Author

  1. 430: Tolkien - The Journey Through the Desert: The Lenten Quest

    book
    02/27/26
    12 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Lent in Middle-earth. In this episode, we discuss the Lenten subtext, language, and images in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Return of the King.” What can Christians learn from fiction authors about the faith, devotional reading, understanding the world outside the churches through the view of the cross, and how all of reality is bent towards Easter at all times, in all places, by all people? This and much, much more on today’s show.
    430: Tolkien - The Journey Through the Desert: The Lenten Quest

  2. The CHA Weekend Edition Presents: The Fast (and Not Furious)

    book
    02/21/26
    5 mins
    By Dan van Voorhis
    Weekend Edition for February 21-22, 2026
    The CHA Weekend Edition Presents: The Fast (and Not Furious)

  3. The Season of Lent (and the Entire Christian Life) with Christopher Richmann

    book
    02/17/26
    4 mins
    By Kelsi Klembara | Christopher J. Richmann
    Christopher Richmann teaches religion and is assistant director for teaching and learning with the Academy for Teaching and Learning at Baylor University.
    The Season of Lent (and the Entire Christian Life) with Christopher Richmann

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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

  9. 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

  10. 400: Paulson - The Hidden Life of Christians

    book
    07/17/25
    8 mins
    By Donavon Riley | Christopher Gillespie
    You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away. In this episode, we read the Outlaw God and discuss the hidden life of a Christian. How are Christians to understand the living Word, or Christ crucified before Adam and Eve, or being called into vocations that serve the kingdom of life rather than a culture of death?
    400: Paulson - The Hidden Life of Christians

  11. 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

  12. 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