Author

  1. Monday, August 25, 2025

    book
    08/25/25
    14 mins
    By Dan van Voorhis
    Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head to the mailbag to answer a question about practices surrounding Holy Communion.
    Monday, August 25, 2025

  2. The CHA Weekend Edition Presents: “Why Do We Do That”? A Liturgical Mailbag

    book
    08/23/25
    6 mins
    By Dan van Voorhis
    Weekend Edition for August 23-24, 2025
    The CHA Weekend Edition Presents: “Why Do We Do That”? A Liturgical Mailbag

  3. 405: Barfield - Myth is the Ghost of Concrete Meaning

    book
    08/22/25
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Little Plastic Castles. In this episode, we read the first Inkling, Owen Barfield, as he defends the use of old words, old stories, and old ways of expressing what’s good, beautiful, and true against modern proponents that argued for more modern “scientific” ways of judging language, esp., poetics and myth, as well as religion and culture.
    405: Barfield - Myth is the Ghost of Concrete Meaning

  4. 404: Auden - A Litany and the Horae Cononicae

    book
    08/16/25
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Liturgy Amongst the Rubble. In this episode, we read poems by W.H. Auden about pulp fiction, ancient myths, conversion, liturgy, poetics, and how industrialization and corporatism build a new Babel inside and around the churches.
    404: Auden - A Litany and the Horae Cononicae

  5. Matthew 26:26-30 (Episode 393)

    book
    05/02/25
    3 mins
    By Daniel Emery Price | Erick Sorensen
    Matthew 26:26-30 (Episode 393)

  6. 388: Luther - Maundy Thursday

    book
    04/19/25
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Sunday Bloody Sunday In this episode, we read Martin Luther’s sermon for Maundy Thursday (1534), discussing the Lord’s Supper, polity, sacramental piety, fellowship, election and all the rabbit trails we follow…
    388: Luther - Maundy Thursday

  7. Wednesday, March 5, 2025

    book
    03/05/25
    13 mins
    By Dan van Voorhis
    Today on the Christian History Almanac, we pause to remember the beginning of the “Lenten” season (and this year, with the East and the West together!)
    Wednesday, March 5, 2025

  8. Episode 312: Formalism (Ritualism)

    book
    02/24/25
    7 mins
    By Wade Johnston | Michael Berg
    In episode THREE HUNDRED AND TWELVE, Mike, Jason, and Wade discuss the Protestant fear of formalism, or ritualism?
    Episode 312: Formalism (Ritualism)

  9. 365: Schwarz - Christ's Last Will and Testament

    book
    09/13/24
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Reign in Blood. In this episode of Banned Books, we discuss the Lord’s Supper while reading The Last Supper: The Testament of Jesus by Reinhard Schwarz. We discuss why the distinction between a covenant and a testament is of utmost importance for exegesis, sacramental theology, and Christian life, why promise and gift are central to Luther’s understanding of the sacrament, and how rejecting the sacrament leads to a denial of Christ.
    365: Schwarz - Christ's Last Will and Testament

  10. 363: Olson - Liturgy as "Action"

    book
    08/30/24
    10 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Runnin’ Down A Dream. In this episode, we dig deeper into liturgy and “action”—who’s doing what and why in Christian worship? How did the ancient pagans worship their gods, and why? What did the 16th-century Reformers teach about worship? Why should we moderns care? Mimesis, anamnesis, liturgical action, ritual, myth, sacrifices, and sacraments—we’ve got it all this week.
    363: Olson - Liturgy as

  11. John 6:35-51 – Pentecost 12 (B)

    book
    08/08/24
    4 mins
    By Steven Paulson | John W. Hoyum
    On this episode of Preaching the Text, John Hoyum and Steve Paulson discuss Christ's sermon on the bread of life. Unlike the manna given to the Israelites, Christ himself is the bread which endures to eternal life.
    John 6:35-51 – Pentecost 12 (B)

  12. 357: Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling

    book
    06/21/24
    10 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Life Isn’t Fair, and The World Is Mean. In this episode, we discuss Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac while reading Kierkegaard’s commentary on it and comparing it to Martin Luther and Rene Girard’s comments on it. It’s a meta-meta episode, and one of us confuses Kierkegaard’s biography with that of Nietzsche for much of the episode.
    357: Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling