Church History for Chumps

"Conference room, five minutes!"  -Emperor Constantine, probably  325 AD was a year of rebirth.  The Church was recovering from the Diocletianic Persecution, the worst wave of violence and discrimination faced thus far. Theologians and clergy were also battling the schism of the Donatists and the heresy of the Arians, both of which brought division to the body.  But 325 felt different. R...

"Y'all gon' make me lose my mind up in here." -Emperor Diocletian, probably The third century wasn't a great time to be a Roman. But believe it or not, it was a great time to be a Christian! Churches were built, the faith was spread, and the influence and witness of Christ's followers flowed far and wide.  But that would soon come to an end.  I mean, sort of. It didn&...

Imagine you had a friend who was, I dunno, an alien.  They have no grasp of life on earth, no understanding of human customs, minimal grasp of the language, culture, music, anything like that.  And so for years, they undergo a process of both learning and un-learning. Gradually detaching from their weird Martian ways (no disrespect to our Martian listeners), and becoming finely tuned in the rhythm...

Have you ever had to move across the country? It's a life-changing experience. Disrupting your regular routines and rhythms, adjusting to a totally foreign environment, learning new regional customs.  Now imagine being forced to move, against your wishes. Five different times, after being welcomed back home. That sounds pretty rough, huh? Welcome our topic for today, the greatest theologian o...

Did you know that Saint Patrick was the first Christian clergyman to ever don a priestly robe in green? No? That's because it's not true!  There's a lot of mythology around our boy, Paddy. But that just makes his story that much more interesting. Thanks for tuning in! Don't forget to leave us a cool review and tell a friend about us. Or an enemy.  IG: @churchhistory4chumps  Sup...

Every sport has a Wayne Gretzky. A Hank Aaron. A Michael Jordan.  The 4th Century didn't have Michael Jordan, though. It had Augustine of Hippo. And maybe Augustine didn't drop 30 points against the Jazz with a flu (or whatever), but Michael Jordan never took down Pelagianism without breaking a sweat. Wayne Gretzky never wrote Confessions, bro. Hank Aaron wasn't mentored by Ambrose...

When most Christians (okay, all Christians that aren't Catholic) look back on the Reformation, we typically do it with a little twinkle in our eyes. It feels like a time of triumph, of sticking it to the man once and for all.  In reality, the Reformation, for all its successes, was often a mess. And nowhere was that mess more evident than in 17th century England.  Join us this week as we walk...

Imagine that you're a teenager. You live in one of the biggest cities in the world, and your parents have just died, leaving behind a Bruce Wayne-esque amount of wealth and land. This is any kid's dream come true. The world is your oyster.  Unless your name is Anthony the Great. Then you decide to sell all your stuff, give it to the poor, and then go live in the desert for 80 years. I gu...

"Awwww here it goes." --Kel Mitchell, Kenan and Kel  We're back in the early church again, which means we're into the story of Christian persecution in the Roman Empire.  The 3rd Century was no pleasant time for the Romans, Christian or not. Through a series of civil wars, external threats, and economic woes, the Empire was closer to collapse than ever before.  This growing ins...

John Brown was a man on a mission from God. Or so he thought. Less than a decade before the Civil War began, John Brown would attempt to lead a slave rebellion by taking over a military armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Although unsuccessful, he would solidify his actions as a villain of the proslavery south and a hero of the antislavery north.  Brown considered himself as a hero of the Christian...

Is our nation more divided than ever? Are we losing the ability to respectfully disagree with each other? Welcome to our first ever bonus episode: Chump Talk. In these episodes, we'll tackle larger ideas and themes in the culture and talk to even cooler guests. (Don't worry though, we'll be right back with your church history fix next week) This week, John and Tom are joined by Jaco...

Have you ever heard someone say that Christianity is anti-intellectual?  Well, you should send them this episode. And have them 'like' and 'subscribe' too, that would help us a lot.  But anyways. Justin Martyr was a 2nd-century Greek man with a love for philosophy, who found the fullness of all love of wisdom in Christ. We think he's a pretty cool guy.  And today we'r...

As you guys know, we love presenting church history as a beautiful anthology of the story of God's people. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the vastness of that story when we don't venture out of our own contexts. So today, we're going to peer to the far outside branches of our Christian family tree, and discuss the origin of one of the most longstanding Christian tradition...

"Why are you booing me? I'm right!" - the early church, probably  The first century was a funky time to be a Christian, but persecution as we know it was pretty scattered and sporadic. In the second century though, things are starting to ramp up.  Join us for another episode from our "The Early Church Gets the Worm" series, and listen to us forget to edit out some fun mic...

In our newest piece in our series of Early Church lore, we discuss another tale of martyrdom, that of Perpetua and Felicity.  The early third Century was not an easy time for Christians in Northern Africa. But as so many tales of martyrs go, their story was one of both tragedy and triumph, as they took up the cross of Christ in the truest way.  Thanks for tuning in!  Support the show

"It's hard out here for a pimp."  -the early church, probably  As we continue our aptly named series, "The Early Church Gets the Worm," we discuss one of the most pressing topics for early Christians: persecution in the Roman Empire.  Happy New Year, friends.  Support the show

GUESS WHO'S BACK Man, it's been a minute you guys. I don't know if you missed us, but we definitely missed you.  This kicks off our new season, "The Early Church Gets the Worm." We'll be focusing on, you guessed it, stories from the early church era.  The story of Sergius and Bacchus is a tale of brotherhood, friendship, and the lasting legacy of their 5th century mar...

In many parts of the world, the question of whether you're a Catholic or Protestant means a lot more than if you submit to the Pope, or how you feel about Martin Luther.  One such place is Northern Ireland. For generations, the people of Ireland and the United Kingdom have been steeped in a conflict about religious freedom, civil rights, and discrimination. Tragically, this period of tension...

Have you ever wondered why some churches use grape juice for communion, while others insist on using wine instead? The answer is more complicated than you think. Or it might be less complicated, I don't know, I feel like you're probably pretty smart.  Either way, join us as we discuss Thomas Welch, the Prohibition Era, and the impact still felt by churches today.  IG: @churchhistory4chum...

Church history isn't always as, well, historically reliable as we wish it was. Sometimes the stories of saints and heroes tend to blur the lines between fact and fiction.  That would be the case of Saint Dymphna, an Irish-Catholic runaway who sought refuge from her violent father in a small town in Belgium. What's interesting though, is that whether or not her story is more than folklore...

It's 1550. A generation has passed since the Reformation swept across Europe like a wildfire.  The Catholic Church has launched the Counter-Reformation, a multi-layered initiative to restore the continent to its former Roman glory. One step of this plan in Germany is to recognize the cities that have fallen into the clutches of Lutheranism and coerce their return to the Church.  Suddenly the...

In the 5th Century, the Western Roman Empire is on its last leg.  Riddled with internal conflict, external threats, and even theological disputes tearing at the fabric of the Church, Rome has seen better days. And the great shadow of the Huns looms larger and larger as days go by.  This leads to one of the most engaging (and unexpected) encounters in church history: the frail and elderly Bishop of...

If you're not a Baptist (and we still love you even if you are), you're probably no stranger to the idea of infant baptism.  The doctrine of paedobaptism is saturated with the idea that the children of believers are heirs of the covenant of grace, and through baptism are welcomed into God's family.  But did you know that for several centuries of church history, the youngest believer...

Beginning as a fringe interpretation of the creation story in Genesis, the Serpent Seed Doctrine asks a question that no one really seems to be asking: what if Satan and Eve had a little...fling? It's a wild doctrine with even more of a wild history. So let's talk about it! Also, we're not gonna be too crude this episode, but given the nature of this episode's topic, it may not...

The 16th Century was a rollercoaster for Japanese Christians. The first half was amazing-- the first Portuguese missionaries broke ground and people were getting saved by the thousands. Churches were built, clergy established, things were looking great.  The second half was...well, pretty bad. A combination of suspicious Japanese leaders and the shaky reputation of the European powers started to t...