Christianity Today October 9, 2026 6 min signal 2026-10-09

The Confessions, the Comforter, and ChatGPT

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Christianity Today

October 9, 2026

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## Irreplaceable: Humanity, Vocation, and the Limits of Technology

Gene Edward Veith Jr. (Author), A. Trevor Sutton (Author)

Baker Books

222 pages

$22.48

Gene Edward Veith Jr. and A. Trevor Sutton, Irreplaceable: Humanity, Vocation, and the Limits of Technology (Baker Books, 2026)

Christians are writing a lot of books about technology at the moment. You can see why. Even before the extraordinary potential of AI became apparent with the launch of ChatGPT four years ago, a wide range of evangelical thinkers and authors—many of whose children who had never known a world without the iPhone—were writing books about how phones, screens and social media were undermining basic Christian goods and what we should all be doing about it. With the rollout of AI, which amplifies many of these concerns and generates plenty of new ones, that trend looks set to continue.

For the most part, that is a good thing. The interaction between our technology, our work, and our anthropology looks to be one of the defining questions of the 21st century. But the challenge for authors is how to approach the subject in a fresh and illuminating way. Without a distinctive angle, the risk (which Gene Veith and Trevor Sutton occasionally run into in Irreplaceable) is putting the same few ingredients into the blender—the creation mandate, social imaginaries, power, embodiment, Jacques Ellul, Marshall McLuhan, and Neil Postman—and producing a very familiar smoothie.

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Veith and Sutton’s distinctive angle is the Lutheran doctrine of vocation. “We believe that vocation has the power to save the future of work,” they write at the start, before explaining what the doctrine means and how it operates in relation to our neighbors, technologies, workplaces, families, churches and societies. “That is indeed the argument of this entire book,” they conclude: “foregrounding God’s calling and our unique vocational responsibilities as humans while keeping tools and technologies to a supporting role. The tools and technologies that we use within our vocations must be animated by love and service to our neighbors.”

This is clearly true. It may however be too clearly true. Many Christians would share the authors’ convictions about vocation, service and love for neighbor—as I do—but still have many unanswered questions about how that works in our rapidly changing technological landscape. Irreplaceable, for all its interesting insights and sidebars, avoids many of them. Readers wanting answers may want to consult Andy Crouch, Samuel James, Felicia Wu Song, Chris Watkin and others.

## The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host

David Gibson (Author), Sinclair B. Ferguson (Foreword)

Crossway

184 pages

$19.04

David Gibson, The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host (Crossway, 2023)

Psalm 23 may be the most loved chapter in Scripture. It is almost certainly the most memorized. This makes it a gift to pastors—for whom its familiarity and comfort help in all manner of ways—but something of a challenge to authors, who may struggle to think of anything new to say about it. Gibson is both a pastor and an author, and his devotional exposition of the psalm is quite magnificent: familiar yet fresh, gentle and bold, lucid and heartwarming.

The psalm is divided according to its three major images: a sheep and its shepherd (vv. 1–3), a traveler and his companion (v. 4), and a guest and his host (vv. 5–6). The first image is in the third person, expressed in a “he-me” relationship; the second and third become “you-me” in the valley of the shadow of death, as if the Lord becomes closer as the valley gets darker. Comfort comes from the fact that the Shepherd is not just reassuringly close but is actively engaged and decisively strong. “He is heavily armed,” Gibson explains. Throughout the psalm, the Shepherd is the prime actor as he makes, leads, restores, accompanies, prepares, and anoints his people.

Gibson writes with a marvelous combination of pastoral experience, vivid prose, theological clarity—including a gracious but firm rebuttal of none other than C. S. Lewis on verse 5—and devotional warmth, which makes this book a delight to read. Expositions of Scripture don’t come much better.

## Confessions

Augustine (Author), Sarah Ruden (Translator)

Modern Library

528 pages

$11.48

Augustine, Confessions: A New Translation by Sarah Ruden (Modern Library, 2018)

Whenever I am asked for book recommendations from church history, I always start with Augustine’s Confessions. It may be the greatest Christian book written since the Bible; it is certainly one of the most influential. Every time we read an autobiography that blends personal narrative, self-criticism, and reflection on the human condition—as all the best ones do—we are indebted to this life story in the form of a prayer, and to the astonishing North African theologian who wrote it (to say nothing of his remarkable mother Monica).

The most quotable highlight comes on the opening page: “You made us with yourself as our goal, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” But far less well-known gems are scattered all over the place. “Let me die, to keep me from dying.” “You change your works but you do not change your plan.” “These people judged by the standard of human time and measured the customs of the whole human race by the portion of custom that happened to be their own.” “Everywhere, greater joy is preceded by greater trouble.” “Grant what you command, and command what you wish.” I could go on—and that is without mentioning the extended musings on the nature of creation, time, sin, and grace, and the famous narrative set pieces that all readers remember, from his theft of the pears in an Algerian orchard to his conversion to Christ in a Milanese garden.

If you haven’t read Confessions yet, put your other books on hold until you have. You will be glad you did.

Andrew Wilson is teaching pastor at King’s Church London and author of Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West. Follow him on X @AJWTheology.

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