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

Free eBook by Tim Keller: ‘The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness’

Imagine a life where you don’t feel inadequate, easily offended, desperate to prove yourself, or endlessly preoccupied with how you look to others. Imagine relishing, not resenting, the success of others. Living this way isn’t far-fetched. It’s actually guaranteed to believers, as they learn to receive God’s approval, rather than striving to earn it.

In Tim Keller’s short ebook, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path To True Christian Joy, he explains how to overcome the toxic tendencies of our age一not by diluting biblical truth or denying our differences一but by rooting our identity in Christ.

TGC is offering this Keller resource for free, so you can discover the “blessed rest” that only self-forgetfulness brings.

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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, writes the weekly Unseen Things newsletter, and has written and contributed to many books, including 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 The Gospel After Christendom, The AI Apocalypse, and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School, where he has co-chaired the advisory board.