The History of the Christian Church - 2000 Years of Christian Thought.

Send us Fan Mail Episode Notes: Some people change history through dramatic events. Others change it through ideas. And then there are those rare figures who quietly reshape the way an entire civilization thinks. Peter Lombard was one of those men. You may not recognize his name immediately. He did not lead crusades, he did not stand before kings, and he did not become a martyr. And yet, for centu...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome: What happens when the church becomes too clever? What happens when faith is no longer something to be lived, but something to be analysed? That is the world we stepped into with Peter Abelard in our last episode.  But not everyone welcomed that change, because, amid that rising tide of intellectual confidence, another voice began to speak. His name was Bernard of Clairvau...

Send us Fan Mail This episode goes live on all podcast platforms on the 1st May 2026 What happens when the human mind refuses to stay quiet? Today as we move further into the medieval world, that careful balance begins to shift. Because in the next generation, a new voice emerges. Brilliant, bold, and uncompromising. A man who would not simply reflect on the faith but would challenge it…. His name...

Send us Fan Mail A History Podcast of the Christian Church told through the lives and thoughts of its greatest thinkers. Anselm of Canterbury Part Two. References and Sources for This Episode: Below are reliable academic and historical sources supporting the material used in this episode on Anselm of Canterbury. Primary Sources (Anselm’s Writings) Cur Deus Homo Proslogion Monologion Compilation: A...

Send us Fan Mail A History Podcast of the Christian Church told through the lives and thoughts of its greatest thinkers. Anselm of Canterbury Part One. There are moments in church history when the Christian faith is forced to answer difficult questions. Not questions of persecution or survival, but questions of understanding. Questions that arise when thoughtful believers begin to ask what it mean...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to The History of the Christian Church — where we journey through the shadows and the light of Christian history to discover how faith has been shaped, tested, preserved, and proclaimed across the centuries. Today, we step into one of the most misunderstood periods of Western history — the so-called Dark Ages. A time often portrayed as intellectually barren, culturall...

Send us Fan Mail When Gregory the Great became bishop of Rome at the end of the sixth century, the Western world was pretty much in ruins and standing on the edge of an era that would become known as the Dark Ages. The Roman Empire in the West had collapsed. Cities were crumbling. Plagues swept through the population. Invasions came not in isolation, but in waves. Civil authority was weak, unrelia...

Send us Fan Mail In the year 529, long after the fall of Rome and amid the turmoil of a fractured Europe, a small gathering of bishops met in the southern town of Orange. Their purpose? To settle one of the most important theological questions in Christian history: Is salvation the work of God alone, or do we play a part in earning it? In this episode, I explore the dramatic story of The Council o...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we meet Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius — a Roman scholar, philosopher, and Christian who lived at the twilight of the ancient world. From his prison cell, awaiting execution under Theodoric the Ostrogoth, Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, one of the most influential works in Western history. This episode explores the life, context, and thought of Bo...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Notes:   The History of the Christian Church – Season 3, Episode 1 (Part 29) Title: The Medieval West: 500–1500 A.D. When you think of the Middle Ages, what comes to mind? Knights in shining armour? Castles and crusades? Or perhaps plagues and superstition? In this opening episode of Season 3, we step into the thousand-year story of the Western Church during the so-called...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to this final episode in our season on the history of the Eastern Church. Today, we arrive at the threshold of the modern era, where the clash of ideas between East and West is no longer only about emperors, councils, and icons, but about doctrine itself. In the seventeenth century, the Orthodox world faced one of its most profound internal challenges when Cyril Lucaris—Pa...

Send us Fan Mail Episode Notes: Finding God in the Silence: Gregory Palamas In this episode of the History of the Christian Church podcast, we turn to the 14th century and meet one of the most influential voices of Eastern Christianity: Gregory Palamas. A monk, mystic, and defender of Hesychasm, Palamas taught that the path to God is found not only in theology and doctrine, but in prayer, silence,...

