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Articles by Ivan Mesa
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Alex Fogleman
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? Right now, I have David Brooks’s How to Know a Person, which is as much about perception and attention as it is about relationships. I also have Josef Pieper’s Happiness and Contemplation.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Chris Watkin
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Christopher Watkin—professor of European languages and author of Biblical Critical Theory—about what’s on his bedside table, his favorite fiction, the books he regularly revisits, and more. What’s on your nightstand right now?
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Timothy Larsen
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? I always have a lot of books going at once. There is a category of touchstone nonfiction books from the past that you often hear referred to and see cited. I always feel a sense of personal triumph when I can say I have actually read one of those, and so I am currently tackling Will Herberg’s Protestant, Catholic, Jew (1955).
A Prayer for America250
One of the joys I have as an elder of my local church is to lead God’s people in prayer. It’s a time of intercession for the church, a time of modeling prayer for members, a time of giving voice to our collective hearts. Every Sunday, our church focuses on one nation, usually whatever ends up falling on Operation World’s schedule. This past Sunday, ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, I set aside time to pray for our own nation.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Kevin Burrell
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? It might be best to divide my book-wielding furniture into three places: the nightstand, the home study nook, and the church office end table. It doesn’t always break down this easily, but I’ve realized that my reading unintentionally seems to partition itself by location.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Joseph Sherrard
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? It’s not a small stack, and there’s usually a mix of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction there depending on what I’m in the mood for at the moment and how demanding of a read I’m up for in the evening. Pastors work in words, and I have found that poets are often the people in our culture who take the best care of words.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Betsy Childs Howard
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Betsy Childs Howard—author of Seasons of Waiting and several children’s books, including Arlo Takes Off—about what’s on her bedside table, her favorite fiction, the books she regularly revisits, and more. What’s on your nightstand right now? For my personal devotions, I’m reading through J. C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Kelly M. Kapic
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Kelly M. Kapic—professor of theological studies at Covenant College and author of several books, including Christian Life in the New Studies in Dogmatics series—about what’s on his bedside table, his favorite fiction, the books he regularly revisits, and more. What’s on your nightstand right now?
How Are Smartphones Exacerbating Our Longing for Expressive Individualism?
I Could Be a Star Expressive individualism is a problem that predated smartphone technology and social media, but it has been totally exacerbated by these technologies because social media, in particular, is nothing if not a platform for the public display of your expressive, authentic self. It dangles a I could be a celebrity dream in front of all of us.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Winfree Brisley
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Winfree Brisley—editor of several books, including the Disciplines of Devotion series—about what’s on her bedside table, her favorite fiction, the books she regularly revisits, and more. What’s on your nightstand right now? What’s on my nightstand and what I’m reading are two different questions. I tend to have more books sitting around than I can realistically read.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Brad Edwards
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? I’ve recently been going back and forth between two nonfiction books that are right up my alley: the intersection of history, culture, and technology.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Simonetta Carr
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? I have a huge pile of books on my nightstand—some for reference and some waiting to be read. The ones I am reading right now are the following. First, Michael Horton’s Heaven Came Down (an Advent devotional).
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Stephen O. Presley
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? While my formal academic training is in early Christian studies, my research and writing have expanded to include the broader questions of Christian cultural engagement. On my nightstand right now are a few books assessing the sobering state of the church.
Is Phone Addiction Really That Bad?
Digital Dopamine Nation In Dopamine Nation, Stanford professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences Anna Lembke argues pervasive, cheap, and easy-to-access products and experiences that release dopamine in the brain are creating a mental health crisis unlike any other in human history. This is for the simple reason that most people in history lived with scarcity—limited access to the foods, substances, and experiences that release dopamine in the brain—but now we live in a world of abundance.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Michael McEwen
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? With my position as publisher, my time is primarily consumed with our authors’ manuscripts. Yet there are a few I’m slowly digesting. First, Nijay Gupta’s The Affections of Christ Jesus: Love at the Heart of Paul’s Theology. I’ve long admired Nijay’s research as well as his superhuman ability to write an enormous number of books.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Nadya Williams
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? I’m a chaotic and eclectic reader—plus I’m now a books editor and host a podcast on classic books. As a result, I usually have multiple books going at once, with business and pleasure reading all mixed up. At the moment, I’m part of the way through Julia Ioffe’s Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, From Revolution to Autocracy.
