Anderson - All thats good: recovering the lost art of discernment

When the topic of discernment arises, I get nervous. Maybe you do, too. Many of us have been on the receiving end of the well-intended comments of others, offered in the name of godly discernment. With the Bible as her steady guide, Hannah Anderson points us toward good definitions and good practices to help us obey the command to be people who know how to discern rightly. Im so grateful for this clarifying book.

JEN WILKIN

Author and Bible teacher

Few authors capture the nuances of Christian wisdom and avoid reducing it to the dos and donts of life or the five steps to sound decision-making. Yet in All Thats Good, Hannah Anderson skillfully captures wisdoms many sides, delivering a thoughtful, informed, and accessible approach to the art of discernment for all Christians. By grounding her approach in Gods good creation, Anderson calls readers to reconsider how God is at work in His world, how we experience the world around us, and especially how we think as we journey through life with God. For all who desire to cultivate virtue and grow in wisdom and discernment, move All Thats Good to the top of your reading list. As both professor and pastor, I strongly recommend it.

BENJAMIN T. QUINN

Assistant Prof., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Pastor, Holly Grove Baptist Church

All Thats Good urges us to grow in true discernment by developing a taste for Gods goodness. Weaving nostalgic storytelling with wisdom and soul, Hannah beckons us to deep, biblical thinking. Readers will walk away looking for Gods pure, lovely, redemptive, restoring character in the world around them. This is a timely book on an always relevant topic.

EMILY JENSEN AND LAURA WIFLER

Cofounders of Risen Motherhood

All Thats Good has arrived at just the right moment. In an age of tribalism and fake news, its more important than ever that Christians develop their discernment skills in order to follow Christ well in spite of the challenges of our current cultural moment. Hannah illuminates eternal truths in an accessible manner that all Christians will walk away from this book with, tools to navigate this present age as better neighbors, citizens, and disciples.

KATHRYN FREEMAN

Director of Public Policy, Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission

Once again, Hannah Anderson has written a book that not only points readers toward the good, the true, and the beautiful, but is all of these things as well. This book recovers life-giving, joy-generating applications of the Christian faith that have been lost for generations to the spirits of fear and enmity that have come to define the relationship of many believers to Gods good world. Andersons reminder to taste and see the goodness of God all around us is a welcome invitation for us all.

KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR

Author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah MorePoet, Reformer, Abolitionist

Hannah Anderson has long been a source of wisdom and insight into the spiritual nature of the public and the public nature of the spiritual. She captures the truth about things we all see, but can hardly explain. In All Thats Good, Hannah does it again, refusing the false public/private dichotomy that starves our public life and splits our souls in half. Reading this book will help you bring your whole self to the public, discerning what is good and what is not, and partnering with God to see His goodness become even more realized in the world. What a soul-nourishing read Hannah has provided for us in these pages.

MICHAEL WEAR

Author of Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America

Ive always seen discernment as a basically negative thing: make sure you dont embrace something bad. Hannah Anderson has convinced me that it is a positive thing: make sure you do embrace what is good. This book, like the biblical text it centers on, is good, true, honorable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Buy it, read it, and think about such things!

ANDREW WILSON

Teaching Pastor at Kings Church London

Hannah Anderson presents a beautiful and needed guide for finding the good thats often hidden within the worlds brokenness. In All Thats Good, Hannahs signature storytelling revives the lost art of discernment and inspires us to hunt for His goodness in all the nooks and crannies of life. From family relations to community involvement to political discourse, All Thats Good trains us to sort through the constant barrage of information and opinion, so we can assess whats good from whats not. Rather than telling us WHAT to think, Hannah teaches us HOW to thinkand with that skill, we are able to fully embrace the goodness of this life.

ERIN STRAZA

Author of Comfort Detox

Managing Editor of Christ and Pop Culture

2018 by HANNAH ANDERSON

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Christian Standard Bible, copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version, public domain.

All emphasis in Scripture has been added.

Names and details of some stories have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates.

Edited by Amanda Cleary Eastep

Interior Design: Erik M. Peterson

Author photo: Mary Wall

Cover Design: Erik M. Peterson and Faceout Studio

Cover illustration of weathervane copyright 2018 by AVA Bitter/Shutterstock (635189591).

Cover illustration of horse copyright 2018 by Yakov Oskanov/Shutterstock (1070034818).

All rights reserved for both illustrations.

All websites and phone numbers listed herein are accurate at the time of publication but may change in the future or cease to exist. The listing of website references and resources does not imply publisher endorsement of the sites entire contents. Groups and organizations are listed for informational purposes, and listing does not imply publisher endorsement of their activities.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Anderson, Hannah, 1979- author.