1517 Podcasts

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we remember the saint who dared to oppose Ivan the Terrible.

Who Made Who. In this episode, Gillespie takes the wheel and steers us into tradition, liturgy, worship styles, and the various “-isms” that have sprung up within the churches over the centuries. What’s the purpose of the Divine Service? What is the fundamental meaning of Christian meaning? Have we jettisoned mystery for sensible explanations that find no seat pulled out for them in God’s house? Is Christian worship, polity, and piety about what we know, experience, feel, or conformity to specific doctrines? Why is the old magic not welcome amongst sensible worshippers? What’s the place of hymns, prayers, preaching, and Scripture in Christian worship? Is liturgy a delivery mechanism or a tool?

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we remember the most important Catholic in American history?!

Jesus Only For Everyone

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we remember a famous letter that helped settle the Canon of the New Testament for the church.

In this episode of Outlaw God, Dr. Stephen Paulson and Caleb Keith discuss the theological implications of divine favor, exploring Martin Luther's perspectives on the law, the role of suffering, and the significance of the incarnation.

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we tell the story of, perhaps, the most popular hymn for Epiphany.

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head to the mailbag to answer a question about Eastern Orthodoxy and the Bible.

The Quarry of Old Abraham

Weekend Edition for January 3-4, 2026

What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? In this episode, we gather for a post-Christmas, post-New Year pastoral debrief. We talk about symbols and meaning, Christmas and holidays, signs and seasons, and how modern churches quietly cleared the path for culture to push Christ out of Christmas without much resistance. We explore the strange and largely arbitrary ways the world measures time, along with the old Adam’s never-ending pyramid project. That is, his need to build meaning upward by effort, progress, and control rather than receive it as a gift. From there, we return to symbol and meaning. We ask why ancient liturgy’s nostalgia or ornamentation, but the distilled shape of reality itself, why the Lord’s Supper isn’t a side practice, but the beating heart of the Church, of worship, and of the Christian life. And why stories’ decorations for faith, but the way truth takes on flesh and finds us where we actually live. This is a conversation about time, worship, memory, and why the Church invents meaning but receives it again and again at the table.

Today on the Christian History Almanac, we remember the medieval Bessarion and his critical position between East and West.