Life and Books and Everything

By Clearly Reformed

Arts Religion & Spirituality Christianity

What's Life and Books and Everything about?

Life and Books and Everything is a podcast hosted by Kevin DeYoung where discussions center on, well, life and books and everything. As a church pastor and theology professor, Kevin loves to talk about faith, theology, history, current events, and the occasional hot topic. The format for LBE includes interviews with leading authors and thinkers, recurring conversations with Justin Taylor and Collin Hansen, and the occasional solo musing from Kevin. Listen in and we hope you will learn something, laugh a little, and get some good book recommendations along the way.

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LAST EPISODE

Politics after Christendom ...

11.29.2023

Any Christian trying to formulate a political theology cannot afford to ignore the impressive work done by David VanDrunen over the past decade. In this long-ish interview, Kevin asks Dave about two kingdoms theology, natural law, the purpose of government, ...

Life and Books and Everything episodes:

11.29.2023 Politics after Christendom with David VanDrunen Any Christian trying to formulate a political theology cannot afford to ignore the impressive work done by David VanDrunen over the past decade. In this long-ish interview, Kevin asks Dave about two kingdoms theology, natural law, the purpose of government, ...
11.21.2023 Life and Ministry with Carl Trueman In this fun and frank discussion, Kevin and Carl talk about everything from Billy Graham to Pride Month to Christian Nationalism. Along the way Carl reveals what he hates about America and why he is not a Catholic.
10.26.2023 The Two-Parent Privilege with Melissa Kearney In this episode, Kevin talks with Melissa Kearney, professor of economics at the University of Maryland, about her new book, The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind (University of Chicago Press, 2023). What is so ...
10.12.2023 The Rise of Contemporary Critical Theory with Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer We've heard the terms before: cultural Marxism, socialism, intersectionality, microaggressions, standpoint epistemology, the Frankfurt School, Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and many more. But what do they mean? Where did they come from? And how should Christians respond? Kevin talks ...
09.27.2023 Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age with Rosaria Butterfield Is homosexuality normal? Is transgenderism a sin? Is Christian kindness the same thing as spiritual niceness? What's the difference between acceptance and approval? In this episode, Kevin and Rosaria probe these questions and many others like them. Whether you are ...
09.13.2023 The Reformation as Renewal with Matthew Barrett Was the Protestant Reformation a repudiation of the church's history? Was it a rejection of Medieval theology? Did the Reformation lead to schism in the church? Kevin talks to Matthew Barrett, professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, ...
08.23.2023 Is All the Talk of Mental Health Bad for Our Mental Health? The three amigos are back to kick off a new season of LBE. From college football to dropping kids off at college to the rise of mental health issues on college campuses (and everywhere else!), this episode has a back-to-school ...
08.11.2023 Life and Ministry with Kevin DeYoung Don't skip over the preposition. This special episode is an interview with Kevin, instead of an interview by Kevin. Not long ago, Tom Groelsema, one of the pastors at Christ Covenant, took the evening service to interview Kevin. This was ...
06.21.2023 A Little Bit of L, B, and E with Justin Taylor and Collin Hansen The triumvirate managed to get together one last time before setting sail for summer plans. With little time to spare before Collin needed to run Tom Cruise-style after a plane bound for the UK, the three amigos chat about the ...
06.07.2023 The Gender Paradigm with Abigail Favale What is feminism? What is intersectionality? Who is Judith Butler? How does childbearing change a woman? Why do Catholic feminist scholars have such interesting Italian last names? These are just some of the questions Kevin explores with Abigail Favale as ...
06.06.2023 Anatomy of a Sneer Are male and female distinctions rooted in given biological realities or are “man” and “woman” simply designations we choose for ourselves based on our own feelings and sense of identity? In this episode, Kevin reviews an article written by USA ...
06.05.2023 7 Reasons Why Mormonism and Christianity Are Not the Same Though the language sounds similar at times, the beliefs are quite distinct. Mormons do not understand history, God, man, salvation, heaven, hell, the cross, Jesus, or the Trinity as the canonical Scriptures teach, nor do they agree with the conciliar ...