Send us Fan Mail 🎙️ Welcome In today’s episode — Symeon: Having a Personal Relationship With God — we turn to one of the most radical and profound voices of the 10th century: Symeon the New Theologian . Long before the Reformation, Symeon challenged the formalism of the institutional church, insisting that every believer is called to a personal, experiential relationship with God through the power...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome In today’s episode, we’re stepping once again into the drama of early church history — a time when emperors, bishops, and theologians gathered not only to settle fierce theological debates but to shape the foundations of Christian belief for centuries to come. We’ll explore three pivotal church councils that took place in the great imperial cities of Constantinople and Nic...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to The History of the Christian Church – Episode 24 John of Damascus: A Voice for Truth in the Rise of Islam In today’s episode, we explore the remarkable life and enduring influence of John of Damascus , the last of the great early Church Fathers. Living in the heart of the Islamic world yet shaped by deep Christian conviction, John stood at a critical juncture in church...

Send us Fan Mail Maximus the Confessor – The Father of Byzantine Theology [Part 23] Season 2, Episode 2   👋 Welcome Welcome back to The History of the Christian Church ! In Season Two, we continue our journey through the always vibrant and sometimes violent world of the Eastern Church. In today’s episode, we meet one of the most courageous and influential figures in Christian theology: Maximus th...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season Two of the History of the Christian Church Podcast! In Season One, we traced the journey of the early church—from its apostolic foundations through persecution, the rise of Christian doctrine, and the establishment of Christianity as the dominant faith of the Roman Empire. We explored the theological battles that shaped orthodoxy and followed the church’s expansi...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the Season Finale of Season One in My History of the Christian Church. This is the climax of our journey together through the first 500 years of the Christian Church. Episode 21: The Council of Chalcedon (451) and The Apostles’ Creed. Have you ever wondered how the foundational beliefs of Christianity were forged? How the early church grappled with defining the nature o...

Send us Fan Mail For an ad-free version of the podcast plus the opportunity to enjoy hours of exclusive content and two bonus episodes a month and also help keep the Bible Project Daily Podcast free  for listeners everywhere at; patreon.com/JeremyMcCandless Support the show Follow and support me on Patreon. Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon To receive my wee...

Send us Fan Mail For an ad-free version of the podcast plus the opportunity to enjoy hours of exclusive content and two bonus episodes a month and also help keep the Bible Project Daily Podcast free  for listeners everywhere at; patreon.com/JeremyMcCandless Support the show Follow and support me on Patreon. Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon To receive my wee...

Send us Fan Mail Please reach out and give me feedback on my use of my digital assistant "Emma" and her reading my script for this episode.  Support the show Follow and support me on Patreon. Jeremy McCandless | Creating Podcasts and Bible Study Resources | Patreon To receive my weekly newsletter and keep up to date with all five of my podcasts, subscribe at: Jeremy McCandless | Substack...

Send us Fan Mail To get an ad-free version of this podcast, join my Patreon community. You will also be able to enjoy two free exclusive episode per month as well as access over 60 hours of bonus and exclusive content, on Philosophy, Psychology, Political History, and the arts. Visit me at patreon.com/JeremyMcCandless Welcome to "My History of the Christian Church Podcast," where I look...

Send us Fan Mail To get an ad-free version of this podcast, join my Patreon community. You will also be able to enjoy two free exclusive episode per month as well as access over 60 hours of bonus and exclusive content, on Philosophy, Psychology, Political History, and the arts. Visit me at patreon.com/JeremyMcCandless Welcome to "My History of the Christian Church Podcast," where we dive...

Send us Fan Mail To get an ad-free version of this podcast, join my Patreon community. You will also be able to enjoy two free exclusive episode per month as well as access over 60 hours of bonus and exclusive content, on Philosophy, Psychology, Political History, and the arts. Visit me at patreon.com/JeremyMcCandless Welcome: "Welcome to another episode of 'My History of the Christian C...

Send us Fan Mail To get an ad-free version of this podcast, join my Patreon community. You will also be able to enjoy two free exclusive episode per month as well as access over 60 hours of bonus and exclusive content, on Philosophy, Psychology, Political History, and the arts. Visit me at patreon.com/JeremyMcCandless Episode 14: Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397) Podcast: My History of the Christian C...