How to Fight Your Phone Idolatry
Digital Deity Merriam-Webster defines “idolatry” in two ways: “the worship of a physical object as a god” and “immoderate attachment or devotion to something.” Using either of those definitions, it’s not a stretch to say most of us are idolaters with our smartphones. Smartphones are physical objects we take everywhere; they’re rarely more than an arm’s length away. When was the last time you went out for errands without your phone? Left for an overnight trip without your phone?
10 Uncomfortable Truths About Christian Sexual Ethics
Sexual Ethics What the Bible has to say about sexual ethics is perhaps the most off-putting aspect of the Christian faith in today’s world. What makes a Christian sexual ethic so increasingly unpalatable is that it confronts and undermines core values in Western culture: autonomous identity, freedom, equality, authenticity. Challenging what one feels is true in the area of sexuality is to challenge one’s core identity and to impose unfair restrictions on one’s ability to love—or so the logic goes.
How Technology Is Changing the Way We View People Created in God’s Image
Disembodied People I think one of the ways that modern technology is changing the way we view other people has to do with the disembodied nature of so much of modern technology. We interact with people across great distances through screens and through avatars. The people that we’re talking to, oftentimes we don’t even know what they look like because all we see is their social media avatar, or we’re talking through FaceTime or some other medium where their physical presence is not present to us.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Mark Sayers
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? I usually have a pile of books on my nightstand that I work through. I just finished Troy Bramston’s Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny, a significant biography of one of Australia’s most consequential prime ministers. What are your favorite fiction books?
Shepherd the Flock: Advice to New Elders
You can’t read the book of Acts and the New Testament epistles without seeing the vital role elders play in providing leadership to the church (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). Also referred to as pastors/shepherds and overseers (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1–2; Titus 1:7), these men are called to lead, teach, and protect God’s flock—always under the authority of Christ, the chief Shepherd (1 Pet. 5:4).
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Matthew Bingham
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? My usual method is to be actively reading three different books at any given moment: a novel; a Christian book; and a non-Christian, nonfiction book. So, at present, I’m reading Willa Cather’s novel Death Comes for the Archbishop.
Is It Naive to Think of Technology as Neutral?
The Medium Is the Message This line of thinking is naive because every technology carries with it opportunities to be beneficial for us as individuals and societies. But every technology also changes things potentially for the worse. And we have to be aware of those changes and be critical and alert to what might be changing in our lives, in the way we interact with one another, and as a culture because of these new technologies.
7 Secular Sermons You Might Have Heard This Week
Inundated with Messages As Christians, we often think of sermons as something exclusive to Sunday morning church services. We view sermons as a special type of expository exhortation, in which a pastor, standing in a pulpit and with a Bible open, delivers a spiritual instruction to a congregation. But this limited view prevents us from recognizing the countless other types of “secular sermons” that are being preached to us daily through our screens, advertisements, and entertainment.
The Internet Perpetuates Our Spiritual Dementia
Spiritual Dementia Dementia has cast a cruel shadow over my family for many years. Both my mother and my wife’s mother battled dementia for more than a decade. Mom died in September 2018. We lost my mother-in-law fifteen months later, in December 2019. Both women were diagnosed with forms of dementia when they were in their fifties. Both were younger than most dementia patients. Both suffered for years.
Podcast: Are We Scrolling Ourselves to Death? (Brett McCracken and Ivan Mesa)
This article is part of the The Crossway Podcast series. It's Not Whether You're Addicted but What You Can Do About It In this podcast, Brett McCracken and Ivan Mesa discuss the changing world of technology, how it competes for our attention, and how Christians should engage with something that has proven to be so addictive. They address how who we are is formed by what we give our attention to and how we should think about our capacity as humans in a world of AI and overwhelming technology.
