In this installment of the First 500 Years series, the brothers take a journey through the life and thought of the church’s first major Heresiarch: Marcion of Pontus. Along the way, they propose fresh ways of understanding the origins of his doctrine and explain why he proved a formidable enemy for the earliest apologists as they began their struggle to preserve apostolic tradition.

Why did God become a man? We’re used to hearing what Christ’s incarnation/death/resurrection did for us, but we don’t often hear what His work did to the demonic powers. We’re used to answering the question solely with reference to matters of substitution, satisfaction, debts (of honor, wrath, or obedience?), so we can lose sight of the ancient Christian worldview and the entire cosmic drama at work between God and ‘the gods.’ In this episode, we flip the table—from metaphysical to...

We’ve all seen him in action—debating Protestants and Orthodox, writing incredible books, or podcasting on his own channel, Classical Christian Thought—but we rarely get to hear about his personal journey of faith. In this special episode, we sit down with our friend Erick Ybarra to explore his story and all of the reasons why, in the final analysis, he ended up in the arms of the Catholic Church. This is a fun, lively, and deep conversation that you will not want to miss! 0:05...

In this episode we have a most interesting chat with Ben Bollinger, a theology blogger and a bright apologist for the Christian faith, whose journey began with atheism and progressed into Eastern Orthodoxy. However, in 2023, he made a shocking, final move into the Roman Catholic Church, and here we explore his intellectual and spiritual journey. This is a fascinating dialogue that you WILL NOT want to miss!

A Superstition? Funerary society? Guild? A philosophical school? What the heck is this “Christian” thing? In this episode, we complete our discussion of the vitality of Roman Religion and then analyze various ways in which Roman writers politically and culturally tried to classify the novel Christian movement throughout the second century. How Christians were politically classified by various Roman authorities have serious implications. It would determine whether or not they were free to...

In Part One of this episode, we flip the table a bit and try to understand Rome’s relationship to her gods *from the inside out* so that we can paint a fuller picture of the religious landscape of Christianity’s rise in Late Antiquity. Heretofore, many scholars have argued that early Christianity was able to spread so rapidly because the religion(s) of the Roman Empire had increasingly lost vitality and failed to fulfill emerging soteriological hopes of Late Antique peoples. But, is any of...

In this episode we address the topic of exorcism in the early church, particularly from the lens of Hebrew cosmology and Christian mission to a pagan world from the second century onward. Connecting the dots between research on exorcism in Late Antiquity and Divine Council Scholarship, we explain why Christian exorcism became a major force for the conversion of the Roman Empire.

In this episode on Liturgy in the second century, we resume our journey of reconstructing and envisioning early Christian worship.

In this episode on Liturgy in the second century, we resume our journey of reconstructing and envisioning early Christian worship. In Part 1, we focus on change and continuity with regard to the (1) location, (2) timing, and the (3) “shape” that the Eucharistic gathering is taking in this post apostolic era. You won’t want to miss this one!

In this second part of our episode on women in early Christian communities we address the question of whether or not females served as presbyters. A timely topic, to be sure, as modern events like the Synod on Synodality continue to see this question bubble up to the top of the debates.  But putting aside modern preoccupations and concerns, as historians, let’s really take a good look at the evidence, context, and preoccupations of the second century Christians.

Here we offer our response to Dr. Gavin Ortlund’s recent video in which he argues against the decisions of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, asserting that the veneration of images/icons is not a proper development of doctrine, but instead represents an illegitimate accretion which contradicts the unanimous consent of the Church Fathers and the commandments in Scripture.   Leave us your comments, and be sure to tune into our channel for our regular, First 500 Years series!

Our personal evaluation of Pope Benedict XVI, especially with regard to his impact on culture, the Church, and our own journey from Protestantism to Catholicism.

Did the early Christian movement have women in prominent leadership roles? What sorts of functions did women perform within the communities? Who are some influential women of the first and second centuries? These questions and more are tackled in part 1 of our episode on women in the early church.

