Gospelbound

The Gospel Coalition
The Gospel Coalition
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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. 6d ago

    The 2000s So Far in Four Eras

    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 structures that don’t change as often. The result, I hope, helps church leaders understand the times without over-reacting to superficial trends—all the while staying focused on God’s unchanging promises. Resources Mentioned: The Gospel CoalitionKeller Center for Cultural ApologeticsGospel-Centered Ministry by D. A. Carson and Timothy KellerA History of the Work of Redemption by Jonathan EdwardsA Secular Age by Charles TaylorThe Righteous Mind by Jonathan HaidtA God-Sized Vision by Collin Hansen and John WoodbridgeCity of God by Augustine Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  2. Oct 6

    How North Korea Became the Most Religious Place on Earth (with Jonathan Cheng)

    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: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir. I knew that Presbyterian missions in Korea contributed to the large number of Korean Americans who attend and lead Presbyterian churches today. And I knew of course that Pyongyang is the capital of communist North Korea today, so something bad must have happened.  But the missionary success story was so much greater, and the fall from grace was so much farther, than I imagined. Jonathan Cheng worked on this book for more than 10 years, and the depth of research shows. Originally from Toronto, Cheng lives in Beijing and works as the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. Before that he worked as the Korea bureau chief, covering both North and South Korea. He’s one of my most helpful people to follow on X, for news from and about China. Let’s dive in to this fascinating and horrifying story about the Christian origins of North Korea’s Kim dynasty. Editor’s Note: Please note that due to a technical issue during recording, the video quality becomes choppy towards the end of the episode. The audio was mostly unaffected, so we chose to keep the full conversation for listeners to enjoy.  Resources Mentioned: Korean Messiah by Jonathan ChengGod-Sized Vision by Collin Hansen Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  3. Sep 22

    How Do You Want Your Children to Remember You? (with Michael Keller)

    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 wanted to see from the center. In that exercise before we talked to Tim, I led a discussion on the Great Dechurching, the unprecedented decline in Christian practice in the United States since the year 2000. I’ve led this exercise many times before and since, without incident. The goal is to identify what events and trends really shift culture. In this case, a majority of Americans had the internet in their homes by 2000. Add smartphones and social media and now AI and you can see that the dawn of the information age is perhaps the biggest story of the 21st century so far.But the exercise didn’t sit well with many of our fellows. We weren’t yet comfortable with each other. Some wanted to dig a lot deeper with ideas and a lot further back in history. Others saw the internet more as a vehicle rather than the driver of cultural change. Some just misunderstood the exercise altogether. I’ll never forget Michael Keller’s response. He pulled some of his dad’s notes on how to share the gospel in our current age. He described various overlapping and conflicting cultural narratives that help us make sense of the world, apart from God. And then he showed how Jesus critiques and ultimately completes those narratives. It was brilliant work.The whole center rallied around this idea. We recorded and wrote the group study Making Sense of Us: Exploring Six Stories that Shape How We Live. Michael Keller wrote the foreword. And we rallied behind a new book, The Stories We Live By: Seven Cultural Myths That Fail Us and the Story That Never Will, published by Zondervan. It’s written by Michael and his father, Tim, based on those notes we saw in 2023. Ever since that day I’ve adapted what I learned into my own teaching, not just about cultural narratives, but about how we think about the various deep levels of cultural change. And I’m eager to talk now about this book with Michael on Gospelbound. We’ll also discuss another new book Michael recently wrote, Talking to Kids About Hard Things: Honest Conversations When Life Gets Complicated. He wrote that book with Rebekah Hannah and published it with New Growth Press.  In This Episode:00:00 – Why the best gospel presentation cannot save your children00:58 – How an early Keller Center retreat shaped The Stories We Live By05:02 – How Michael and Tim Keller began the book together07:11 – The seven cultural stories shaping modern life09:37 – Why identity may be the defining cultural narrative of our age11:10 – Cultural narratives as Christian heresies13:52 – The strengths and failures of expressive individualism15:58 – What Michael hopes The Stories We Live By changes in the church18:15 – How cultural narratives shape Christians too20:27 – What remains in Tim Keller’s unpublished notes23:06 – How Michael handles ongoing criticism of his father25:35 – Tim Keller, “third way” criticism, and diagonalization26:50 – What church planting taught Michael that he could not learn secondhand29:56 – Redeemer’s transition after Tim Keller30:49 – Why the best way to honor Tim Keller is not to imitate him32:28 – Introducing Talking to Kids About Hard Things35:09 – Why Michael was skeptical of parenting books36:36 – “Your kids need your repentance more than your perfection”38:25 – Why apologizing to your children matters40:14 – The gospel in action through forgiveness and repentance41:40 – Why technique cannot produce saving faith44:01 – How to help children feel safe asking hard questions45:17 – Teaching like Jesus by asking questions47:53 – How parenting reveals who we really are49:18 – Control, repentance, and what parenting exposed in Michael51:52 – How Michael wants his daughters to remember him53:27 – Collin on integrity between public ministry and private family life54:58 – Integrity, not perfection57:29 – Final reflections and recommended books58:16 – Outro Resources Mentioned: The Stories We Live By by Michael Keller and Timothy KellerTalking to Kids About Hard Things by Michael Keller and Rebecca HannahMaking Sense of God by Timothy KellerThe Reason for God by Timothy KellerCenter Church by Timothy KellerMaking Sense of UsHanding Down the Faith by Christian Smith and Amy AdamczykGospel in LifeKeller Center for Cultural ApologeticsThe Gospel Coalition — — — 📫 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 Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  4. Sep 8

