Giants of the Faith - A Christian History Podcast

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Send us feedback I mentioned in the first Arminius episode that we might cover the Eighty Years' War at some point in a bonus episode. That point is today. I hope you enjoy this brief diversion from our typical subjects.

Send us feedback  Today, in episode 86, we are continuing our trek through the Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals by Intervarsity Press. Today we are spending time with a figure who does not always get the attention he deserves, yet his influence on the church in Scotland and on the broader Reformed world is profound. He can be found on page 422 of the Biographical Dictionary. We are talking...

Send us feedback This Christmas 2025 episode will focus on the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is this year's Christmas episode, of course, because Longfellow wrote the memorable poem Christmas Bells - which later became the Christmas hymn I Heard the Bells. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is one of America's most cherished poets, a writer whose moral vision, gentle piety, and ly...

Send us feedback This episode concludes our three part look at Jacobus Arminius as part of the larger series of episodes taken from Inter-Varsity Press' Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals. In this episode we're discussing Arminianism today. If you haven't listened to the preceding two episodes you should go do that now. 

Send us feedback Today we're continuing our look at Arminius and the storms that followed his death. He died of tuberculosis in 1609 but, of course, his impact continued, and continues, long after his death. Specifically, we're going to focus on the Synod of Dort, one of the most important, and perhaps least understood, events in the history of Christian doctrine. We'll look at what...

Send us feedback Today we are continuing our random march through Inter-Varsity Press' Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals. My son pulled random number 18, which lead us to page 18 in the book. Page 18 takes us to Jacobus Arminius - the founder of the Remonstrant Movement and the arch-enemy of Calvinists everywhere. That's a bit of a joke but he is the founder of one of the two prima...

Send us feedback This is Episode 81 and the second in out series of episodes based on the Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals from Inter-Varsity Press. If you remember from the last episode I'm using a random number generator to choose a number from three to 763 and that determines what page to check to find the subject of the episode. It's kind of like a modern casting of the lots....

Send us feedback This season we're doing something a little different. This season will consist of mostly shorter episodes with inspiration drawn from the Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals by Mark Noll and published by Intervarsity Press. BDE features brief biographies, ordered chronologically, of over 400 evangelicals from John Wycliff to the modern day spread across 816 pages. My plan...

Send us feedback This is a special Christmas bonus episode featuring Charles Dickens. Dickens is in many ways responsible for the modern celebration of Christmas - for good or ill. I hope you enjoy this look at this life.

Send us feedback Today's show is about one of the titans of medieval thought - John Duns Scotus. Scotus was one of the most influential scholastics - right behind Thomas Aquinas. In this episode I'm going to go off into the weeds a bit to explain some of the details of the medieval school of thought known as Scholasticism and other topics. Hopefully you find the side-trips helpful. https...

Send us feedback Cornelius Van Til is one of the foremost apologists of the 20th Century. He developed the strand of apologetics known as presuppositional apologetics. His influence on modern Christianity is undeniable. RESOURCES New Netherlands Institute: https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/cornelius-van-til Banner of Truth: https://banneroftruth.org/us/res...

Send us feedback Hello and welcome to episode 77 of the Giants of the Faith podcast. My name is Robert Daniels and I am the host of this show where we look back at Christians from the past that have made an impact for the kingdom of God. Today we're looking at the life of Scottish missionary John Paton. RESOURCES Ligonier: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/missionary-john-paton All Nati...

Send us feedback In today's episode we're looking at influential modern theologian Karl Barth. This is my third try at writing this episode because I've struggled to be able to present Barth in a way that both appreciates his impact on the 20th century church while dealing with the problems in his personal life. So, to avoid rubber-stamping Barth's status as a Giant of the Fait...

Send us feedback Hello, and welcome to episode 76 of the Giants of the Faith podcast. This is the podcast where we look at the lives of Christians from history and examine the impact that they have had for the Kingdom of Christ. I'm your host, Robert Daniels, and in today's episode we're focused on one of the Church Fathers, John Chrysostom. RESOURCES Orthodox Christianity: https://...

Send us feedback  This is the podcast where we profile Christians from throughout the age of the church and look at their impact on the world and our shared faith. In this episode we're profiling the Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle, who's commentaries and works are still in print and in wide use today.

Send us feedback Dionysius Exiguus, whose name would be translated today as "Dennis the Humble," was a 6th-century monk, scholar, and mathematician. While he may not be as well-known as some other figures from antiquity, his contributions to the world are profound and enduring. 

Send us feedback Welcome to Giants of the Faith, a podcast where we explore some of the great figures in Christian history. I'm your host, Robert Daniels, and today we're going to talk about Mark Buntain, a Canadian evangelist and missionary who founded a hospital and a feeding program in Calcutta, India. This episode is for Tim Svoboda, who won the graphic novel contest from a few month...

Send us feedback  Today, we will focus on the life and work of John Mason Neale, an Anglican priest, scholar, and hymnwriter who translated and adapted many ancient and medieval hymns into English. My initial thought was to relegate Neale to a bonus episode hitched to Episode 71 and Wenceslaus. But when I saw that he was also responsible for the popular English translations of "Good Christian...

Send us feedback Merry Christmas! I'm recording this episode in December 2023 and Christmas is fast approaching. So, in honor of this festive season, today's episode will focus on the history and stories surrounding two men that have become part of our Christmas traditions in the West. One, Boniface, is most famous as the bringer of the Christmas tree. The other, Wenceslaus, for his nobl...

Send us feedback This is part two of two of a look at the life of famed evangelist Billy Graham. In part one we looked at Graham's early life through his first major evangelistic campaign in Los Angeles. Today we'll look at the rest of his life. I feel like I should say that I'm not covering everything that Graham did in his life. He was a busy guy. There are plenty of biographies o...

Send us feedback We've been following the chain of faith from Edward Kimball to DL Moody, then from Moody to Wilbur Chapman and on through Billy Sunday and Mordecai Ham until we've finally reach the man himself, William Franklin Graham. Graham needs little introduction so we'll just jump right into the story. RESOURCES The Billy Graham Library: https://billygrahamlibrary.org/blog-bi...

Send us feedback This is a bit of a bonus because I didn't intend to give today's subject the full episode treatment. But after a last-minute change of mind here we are with a short episode focusing on Mordecai Ham, the Kentuckian evangelist who will be the penultimate link in our chain of faith leading up to Billy Graham. Ham was a fundamentalist Baptist - not the kind of guy I would no...

Send us feedback Over the last few episodes we've been building up the chain of faith that leads to Billy Graham. We've seen how the devotion and life of Sunday school teacher Edward Kimball led to the conversion of a young DL Moody. Then how Moody inspired Wilbur Chapman to go into full-time evangelism which led to Chapman giving Billy Sunday his start as an evangelist. And that's...

Send us feedback In today's episode we're continuing the faith march toward Billy Graham. We started this journey by profiling the travelling salesman Edward Kimball, then the world renowned evangelist DL Moody. Today it's the lesser-known John Wilbur Chapman, a Presbyterian evangelist and pastor who was one of the most influential leaders of the revival movement in the late 19th an...