Practical Tips for Parents of Scrolling Kids
Healthy Spiritual Formation I’m a parent of three young children (ages 6, 4, and 3) who are growing up in an age of ubiquitous screens. Like most parents in today’s world, I worry about how they’re being shaped by today’s technologies. Here are a few suggestions for practical ways Christian parents can encourage healthy spiritual formation in a scrolling age. 1. Mind what you’re modeling. So much of how kids learn is caught, not taught.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Louis Markos
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? My nightstand lately has been keeping me up on trends in the evangelical world: Jordan Peterson’s We Who Wrestle with God. I have been a long-time fan of Jordan Peterson and learned a great deal from his previous two books on rules for living.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Ian Harber
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? I try to have at least three books going at once: one nonfiction I’m reading straight through, one nonfiction I’m popping in and out of, and one fiction. Unfortunately, I didn’t start reading fiction until recently. The nonfiction book I’m reading straight through right now is The Intellectual Life by A. G. Sertillanges.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Sarah Irving-Stonebraker
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Sarah Irving-Stonebraker—associate professor of history and Western civilization at the Australian Catholic University and author of several books, including Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age—about what’s on her bedside table, her favorite fiction, the books she regularly revisits, and more. What’s on your nightstand right now?
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Kevin Vanhoozer
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? The list would be different if my nightstand were in my office—or the basement. At bedtime, I read novels only. Two I finished are still there, waiting for relocation.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Patrick Miller
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. What’s on your nightstand right now? A lamp and definitely not my iPhone. If it were, I doubt I’d muster the requisite attention to pick up David Foster Wallace’s magisterially monstrous Infinite Jest. Yes, I admit this is a flex. Literally. The book is uncomfortably heavy. And likewise so is its story. But . . .
Pastoral Prayer after the Failed Assassination of President Trump
Editors’ note: Earlier today pastors around the United States led their congregations in praying in the wake of yesterday’s failed assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump. We offer one such prayer by David Cassidy, pastor of Spanish River Church in Boca Raton, Florida. Below is a lightly edited version shared with permission It is with profound shock, grief, and sadness that our country is once again facing the specter of political violence.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Hans Madueme
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. Advertise on TGC What’s on your nightstand right now? What are your favorite fiction books? There are too many to answer in any meaningful way! Maybe I’ll mention a few spanning different genres that I’ve enjoyed in recent years. Anything by David Mitchell or Lee Smith.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Drew Dyck
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. Advertise on TGC What’s on your nightstand right now? I have a few on my nightstand. I’m reading Remaking the World by Andrew Wilson. I love books with a big bold thesis, so I’m finding it fascinating. Frankly, I’m blown away by the breadth of Wilson’s knowledge. No one should be that smart. It’s not fair.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Philip Ryken
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Philip Ryken—president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and author more than 50 books, including Beauty Is Your Destiny—about what’s on his bedside table, favorite fiction, favorite books for leaders, and much more. Advertise on TGC What’s on your nightstand right now?
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Joshua Chatraw
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Joshua Chatraw—the Beeson Divinity School Billy Graham chair for evangelism and cultural engagement and author or coauthor of various books including The Augustine Way and Surprised by Doubt—about what’s on his bedside table, favorite fiction, favorite biographies, and much more. Advertise on TGC What’s on your nightstand right now? I’m taking this question quite literally.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with N. Gray Sutanto
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked N. Gray Sutanto—assistant professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, and author, editor, or translator of various books including Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction—about what’s on his bedside table, favorite fiction, favorite neo-Calvinism books, and much more. Advertise on TGC What’s on your nightstand right now?
Israel’s 9/11: The Need for Moral Clarity
On Saturday, Hamas—an Islamist terrorist group based in the Gaza Strip and funded by Iran—launched a large-scale attack on southern Israel by sea, land, and air. As of this writing, over 900 Israelis have died, 2,400 are wounded, and hundreds more have been taken hostage.
