How to Live in a World Gone Mad

Not many books of the Bible are more commonly misunderstood than Esther. And not many are more relevant for our time, either.

Mike Cosper says the Old Testament book of Esther is less VeggieTales and more Game of Thrones, with its story of sex, murder, and impaling. But the book’s message is all hope. As Cosper writes in his new book, Faith Among the Faithless: Learning from Esther How to Live in a World Gone Mad, “Even in the darkest moments, when God seems absent, we can trust that he hasn’t abandoned us.”

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Cosper is executive director of Harbor Media, a non-profit media company serving Christians in a post-Christian world, and a longtime TGC contributor. He joined me on The Gospel Coalition Podcast to talk about pluralism, Esther as victim or complicit, faithful presence, turning the tables on power, love and death, and more.

Recommended in this podcast:

The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture by Yoram Hazony
God and Politics in Esther by Yoram Hazony

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.

But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.

To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

Download your copy today »

Collin Hansen serves as vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He hosts the Gospelbound podcast and has written and contributed to many books, most recently Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation and Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. He has published with the New York Times and the Washington Post and offered commentary for CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, ABC News, and PBS NewsHour. He edited Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School, where he also co-chairs the advisory board.