Author

  1. 430: Tolkien - The Journey Through the Desert: The Lenten Quest

    book
    02/27/26
    12 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Lent in Middle-earth. In this episode, we discuss the Lenten subtext, language, and images in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Return of the King.” What can Christians learn from fiction authors about the faith, devotional reading, understanding the world outside the churches through the view of the cross, and how all of reality is bent towards Easter at all times, in all places, by all people? This and much, much more on today’s show.
    430: Tolkien - The Journey Through the Desert: The Lenten Quest

  2. Monday, February 16, 2026

    book
    02/16/26
    13 mins
    By Dan van Voorhis
    Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head to the mailbag to answer a question about Dan’s favorite books.
    Monday, February 16, 2026

  3. 428: Postman - A great narrative... has sufficient credibility, complexity, and symbolic power to enable one to organize one's life around it

    book
    02/14/26
    12 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    We Don’t Need No Education. In this episode, we read The End of Education by Neal Postman, discussing the mechanisms of public education, religious catechesis, the influence of the Enlightenment and psychoanalysis on contemporary learning, and what happens when fiction replaces truth as the basis of meaning. This and much, much more on today’s show!
    428: Postman - A great narrative... has sufficient credibility, complexity, and symbolic power to enable one to organize one's life around it

  4. 425: Lewis - Myth Became Fact

    book
    01/23/26
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    The Hangman’s Nous. In this episode, we read an excerpt from The Maniac, by G.K. Chesterton, followed by Myth Became Fact, from C.S. Lewis’ book of essays, “God in the Dock.” The primary question we discuss, then, is whether men and women can live a healthy and sane life with mystery, without myth, and without higher truth. What has happened to modern churches that exorcised mystery from preaching, teaching, evangelism, and worship? What anchors the Body of Christ when it’s unmoored from Church history and tradition? What have been the consequences for churches that treat the Christian story as more fantasy than fact? What does Lewis mean that God is “mythopoeic”? What does it mean that Christianity is, according to Lewis, “perfect myth and perfect fact”?
    425: Lewis - Myth Became Fact

  5. How Education Problems Affect Handing Down the Faith

    book
    12/30/25
    4 mins
    By Caleb Keith | Scott Keith | Adam Francisco | Bruce Hillman
    Reading and education outcomes in the United States have been declining for decades. In this episode, the Thinking Fellows examine how these trends have impacted Christian education and what Christians can contribute to America’s education crisis.
    How Education Problems Affect Handing Down the Faith

  6. 405: Barfield - Myth is the Ghost of Concrete Meaning

    book
    08/22/25
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Little Plastic Castles. In this episode, we read the first Inkling, Owen Barfield, as he defends the use of old words, old stories, and old ways of expressing what’s good, beautiful, and true against modern proponents that argued for more modern “scientific” ways of judging language, esp., poetics and myth, as well as religion and culture.
    405: Barfield - Myth is the Ghost of Concrete Meaning

  7. 404: Auden - A Litany and the Horae Cononicae

    book
    08/16/25
    9 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    Liturgy Amongst the Rubble. In this episode, we read poems by W.H. Auden about pulp fiction, ancient myths, conversion, liturgy, poetics, and how industrialization and corporatism build a new Babel inside and around the churches.
    404: Auden - A Litany and the Horae Cononicae

  8. Individual and community w/ Dr. Mickey Mattox

    book
    08/06/25
    3 mins
    By Adam Francisco | David Andersen
    In this episode of Faith and Reason Exchange, David and Adam are joined by Dr. Mickey Mattox of Hillsdale College to discuss individualism and community.
    Individual and community w/ Dr. Mickey Mattox

  9. 399: More Questions Answered - Myth and Taylor Swift

    book
    07/11/25
    8 mins
    By Christopher Gillespie | Donavon Riley
    What Do You Mean, There’s More to This? In this episode, we answer a listener's question about Taylor Swift that leads us into a conversation about symbols and meaning, religious iconography, wild truth, and seeing reality through what’s occurring in the sacraments.
    399: More Questions Answered - Myth and Taylor Swift

  10. Law and Gospel in Jane Eyre

    book
    07/01/25
    9 mins
    By Kelsi Klembara | Amy Mantravadi
    In this episode of Outside Ourselves: Summer Break, author, 1517 contributor, and internet theology whiz kid, Amy Mantravadi discuss theological themes in Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre.
    Law and Gospel in Jane Eyre

  11. Philosophy amidst theology (with Dr. Dan Deen)

    book
    05/14/25
    4 mins
    By Adam Francisco | David Andersen | Daniel Deen
    Dr. Dan Deen of Concordia University Irvine joins David and Adam to discuss how he approaches philosophy at a college dominated by theology.
    Philosophy amidst theology (with Dr. Dan Deen)

  12. Some Thoughts on Higher Education

    book
    04/09/25
    4 mins
    By Adam Francisco | David Andersen
    David and Adam reflect on their decades of experience in higher education as students and, eventually, professors and administration.
    Some Thoughts on Higher Education