Uncommon Knowledge Interview with Ben Sasse on Cancer and Christian Hope (And Other Topics, Too)
I have tremendous respect for Ben Sasse. He is best known for serving from 2015-2023 as a senator from Nebraska. He also served briefly as President of the University of Florida (I won’t hold that against him) from February 2023 to July 2024. His books The Vanishing American Adult (2017) and Them: Why We Hate Each Other—and How to Heal (2018) are both excellent. I have considerable affinity for Sasse’s brand of constitutionalism and social conservatism. I also appreciate his thoughtful perspective on higher education in Amerca.
Sasse is also a brother in Christ. He worked full-time for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals in the 1990s, during which time he co-edited Here We Stand!: A Call from Confessing Evangelicals for a Modern Reformation (1996) with the late James Montgomery Boice. I read that book when I was a seminary student and appreciated it very much, though I didn’t know who Sasse was at the time.
As you may know, Sasse was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in December 2025. He almost certainly has only a few months to live. He wrote a moving update about his diagnosis on X on December 23, 2025. It struck a nerve with me because Sasse announced his diagnosis less than a week after Leah received her own cancer diagnosis. (Leah has state III colon cancer, though we are grateful her prognosis is much better than Sasse’s.)
This week, I listened to Peter Robinson’s interview with Sasse for Uncommon Knowledge, which is also available on X. I’ll just say this: it was a powerful interview. Robinson and Sasse discussed cancer, politics, family, American history, and Christian hope. Sasse’s reflections were raw at times, but seasoned with grace and rooted in the gospel. Numerous websites have published reflections about the interview, including Baptist Press and Mere Orthodoxy. I would simply encourage you to carve out an hour and listen to the interview for yourself. It is long, but it is worth it.
What I’m Reading
Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture (Zondervan Academic, 2022). I read the outstanding book when it first came out, but I’ve returned to it because it intersects so much with my current teaching and writing. It is not an easy read, but I’d recommend it to every pastor and other ministry leader.
Don Howell, Servants of the Servant: A Biblical Theology of Leadership (Wipf & Stock, 2003). I have read portions of this book over the years, but I’m now reading through it carefully because I assigned it for my Biblical Foundations for Leadership class later this spring. I think it is the best resource out there of its kind.
What I’m Writing
I’m working on a short essay reflecting on Carl Henry’s 1984 book The Christian Mindset in a Secular Society. The essay will be included in a book that the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission will publish later this year in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I’m also still working on my chapter on “Confessional Foundations for Baptist Social Ethics” for the book Baptist Social Ethics that Jason Thacker and I are co-editing for B&H Academic.