christianity Podcast with Rebecca McLaughlinThe Speak Life Podcast with Glen ScrivenerTruth Unites Podcast with Gavin Ortlund——— SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things Help The Gospel Coalition renew and unify the contemporary church in the ancient gospel: Donate Today Don’t miss an episode of Gospelbound with Collin Hansen: Apple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeTGC Updates Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    52 min
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About

Gospelbound, hosted by Collin Hansen for The Gospel Coalition, is a podcast for those searching for firm faith in an anxious age. Each week, Collin talks with insightful guests about books, ideas, and how to navigate life by the gospel of Jesus Christ in a post-Christian culture.

Information

  • Channel
    The Gospel Coalition
  • Creator
    The Gospel Coalition, Collin Hansen
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    186
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2020 The Gospel Coalition
  • Show Website
    Gospelbound

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