This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
God’s creatures on four legs are some of the greatest storytellers of the Scriptures.
“Praying the Bible” sounds odd to the ears of most believers today. That’s unfortunate.
The point of Revelation is to reveal consolation in Jesus, not to revel in chaos and confusion.
Erasmus and the Unintended Reformation
It is Jesus himself who is the ladder by which sinners get to God, not by them climbing up but by God climbing down.
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
We can do nothing to warrant entry into the kingdom of God nor are we getting in if we think a seat at God’s table is something to which we are entitled.
The gospel is for sinners – both the tax collector and Pharisee, both in need of the Great Physician.
The profound significance of Christ’s resurrection comes from the threefold justification it provides: it justifies the sinner, the sinner’s hope, and God himself.
Some part of us always wants our ability under the law to be just as important (or more) than grace.
The notion that your goodness is “good enough” to make you right with God is a lie straight from the father of lies himself.