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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Salvation doesn’t hang in the balance of a voting booth.
Below is the Thinking Fellows Essential Reading List with contributions from each of the Thinking Fellows hosts.
What the gospel does is take people who were enemies of God and transform them into lovers of God
Despite the fact that this could sound strange to modern ears, Luther has an important reason for saying what he does about the Commandments.
God does not give us an undebatable answer to suffering. Instead, God suffers, too.
You are the baptized, for in Christ we are all wet. The demographic dividers are washed away.
Regardless of background or beliefs, every American I talk to seems on edge, as if the sky were about to fall. But the sky is not falling.
Do our petitions move God?
Paul is writing as a man who has already lived a life of law-keeping while denying the resurrection.
When the church is a political actor, the gospel doesn’t have the final word.
There is no true life and meaningful community apart from forgiveness.
Both now and forever, the bruised and crucified Lord nailed to a cross is our assurance of deliverance.