06.01.2023 Christian Witness in Public Life with Paul McNulty With a 30-year career in Washington, D.C. and going on ten years as president of Grove City College, Paul McNulty has had a remarkable career. Recently, Dr. McNulty, a PCA ruling elder, gave the commencement address at Covenant Day School ...
05.23.2023 Prophetic or Merely Performative In this article, Kevin discusses how Christians are to honor each other and Christ when critiquing and correcting each other.
05.22.2023 He Was Ready for Heaven He kept the main thing the main thing. He wasn’t a jerk. He wasn’t a prima donna. He was enjoyable to be around. He was full of the fruit of the Spirit.That’s a good life; that’s a Christian life.
05.19.2023 Giving Thanks for Harry Reeder (1948–2023) In many ways, Harry was a man’s man: strong, athletic, and confident. But he was also a family man. We should pray for his wife, Cindy, along with their three children—Jennifer, Ike, and Abby—and their many grandchildren. Harry will be ...
05.10.2023 Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President with Allen Guelzo It’s a special day at LBE as Kevin interviews his first returning guest, the esteemed historian Dr. Allen Guelzo of Princeton University. Find out how Dr. Guelzo moved from being an Edwards scholar to being a Lincoln scholar (and how ...
05.05.2023 Two Sexes, Created to Be Distinct Kevin reflects on the current cultural climate of gender expression and offers the explicit opinion of scripture as a rebuttal.
04.27.2023 Technology Is Neither Good, nor Bad, nor Neutral with Tony Reinke and Samuel James How should the Christian think about technology? How should we use technology? Are we better off as Luddites who avoid new technologies? In this episode—ironically, interrupted by many technological glitches!—Kevin talks with two of our leading writers when it comes ...
04.18.2023 An American Evangelist In this Episode, Kevin reads from his recent article for First Things, a response Collin Hansen's article about the life and ministry of Tim Keller.
04.06.2023 “That’s Just Your Interpretation” The charge of “just your interpretation” short-circuits the interpretative process altogether.In this article for WORLD Opinions, Kevin argues for scriptural inerrancy and the importance of “right” interpretation.
03.29.2023 Sorrows Untold and Hearts Torn Asunder In the wake of tragedy, we need the whole Bible with all the depth of Christ’s sympathy and all of God’s providential and loving care.
03.29.2023 First Sermon, Hard Goodbyes, and a Lifetime of Preaching with H.B. Charles Jr. With a heart of gold, H.B. got up early in the morning from a hotel room in L.A. to talk to Kevin about preaching. If you want to know what H.B. stands for, or what he preached for his first ...
03.16.2023 Who Was St. Patrick? St. Patrick was more than the Americanized way of celebrating him. His life’s work is marked by faithfulness to evangelism and the gospel.
03.08.2023 In Appreciation of Stickiness and the Midwest with Jon Lauck Often lampooned as boring, bland, and less important than other regions in the country, might it be that the Midwest actually has its own regional identity and a story worth telling? Jon Lauck, a professor at the University of South ...
03.07.2023 So, What about That TGC Article on Sex? Many of the most virulent critics seemed to object to any asymmetry between men and women in sexual intimacy. In this episode, Kevin offers six reflections amid the firestorm surrounding an article by Joshua Butler for The Gospel Coalition.
02.28.2023 From Death to life Church attendance is declining. In this episode, Kevin reads from his recent article for WORLD Opinions where he argues for including additional data for analysis and offers a word of hope.
02.23.2023 What is True Revival? True revival is marked by a rediscovery of the word of God, a restored sense of the fear of God, a return to God through confession and repentance, a renewed spiritual commitment as God’s people, and, finally, a reformation if ...
02.21.2023 An Invitation and Explanation of the Coram Deo Pastors Conference Dear brother pastor, In a spirit of prayerful expectation, I want to invite you to the Coram Deo Pastors Conference. This new event is hosted by Clearly Reformed (a new ministry I help to lead) and Christ Covenant Church (where ...
02.16.2023 More than Thoughts and Candles As long as there is sin and suffering in the world, the gospel will be relevant. In the wake of the tragic MSU shooting, Christians must remember that the hope of healing lies in the truth of the gospel.
02.14.2023 From Wales to America and Back Again: Lessons from a Life in Ministry with Derek Thomas In this episode, Kevin is joined by his friend and RTS colleague, Derek Thomas as the two of them talk about pastoring, preaching, and why Derek loves Columbia, South Carolina. Derek shares about his conversion (through reading John Stott), some ...
02.07.2023 PCA 50th Anniversary Devotion For many of us, the danger is not that we would explicitly deny the Word of God. The danger is that we nullify the truth in other, more subtle ways. In this article, Kevin reads from a devotional he wrote ...