    Why AI Will Write Your Next Sermon

    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 friends spin up websites it would have taken years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to build just five years ago.  But do you know the most common use? It’s not one I’ve employed myself. And it’s not one I’d recommend. But according to Harvard Business Review, it’s remained perched on the top from 2025 to 2026 even as other common uses have wildly fluctuated up and down the charts. It’s therapy and companionship. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering about how AI chatbots could be the reasons companies like OpenAI have been valued at $852 billion. Or why AI has become the widely and quickly adopted new technology in human history. Isn’t AI supposed to revolutionize business? Upend every profession and transform entire economies?  Perhaps. The trend is clear. It looks like many others have been turning to AI for help in fixing their toilets. (Claude was wrong in my situation, by the way.) More commonly, AI is less of a computer interface and more of a, well, human face. A friend to share jokes and silly pictures. An imaginative storyteller. A trusty counselor to assess your new relationship. A medium who can predict your future. And a wise confidant who promises not to lead you astray (or tell you what you don’t want to hear).  Given the wild predictions about AI’s unparalleled value, how can these cases be the most common ways we employ the technology? Is your daily horoscope worth $852 billion?  Now, what if I told you this is exactly what the builders of AI expected us to do?  That’s the vision behind a new book, The AI Apocalypse: A Survival Guide for Humanity, which I edited along with Skyler Flowers and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. I spoke on my introduction from the book at a recent TGC regional chapter meeting in Nashville.  Thank you to TGC Nashville and Edgefield Church for hosting and recording this podcast in front of a lively and engaged audience. You could have heard a pin drop when I talked to these (mostly) pastors about why AI will write their next sermon. Now is the time to work through the ethical implications together and decide where to draw the line. In This Episode: 0:00 AI's Unexpected Role as a Human Companion and Counselor 7:21 AI, Love, and the Lessons from Her 13:37 The Role of AI in Defining Human Purpose 20:17 The Impact of AI on Literacy and Human Creativity 28:51 The Irreplaceable Human Touch in Preaching Amid AI Advancements 38:39 Navigating AI Ethics in Church, Family, and Education 40:41 The Impacts of AI on Society and Economy Resources Mentioned: AI Apocalypse edited by Collin Hansen Empire of AI by Karen Hao The Odyssey by Homer Social Acceleration by Hartmut Rosa Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics The Gospel Coalition Recorded (Podcast) by The Gospel Coalition — — — 📫 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 Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  5. Aug 25

    Why Pascal’s Wager Still Pays Off (with Graham Tomlin)

