Gospelbound – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen and Cameron Cole discuss Cole's book Heavenward: How Eternity Can Change Your Life on Earth and how hope for an eternal future with Christ shapes everyday Christian life. Cole shares how the loss of his son led him to a deeper understanding of heaven, emphasizing Paul's eschatology and its practical impact on sanctification, mission, and living with an eternal perspective.

They discuss: 

• Heavenward by Cameron Cole
• The impact of personal loss on eternal perspective
• The Bible's concrete imagery of heaven
• Hope for heaven and the absence of sin
• Barriers to living a heavenward life
• Union with Christ and its implications
• Heaven in evangelism and personal reflections
• Scriptural meditations on the hope of heaven

In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen and Jamie Dunlop discuss the challenges and beauty of diversity in churches, emphasizing unity in Christ. Drawing from his experience at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Dunlop shares insights on managing disagreements within Christian community with patience, grace, and charity, as outlined in his book, Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy.

They discuss:

• Challenges and opportunities in church diversity
• Why disagreements don't indicate something is wrong
• The line between celebrating differences and tolerating heresy
• The foundation of Christ in church friendships

In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen and George Marsden discuss Marsden's book, An Infinite Fountain of Light: Jonathan Edwards for the 21st Century. They highlight the relevance of Edwards's theology for modern times, exploring his view of the universe as an expression of God's love and the beauty of Christ's sacrificial love. They also discuss Edwards's greatest sermons, changes in his studies, and the contrast between Edwards's spiritual perspective and Benjamin Franklin's more materialistic view. Marsden reflects on how Edwards's insights have been personally transformative, underscoring the lasting impact of Edwards's spiritual perspective.

Joseph Henrich is chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and author of many important works. His latest is The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. In it, you’ll get pretty everything you want: theology, history, neuroscience, biology, social science, economics, and more. Henrich weaves everything together to explain what separated the West from world history. But his story is neither inevitable nor triumphalist. He argues that if you looked at the world in the year 1000, you’d never imagine that Europe would eventually surpass China or the Islamic world in power and wealth. 

Joseph Henrich joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss his new book and what it means to be “WEIRD,” an acronym that describes tenants of Western culture.

This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The Garden, the Curtain and The Cross by Carl Laferton. This storybook takes children aged 3 to 6 on a journey from the Garden of Eden to God’s perfect new creation, teaching why Jesus died and rose again and why that’s the best news ever. More information at thegoodbook.com.

Andy Crouch and his colleagues at The Praxis Journal wrote an article titled, “Leading Beyond the Blizzard” on March 20, 2020, just one week after the national COVID-19 shutdown began in the United States. Crouch and his team warned us that this crisis would not be a blizzard that rages for a few weeks or a winter that lasted a few months, but an “ice age” of 12 to 18 months that would change our way of life for good, and they were right. 

Crouch joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to lament the losses brought on by COVID-19, assess our levels of social trust inside and outside the church, and look forward to God’s purposes in the next year and beyond.

This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The Garden, the Curtain and The Cross by Carl Laferton. This storybook takes children aged 3-6 on a journey from the Garden of Eden to God’s perfect new creation to teach children why Jesus died and rose again and why that’s the best news ever. More information at thegoodbook.com.

You know an author is worth reading if he can make stones interesting. But after reading Andrew Wilson’s God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World (Zondervan), you’ll be seeing stones everywhere in the Bible, and you’ll understand their significance in ways you never imagined before.

Andrew Wilson is teaching pastor at King’s Church London and has theology degrees from Cambridge, London School of Theology, and King’s College London. He is a columnist for Christianity Today and has written several books, including Echoes of Exodus and Spirit and Sacrament. His newest book, God of All Things, teaches about God through the ordinary, physical things we see every day.

If you don’t normally enjoy reading theology, I recommend this book. You’ll learn a lot about God, you’ll develop a strong biblical theology from Genesis to Revelation, and you’ll see your ordinary world with new eyes in the process.

Andrew joined me on Gospelbound to discuss viruses, pigs, sex, children, trees, and more. 

This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Being the Bad Guy by Stephen McAlpine. The church used to be recognized as a force for good, but this is changing rapidly. Author Stephen McAlpine offers an analysis of how our culture ended up this way and encourages Christians not to be ashamed of the gospel as it is more liberating, fulfilling and joyful than anything the world has to offer. More information at thegoodbook.com.

Veneetha Rendall Risner has dealt with more than her share of trials, which she recounts in her new book, "Walking Through Fire: A Memoir of Loss and Redemption", published by Nelson Books. She opens up her thought process for a raw look at the emotional and spiritual wrestling of suffering, anger toward God, and the reason for suffering.

This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Being the Bad Guy by Stephen McAlpine. The church used to be recognized as a force for good, but this is changing rapidly. Author Stephen McAlpine offers an analysis of how our culture ended up this way and encourages Christians not to be ashamed of the gospel as it is more liberating, fulfilling and joyful than anything the world has to offer. More information at thegoodbook.com.

At some point, Christians were viewed by many in the West as annoying, perhaps prudish, even self-righteous. Sometimes Christians set themselves as an example of holiness that the world could not or did not want to attain. To be called “holier than thou” was common.

But those days are long gone, says Stephen McAlpine, author of the new book Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn’t, published by The Good Book Company. McAlpine is a pastor, blogger, and ex-journalist who lives in Perth, Australia. He’s written some of the most provocative and creative commentary on this cultural moment that I’ve seen. And that’s why I was eager to read this book and talk with him for Gospelbound.

This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The God Contest by Carl Laferton. This storybook will help children see how the God of the Bible proved himself to be the one true God. More information at thegoodbook.com.

Solomon prayed for wisdom, and the Lord granted his request. Oh, how we need more Solomons in our day! At least the early Solomon, before all the foreign wives.

Brett McCracken is here to help with his new book, The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World, published by Crossway. Brett works as director of communications and senior editor for arts and culture with The Gospel Coalition. You may also know him from his excellent earlier books, especially Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community, which I strongly recommend.

The Wisdom Pyramid is like the food pyramid, only for the health of our souls when it comes to our media diet. I have a hard time thinking of anything more urgently needed for the church than men and women saturated in Scripture, rooted in their local church, and amazed by the wonder of God’s creation. This is the lean protein we need in a world pushing Skittles and Doritos. Brett joins me on Gospelbound to discuss social media, books we disagree with, what makes the internet different, and more.

This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The God Contest by Carl Laferton. This storybook will help children see how the God of the Bible proved himself to be the one true God. More information at thegoodbook.com.

By this point I don’t think I’m going out on a limb by saying the debate over social justice in the church will not progress through Twitter accounts and YouTube rants. Events and face-to-face conversations have been hindered by COVID-19. But at least we have books.

We’d be in much better shape inside the church if the debate were informed by books like Confronting Justice Without Compromising Truth, published by Zondervan. The author, Thaddeus Williams, is an associate professor of systematic theology for Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in La Mirada, California. I don’t suspect his book will necessarily convince many in the camp he labels Social Justice B, in contrast to the view he supports, termed Social Justice A. But I do think many readers caught in the middle will gain clarity about what’s at stake.

I’ve long thought this debate has suffered from confusion about whether we’re talking about the world or the church. It can both be true that the world peddles a gospel-denying version of social justice while the church has often failed to live up to the biblical one. So I’m hopeful that Williams’s book will protect the church from the world and also call the church to a more robust pursuit of justice

This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Meals with Jesus by Ed Drew. These simple 10-minute family devotions in Luke’s Gospel explore Jesus’ character through nine meals that he shared with people. More information at thegoodbook.com.