Press & Reviews

What Reviewers Are Saying About To Live Well

Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times has been earning praise from pastors, scholars, and critics alike. Here's a roundup of what people are saying.

The Gospel Coalition

“In our technique-driven culture, it’s tempting to see virtue as a ‘Rule of Life’ from which true Christian living flows. Noble reverses that strategy, showing that pursuing the true, good, and beautiful in life grows from a believer’s identity in Christ and place within a Christian community. Virtue isn’t a means of attaining or maintaining our status with God; it’s the fruit of the Spirit built on God’s gracious adoption of us when we were vicious sinners.”

Read the full review: The Gospel Coalition

Christianity Today

“There is nothing retrograde or nostalgic here in Noble’s treatment of the virtues, as if we might imagine returning to a simpler era where people knew the good and did it. Rather, Noble constructs a picture of virtue as hard work, shored up by the grace of God and exhibited as a coherent whole.”

Read the full review: Christianity Today

WORLD

“Alan Noble has a heart for Christians wanting to live well in a society fraught with competing moral messages and pathways to fulfillment. He contends that faith matters, our model is Christ, and living in the reality of the ‘creational design’ gives life meaning and purpose.”

Read the full review: WORLD

1517

“Noble’s latest Christian meditation on life in the modern world is a fine addition to his growing collection. The book is easy to read and should appeal to Christians of all varieties, but especially those from Reformation traditions, even if Lutherans may reach slightly different conclusions on the role virtue plays within sanctification. While it is not aimed at a specific age group, it might be especially helpful for young adults attempting to make important decisions in a rapidly changing world. If you, unlike me, read only one book on the virtues, this would be an excellent choice.”

Read the full review: 1517.org

byFaith Magazine

“[O]ne would be hard-pressed to find a book that better presents the classical Christian virtues in ways rife with cultural commentary and rich in application. This combination makes Noble’s work readily accessible to the local church and especially (though not exclusively) pertinent to young persons on the brink of big decisions. One sees Noble’s years of mentoring college students shine throughout each chapter. And so, as we seek to become a virtuous people, we would do well to heed Noble’s words of wisdom.”

Read the full review: byFaith Magazine

Evangelicals Now

Read the full review: Evangelicals Now

Advance Praise & Endorsements

Alongside formal reviews, To Live Well has drawn strong endorsements from writers and scholars:

● Tim Challies, author of Seasons of Sorrow, praises the book as philosophical yet practical and deeply biblical, saying it's exactly what many young Christians need to grow in their faith and love for others.

● Trevin Wax, VP for Resources and Marketing at the North American Mission Board, calls each chapter full of wisdom drawn from Scripture and life experience, naming it one of the year's best.

● Jessica Hooten Wilson, Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University, describes the book as a balm for the hurting that pieces together the fragments of modern advice into something whole.

To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times is available now from IVP.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook.com

REVIEWS for you are not your own

“You Are Not Your Own is an ambitious project, tying together diverse and neglected Christian thinkers like Ellul with familiar literary references to Sylvia Plath and J. D. Salinger.”

Israel Soong, The Gospel Coalition

“Noble’s book stands as a vital wake-up call for anyone suffering under the delusion that they belong to themselves. Unlike tragic Sisyphus, those who belong to Christ need never just imagine themselves happy.”

Timothy Kleiser, Christianity Today

“You Are Not Your Own is one of the most compelling, insightful, and wise books I have read in a long while, and I am eager to get it into the hands of friends and loved ones—both those who believe they belong to themselves, and those who know they belong to Christ but still live in a society founded on the lie that they are their own.”

Emily Wenneborg, Front Porch Republic

“I found his keen analysis of modernity to be clear, even-handed and intellectually robust, without becoming bogged down in obtuse language or endless theory… If we, as the body of Christ in the midst of late modernity, are to make any headway in meaningfully separating ourselves from the lies we unthinkingly imbibe, then we do well to pay attention to winsome, thoughtful, informed and culturally aware books like You Are Not Your Own.”

Joel Wentz, Englewood Review

“With a tone of kindness and gospel clarity, Alan Noble helps readers lay down the dizzying task of self-realization and self-aggrandizement.”

Dr. Ronni Kurtz, For the Church

“Far from making us freer, the conviction that we belong to ourselves has succeeded only in increasing society’s general levels of anxiety before an ever-expanding array of options that hold us in thrall. This has produced a paradox: the more we seek liberation, the more we find ourselves enslaved, living in ways that are less than fully human.”

David T. Koyzis, Cateclesia Institute

“Ultimately, Noble calls for us to recognize that our identities are rooted in our personhood before God, that this carries with it responsibilities to God and neighbor, but that it is God who meets these requirements in Christ.”

Donald Roth, In All Things

“Noble argues that much of our cultural turmoil stems from our belief that we belong to ourselves alone and are responsible for every aspect of our existence… And Noble shows that while our culture is obsessed with who we are, what is most important is to whom we belong.”

Jessica Roth, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

REVIEWS for disruptive witness

“This accessible, timely book provides concrete strategies for individuals and churches desiring a robust “disruptive” Christian witness in a distracted, secular age.”