02.06.2023 The Second Coming of Christ with John Piper Kevin sits down with John for a return visit to LBE to talk about John’s new book, “Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ” (Crossway). Hear what John Piper thinks about the rapture, the millennium, and why ...
02.01.2023 An Open Statement of the Truth We must never use apologetics—or for that matter, contextualization—as a way to make hard truths less noticeable or the offense of the gospel more palatable. In this article from WORLD Opinions, Kevin encourages Christians to be bold and courageous in ...
01.30.2023 A Fuller Measure of Witherspoon on Slavery A Princeton University president, teacher, preacher, politician, Declaration of Independence signatory, and a slave owner. As an early American patriot, John Witherspoon has been the center of some recent controversy as a statue of him may be removed from historic ...
01.18.2023 Is the Church Failing at Being a Church? Before we denounce most leaders as Pharisees and large swaths of the church as complicit in the evil deeds of darkness, let’s make sure we are not trafficking in well-meaning, but unhelpful, myths. This article, written for WORLD Opinions, urges ...
01.17.2023 Football, the Future, and Personal Piety with Justin Taylor and Collin Hansen If you want a longer-than-usual discussion about football, you’ve come to the right episode. After ruminating on why Americans like football so much, the three amigos turn their attention to more familiar themes, prognosticating on which Christians around today will ...
01.10.2023 The Economics of Abortion in One Lesson In this Episode from an written for Christ Over All, Kevin discusses the moral and economic affects that abortion has on mothers, families, and women.
01.04.2023 A New Goal for the New Year There are many worthwhile battles to fight in life. The most important, most necessary, and most dangerous is the war we must wage against sin, flesh, and the devil. A new year means new opportunities to grow as Christians. This ...
12.29.2022 John Witherspoon: President and Patriot A Princeton University president, teacher, preacher, politician, Declaration of Independence signatory, and a slave owner. As an early American patriot, John Witherspoon has been the center some recent controversy as a statue of him may be removed from historic Princeton ...
12.23.2022 The Promise of Christmas In this episode of Life and Books and Everything, Kevin reads from his recent article in WORLD opinions about the curse in the garden, the hope and promise of Christ's coming, and our restoration to communion with God.
12.14.2022 Pastor, Don't Get Cute this Christmas Kevin reads from his article in The Gospel Coalition to encourage pastors to forego the cliche and cute and stick to preaching "the old, old story" this Christmas.
12.13.2022 Christmas, Best Books, and Renewing Evangelicalism with Justin Taylor and Collin Hansen The gang is back for one last episode in 2022. There is the usual sports banter (very brief), and some good natured ribbing toward Justin, who seems to know nothing about pop culture but still has dreams about Elvis. The ...
12.09.2022 A Dust-up among the Historians For as much as the CFH talks about inclusion and the free exchange of ideas, it is clear that the present leadership of the historical guild assumes conclusions on the left. In this response to a recent article published by ...
12.07.2022 What is Conservatism? with Daniel McCarthy Several months ago, Daniel McCarthy—editor of Modern Age and Editor-at-Large of The American Conservative—published an essay in First Things entitled “The Right Right.” McCarthy’s essay was a review of Yoram Hazony’s Conservatism: A Rediscovery and Matthew Continetti’s The Right: The ...
12.06.2022 Who Was St. Nicholas? With what little we know about St. Nicholas, it is safe to say he would not be pleased to know he had eclipsed Christ in the hearts of many as the central figure of Christmas. In this episode, Kevin reads ...
12.02.2022 What Should Christians Think About Same-Sex Marriage? In this article written for Crossway, Kevin discusses the meaning of the term "marriage" and how Christians should view same-sex unions.
12.01.2022 The Darkness Does Not Win With so many sad things in our world, it can be difficult to see any bright spots. This article reminds Christians of the hope of Christmas.
11.30.2022 A Plea to Pastors: Don’t Cancel Church on Christmas In this episode of Life and Books and Everything, Kevin reads his article from The Gospel Coalition and pleads with pastors not to cancel Christmas services this year.
11.24.2022 A People of Public Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving from Life and Books and Everything! In this episode, Kevin reads from his recent article in WORLD Opinions about the history of an American holiday and the opportunity it presents to Christians to display their thankfulness.

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