    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.”  Here’s a taste from Tomlin about Pascal’s accomplishments: he basically invented probability theory; proved the existence of the vacuum; laid the foundations of integral calculus; conducted the first modern scientific experiment; developed theory that made possible the hydraulic press; demonstrated that air has weight; designed and built the first mechanical calculating machine, which led to what we know as the computer; set the trend of wearing wrist watches; and built the first public urban transportation system in Europe.  And did I already mention he was one of the most effective and enduring cultural apologists of all time, perhaps second only to Augustine? Tomlin writes, “His was a Christianity founded in a profound experience of God, an intense devotional life and a form of faith that offered a radical alternative to the comfortable assimilation to culture that the Church of his day often seemed to promote.” Let’s talk to Graham Tomlin about this remarkable man, who lamented man’s inability to sit quietly by himself, who observed, “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.” In This Episode: 00:00 – Pascal’s wager and living as if Christianity is true 00:49 – Introducing Blaise Pascal, the cultural apologist who helped make the modern world 02:36 – Pascal’s remarkable inventions, including public transportation and the Pascaline 05:42 – Augustine’s influence on Pascal’s theology of desire, fallenness, and grace 08:11 – Why Pascal trusted reason in science but not as the starting point for faith 10:46 – Pascal’s “Night of Fire” and encounter with the living God 16:43 – Why Pascal went to war with the Jesuits 20:20 – Jansenism, Calvinism, and Pascal’s understanding of grace 25:51 – The hiddenness of God as an argument for faith 32:38 – How human misery points toward human greatness 39:46 – What Pascal’s Wager actually means 48:45 – Pascal, Jonathan Haidt, and the psychology of belief 49:05 – “Make it attractive”: Pascal’s enduring strategy for cultural apologetics 51:59 – How Pascal anticipated both the modern and postmodern worlds 59:22 – What Pascal would say about modern science and scientism 1:01:43 – Why Pascal’s faith speaks to people who have looked into the abyss 1:03:21 – Outro Resources Mentioned: Blaise Pascal by Graham Tomlin  Pensées by Blaise Pascal  The Provincial Letters by Blaise Pascal  Confessions by Augustine  City of God by Augustine  The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt  The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt  The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics    — — — 📫 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 Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  6. Aug 11

    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 Scripture00:39 – Introducing Mere Christian Hermeneutics01:58 – What makes this approach to hermeneutics “mere”?03:26 – How different reading cultures divide Christians05:01 – Polarization among Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians06:52 – The loss of Christianity’s cultural influence in the West07:46 – 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 interpretation16:08 – Why Christians should not separate Jesus from the Bible18:24 – Johannes Oecolampadius and Scripture’s Christ-centered scope21:57 – Bridging the divide between biblical scholars and theologians25:05 – Kant, critical thinking, and the rise of biblical criticism27:34 – The hidden assumptions modern readers bring to Scripture30:14 – Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and teaching systematic theology32:37 – Cultural hermeneutics and the formative power of culture36:24 – The current state of theological interpretation of Scripture39:29 – Potential dangers in theological retrieval41:40 – Protestant catholicity and unity amid secondary disagreements42:02 – Vanhoozer’s work with the Alexandrian Institute44:35 – His four-volume systematic theology project46:19 – Brahms, young theologians, and reasons for hope47:13 – What pastors can learn from Henry James48:54 – Outro Resources Mentioned: Mere Christian Hermeneutics by Kevin Vanhoozer Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis Meditation in a Toolshed by C. S. Lewis The Bible Made Impossible by Christian Smith The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies by Michael C. Legaspi The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics — — — 📫 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 Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  7. Jul 28

    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: Dust to Dust by Jen Wilkin From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis   — — — 📫 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 Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

  8. Jul 21

    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: Silicon Spiritualities | TGC podcast hosted by Christopher Watkin  Deep Work by Cal Newport “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” / “The Imitation Game” by Alan Turing    — — — 📫 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 Use code “GOSPELBOUND” for 25% off tuition. Learn more at downlinememphis.com/virtual-institute or email info@downlineministries.com for group pricing and discounts. Check out The Pour Over Podcast — politically neutral news for people who want the facts without the spin, and with a brief biblical perspective Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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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
    201
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2020 The Gospel Coalition
  • Show Website
    Gospelbound

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