Join us for a quick discussion about how early stories of martyrdom reveal what the first Christians believed about the Eucharist. Are the seeds of later Catholic theology to be found here?

Is the religion of the Old Testament strictly monotheistic, or was monotheism an innovation of a much later era in the history of religion? Is the Christian Trinity an amalgamation of paganism and Judaism, or is Trinitarianism thoroughly rooted in the tradition of Israelite religion?  In this episode we first examine the foundations for Divine “Plurality” in the history of Israelite thought, and then we take a look at how increasingly diverging conceptions of the Godhead between rabbinical...

If Christianity began as a Jewish sect, then when did Judaism and Christianity become distinct religions? What drove the separation? Does “Judaism”— as we know it today— really predate Christianity? In this intriguing discussion, the Brothers address these questions and more. You won’t want to miss this one!

The scholarly consensus, by far, is that the Roman Church in the early second century *did not* have a single bishop but was ruled by a collection of presbyteral bodies. This would seem to undercut the Catholic Church’s claim that the pope is the successor of St Peter, let alone Vatican 1’s teaching on papal infallibility.   Drawing upon their work in previous episodes, and a careful examination of the ancient sources, the Brothers present an alternative thesis which challenges the prevailing...

Christians have always worshipped on Sunday morning, right?  In this episode, the Brothers tackle a fascinating, and often baffling, question about the earliest Christians: when did they celebrate the Eucharist each week? Did they observe the Sabbath? If so, when did Christians start worshipping on Sunday, and why? Answering these questions reveals A LOT about the character and theology of the second century Church.   You won’t want to miss this one!

Catholic art portrays the crucifixion differently from painting to painting. Early Roman sources describe many different ways that a man could be crucified. So, what did Jesus’ crucifixion really look like?  Join us as we examine textual, epigraphic, and artistic depictions from the early church portraying the crucified Jesus and examine those side by side with the Shroud of Turin and Roman sources. A FASCINATING TOPIC to add color to your Holy Week devotions !

The rise of Christianity in Late Antiquity was met by the rise of another phenomenon in the Roman Empire: Amphitheater violence. For St. Ignatius, hearer of John the Apostle and Bishop of Antioch, this coincidence proved deadly. Join the brothers as they discuss the Passion of St. Ignatius of Antioch and it's broader significance in the development of Christian identity in the Roman world.

Ever wanted to take your prayer life to the next level, but didn’t know where to start? Do you struggle to pray often? When you pray, does it feel dry or stale?  In this episode we survey the history and meaning of the Church’s highest form of prayer *outside* of the Mass: the Daily Office. Steep yourself in this most ancient form of prayer and watch as your prayer life begins to truly bloom for the first time.

While the papacy has called for a ‘Listening Church,’ a theology of ‘encounter,’ and a Church that is willing to go to the margins, the Brothers here question the appropriateness of Cardinal Cupich’s swift sanctions on Latin Mass communities within the Archdiocese of Chicago, and that, without any dialogue between the faithful and their bishop.  The Brothers also offer (1) a side-by-side analysis of the Ordinary and Extraordinary texts of the Roman Rite, (2) a list of common abuses of the...

As the first generation of Christians took up the mantle of apostolic faith, alternative ideas about Jesus began to sprout up around them— ideas which the apostles themselves had to ward off. In this episode, the Brothers introduce us to the first heresy in the Church’s history: Docetism. Consulting the letters of St Ignatius of Antioch and other 1st and 2nd century sources, we begin to discover the earliest, drawn borders of catholic orthodoxy.

In this special episode for the feast of Epiphany, the brothers present the argument for September 11, 3 B.C. being the birth date of Jesus and pinpoint just what it was that the Magi saw in the sky that led them to Bethlehem shortly thereafter. Leaning upon the research of meteorologist Ernest Martin, Dr Michael Heiser, and Fr Stephen DeYoung, the brothers take us on a dense, fascinating journey through the Gospels, the book of Revelation, Old Testament astrology, and a letter of Ignatius of...