1. 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.
  2. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we look at a curious hymn/carol made famous by the date.
  3. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we celebrate the feast of the Nativity with a special reading.
  4. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we examine the history of Christianity and the place of trees, Christmas, or otherwise.
  5. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we look into a common Christmas question about dates.
  6. Scott and Caleb review the new animated David movie. More than just another David and Goliath retelling, the film attempts to capture David’s full transformation from shepherd to king.
  7. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we investigate the story of Santa slapping Arius at the Council of Nicaea.
  8. Going Cold Turkey at Christmas? In this episode, we read G.K. Chesterton’s essay, On Christmas, wherein he discusses celebrating Christmas too early, vivisection, vegetarians versus turkeys, and what to do about the poor at Christmas. It’s another curmudgeonly Christmas episode with one of our favorite British apologists and satirists.
  9. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we tell the story of the “Prince of Scottish Hymnwriters.”
  10. I’m Wasted, and I Can’t Find My Way Home. In this episode, we again invite C.S. Lewis to teach us about Christmas. We also discuss the early church fathers, worship, symbolism, mystery, Freud and Jung’s influence on modern Christians, consumerism and gift-giving, and, of course, Christmas: all this and much, much more on this episode of the podcast.