The story of monasticism is one of the tension between living a life of authentic dedication and finding out there’s a lot of earthly reward for doing so.

We’re leaving continental Europe to travel to Britain and Ireland. These two islands experienced less interaction with the Roman Empire and so their path to Christianity looks different than places inside the empire’s boundaries.

In this bonus episode, a re-run from season 1, we talk about civil religion and how it expresses itself in the United States.

While the Roman empire continued on in the East, in the Byzantine empire, Late Antiquity was a time of tremendous change for the western Roman Empire and Europe. Germanic tribes, Roman culture, and Christianity blended, clashed, and intertwined, creating the medieval period and the foundation of the Europe we know today.

The story of iconoclasm, and its reversal, makes us ask ourselves how much majority rule plays in establishing the norms of the church. It challenges us to think critically about the “why” behind what we believe and to contemplate the diversity of church and its many threads.

Constantine marks an important turning point for Christianity. Under his reign, Christianity was no longer a small, grass-roots, mystery cult. It moved into the spotlight, and with that, its questions, debates, and internal squabbles became matters of imperial concern.

Among the Christian emperors of Late Antiquity, Justinian stands out along with Constantine as one of the greats. In this episode, we’ll explore the story of Justinian and his wife Theodora and and Divinely Appointed Royalty. Justinian wanted nothing more than to restore the Roman empire to its glory, and creating a unified Christian empire was critical to that vision.

Some extra conversational meandering was it’s about food, culture, faith, and finding sacredness in the ordinary.

At last, we give meaning to the title our producer, Leslie, holds: Iditarod Expert. Leslie takes the role of a quazi-historian as she shares how the Iditarod and the events of a tornado showed her a new perspective on the way the church can extend hospitality.

We believe that talking about civil religion and learning how it relates to Christianity and patriotism is important for us to have greater clarity about each of those things and to help us, as individuals, better understand our motivations and beliefs.

In this episode, we give a brief overview of historical questions and movements that helped shape the modern American evangelical movement and look at two of its most well known Southern sons; Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell.

We use the United Methodist’s debate over the inclusion and ordination of LGBTQIA+ people as a launching point to explore the religious experience of the queer community in the South.

In this episode, we wanted to highlight a thread in tapestry with non-European roots and our friends Rainu and Jissie were kind enough to let us interview them about their experiences within Mar Thoma and Malayalam Christian traditions.

The first of our two Christmas episodes looks at the season from a historical lens as we remember a time when Christmas was banned, and explores the tradition of gift-giving.

Thomas Merton was a prolific writer, thinker, and theologian in the 20th century and he thought very deeply about how his faith intersected with the public sphere and politics. Merton believed his faith called him to a life of non-violence and he repeatedly advocated for peace and non-violence throughout his life.

Through the powerful life and legacy of Henriette Delille and the order she founded, we have a window into the experiences of the Black Catholic tradition in the South and the church’s complicated history with racism and racial justice.

Continuing last week’s discussion of Christianity in the South in the Early Republic, we spend this week with the Shakers, exploring their history and beliefs and the challenging questions they raise. In 1804, Shaker missionaries brought Shakerism to the South and started a community at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, which would last over 100 years.

In 1801, a gathering to celebrate communion in Cane Ridge, Kentucky started a movement that would go on to indelibly shape Christianity in the South and throughout the world.

Church Historia celebrates the tapestry of the Christian tradition through the lens of history. Season 1, “Who Are Your People?” explores Southern Christian traditions and the history that frames them.