Listening In preview - Collin Hansen

Coming up next, a preview of Listening In. This week, a conversation with author Collin Hansen. He’s the vice president and editor-in-chief of The Gospel Coalition.

Over the last 20 years, Americans report more and more feelings of anxiety and hopelessness. Hansen says these problems have many causes, yet the Gospel gives the one answer we need.

Host Warren Smith begins their conversation diagnosing the problem.

WARREN SMITH: What is causing the current malaise? What are the sources of anxiety in our current time?

COLLIN HANSEN: I think it is more anxious, which is remarkable because our circumstances are better. So how can our circumstances, our wealth, our health, even in a pandemic, I mean, if we're talking, going back in human history, we still live in a remarkably privileged time. And I don't think anybody would trade going back to any other time for the comforts and the affluence and all that, that so many people around the world enjoy. This is not just a Western phenomenon any longer.

And yet, at the same time, we do see a spike in anxiety. And part of it is simple because the belief in God is on the decline. And so if you don't think there's any bigger purpose to what's happening, there's no afterlife to rectify justice, then there is a lot to be really, really worried about.

And one of the things I've learned from Tim Keller as he talks about the rise of theodicy in the West over the last few centuries, and this question of why is God doing this? Why is God allowing this to happen? Well, interestingly, it was not a common question before, it was simply taken for granted that there are reasons for why things happen, even if we don't understand them.

And so the response of anxiety and anger was not natural for a lot of people, even in times when they saw so much more death and difficulty and conflict than we do today. So I think you're seeing a big, long term philosophical change that coincides with the rise of forms of secularism. And then I have to add that I think there's a huge technological dimension to what we're seeing as well and I think you could date it, basically to the smartphone.

That’s Collin Hansen talking to Warren Smith. To hear their complete conversation, look for Listening In tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts.

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