On My Shelf: Life and Books with Matthew Barrett
On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers. I asked Matthew Barrett—professor of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, founder and editor of Credo, and author of many books including Simply Trinity and The Reformation as Renewal—about what’s on his bedside table, favorite fiction, favorite Reformation books, and much more. Advertise on TGC What’s on your nightstand right now?
Sandy Willson Named TGC Interim President
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Austin, Texas – March 31, 2023 – The Board has appointed Sandy Willson as interim president of The Gospel Coalition, and he will lead TGC while the Board launches a national search for the next TGC president. “I am deeply humbled to be asked to serve TGC in this interim period,” said Willson.
Books Editor - The Gospel Coalition
Share Books Editor at The Gospel Coalition Determined Upon Hire USD Job Overview SUMMARY Leads all editorial efforts with books coverage and helps acquire and edit books. Position works out of home office. Job Description RESPONSIBILITIES (other duties may be assigned) Books Coverage and Edit (80%) Assign, edit, and publish three reviews per week—books that directly or indirectly engage with ideas that advance the overall mission of TGC of equipping the church.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI dies at age 95
Pope Benedict XVI, the first German pope in almost 1,000 years and the first pope to resign in six centuries, has died. Pope Francis announced Wednesday that his 95-year-old predecessor was “very sick” after a deterioration in his health. The former Cardinal Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger became leader of the Roman Catholic Church at age 78 and took the name Benedict XVI. The introverted Benedict contrasted with his genial, globe-trotting predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
Editor’s Choice: The Best of 2022
In many American pulpits, you could preach the Arian heresy and no one would notice. But if you preached in favor of gun control, you’d be looking for a new job by Monday. That’s not to say our pastors should be preaching a particular position on gun control. It’s to say many Christians carry their political and cultural convictions much more firmly than their theological views.
How to Maintain Devotional Habits During Christmas Break
The first thought that goes through your mind is that it’s surely too early for anyone to be playing a drum, even an overexcited toddler. The second is that you’ve never slept on anything as uncomfortable as this sofa bed, including on that hiking trip when your tent flooded. The third is that there’s a dog in bed with you. Licking your ear.
Canada's MAiD Policy and Its Implications for Christians
In March 2023, Canada will begin assisting the mentally ill by terminating their lives. Canada first legalized medical assistance in dying (MAiD) in 2016. Bill C-7 in 2021 expanded the criteria for MAiD beyond those who had a foreseeable death. Now, a further expansion will allow those with mental illness to receive a prescription for death. The slope is not only slippery—the ground below MAiD collapsed into the pit of the earth.
How Tim Keller Made Me a Better Teacher
I feel blessed to have spent the last 31 years teaching English at a Christian university. I say “blessed” because my profession has allowed me not only to make full use of the skills I learned during my nine-year sojourn in secular undergraduate and graduate universities but also to disciple and witness to students from all (and no) faith backgrounds.
TGC Editorial Staff: Books We Enjoyed in 2022
It shouldn’t be surprising that the editorial staff at The Gospel Coalition enjoys reading. While our team worked diligently to evaluate the Christian market for our annual book awards, we also read an eclectic array of titles for professional development, historical awareness, encouragement, and just plain fun.
Review: ‘Biblical Critical Theory’ by Christopher Watkin
Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture is a tricky book to categorize: it’s part biblical theology, part worldview survey, part apologetic, and part primer on Christian ethics. In the introduction, Christopher Watkin offers the alternative titles of Know What Follows from What You Believe or perhaps The Bible: So What? (2). Those titles make it sound very general—like a book about the Bible and all its implications.
Final Answer? Jeopardy, Paul, and Hebrews
I was sitting in the airport burning time before a delayed flight when I started seeing online chatter about the final Jeopardy from November 16. Something about Paul and Hebrews. So naturally I was curious.
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