Gospelbound

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 

 

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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:

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

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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

 

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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 

 

— — —

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🎁 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

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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:

Happiness by Andrew Wilson

Remaking the World by Andrew Wilson

Generations by Jean M. Twenge

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection by Thomas Chalmers

— — —

📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things:

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🎁 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

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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

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