Author

  1. Monday, February 16, 2026

    book
    02/16/26
    13 mins
    By Dan van Voorhis
    Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head to the mailbag to answer a question about Dan’s favorite books.
    Monday, February 16, 2026

  2. The True Myth of the Gospel with Louis Markos

    book
    02/03/26
    4 mins
    By Kelsi Klembara | Louis Markos
    Kelsi talks with English professor and Christian apologist, Louis Markos, about the importance of myth, storytelling, and imagination within Christian apologetics.
    The True Myth of the Gospel with Louis Markos

  3. 425: Lewis - Myth Became Fact

    book
    01/23/26
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    The Hangman’s Nous. In this episode, we read an excerpt from The Maniac, by G.K. Chesterton, followed by Myth Became Fact, from C.S. Lewis’ book of essays, “God in the Dock.” The primary question we discuss, then, is whether men and women can live a healthy and sane life with mystery, without myth, and without higher truth. What has happened to modern churches that exorcised mystery from preaching, teaching, evangelism, and worship? What anchors the Body of Christ when it’s unmoored from Church history and tradition? What have been the consequences for churches that treat the Christian story as more fantasy than fact? What does Lewis mean that God is “mythopoeic”? What does it mean that Christianity is, according to Lewis, “perfect myth and perfect fact”?
    425: Lewis - Myth Became Fact

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 402: Tolkien - Certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth

    book
    07/31/25
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Got A Machine Head. In this episode, we read J.R.R. Tolkien’s letter to his son, Christopher, about a question of Genesis’ unfashionable status amongst Christians and those who value beautiful ‘stories.’ He also discusses Eden as it was, as it is to faith, and will be on the last day, the war of the machine, its triumph, and the consequences for modern man.
    402: Tolkien - Certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth

  7. Tony Stark and the Infinity Saga: Eucatastrophe and Sacrifice

    book
    07/15/25
    9 mins
    By Kelsi Klembara | Scott Keith
    In this episode of Outside Ourselves Summer Break, 1517 executive director, Scott Keith, joins Kelsi to talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and specifically, the character arc of Tony Stark or Iron Man over the course of the Avengers: Infinity Saga series.
    Tony Stark and the Infinity Saga: Eucatastrophe and Sacrifice

  8. 399: More Questions Answered - Myth and Taylor Swift

    book
    07/11/25
    8 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    What Do You Mean, There’s More to This? In this episode, we answer a listener's question about Taylor Swift that leads us into a conversation about symbols and meaning, religious iconography, wild truth, and seeing reality through what’s occurring in the sacraments.
    399: More Questions Answered - Myth and Taylor Swift

  9. Law and Gospel in Jane Eyre

    book
    07/01/25
    9 mins
    By Kelsi Klembara | Amy Mantravadi
    In this episode of Outside Ourselves: Summer Break, author, 1517 contributor, and internet theology whiz kid, Amy Mantravadi discuss theological themes in Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre.
    Law and Gospel in Jane Eyre

  10. The CHA Weekend Edition Presents the Greatest Lenten Story Ever Told: Dante’s Inferno

    book
    03/29/25
    5 mins
    By Dan van Voorhis
    Weekend Edition for March 29-30, 2025
    The CHA Weekend Edition Presents the Greatest Lenten Story Ever Told: Dante’s Inferno

  11. 383: Tolkien - The 'protestant' search backwards for 'simplicity' and directness ... is mistaken and indeed vain

    book
    03/08/25
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    And so it begins. In this episode, we read the letters of J.R.R. Tolkien for Lent. We discuss sin and mercy, Eden and scientific materialism, ecumenism and cults, and much more!
    383: Tolkien - The 'protestant' search backwards for 'simplicity' and directness ... is mistaken and indeed vain

  12. A Novel of the Reformation with Amy Mantravadi

    book
    12/10/24
    10 mins
    By Amy Mantravadi | Kelsi Klembara
    In this episode, Kelsi talks with author, Amy Mantravadi, about her new historical novel Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, released by 1517 Publishing last month.
    A Novel of the Reformation with Amy Mantravadi