Shows / Theology Made Podcast
Theology Made Podcast
The Theology Made Podcast takes complicated ideas about God and makes them simple. Each episode unpacks theology, church history, or biblical truth in a way that's clear, thoughtful, and actually enjoyable.
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Episodes
Theology Made PodcastThe Man Who Probably Didn't Nail Anything to a Door
Martin Luther talked about the autumn of 1517 for the rest of his life. He never once described a door. On the thirty-first of October itself, the only thing…
Theology Made PodcastFrankenstein and Dracula Are Theology Books
Almost everyone attaches the name to the wrong body. Frankenstein is the man on the stairs. The creature is never named at all. That error is a small version…
Theology Made PodcastThe Man Who Explained Suffering Until It Happened to Him
In the autumn of 1960, C.S. Lewis went through a cupboard at The Kilns looking for something to write in. What he found were old school exercise books, a few…
Theology Made PodcastThe First Christians Fasted Twice a Week
Usually this show finds the first Christians doing less than you’d assume. This time they did more. The earliest church manual we possess assumes believers…
Theology Made PodcastWeddings Weren't in Churches for a Thousand Years
Picture a wedding: the aisle, the officiant, the white dress, the vows at the altar. Now hear the history. For roughly a thousand years, Christians married at…
Theology Made PodcastThe First Christians Didn't Sing with Instruments
Organ or band, piano or drums: every church has picked a side in the worship wars. For the first eight hundred years of Christianity, there were no sides…
Theology Made PodcastThe King James Bible Had 80 Books
The King James Bible is the fixed point: sixty-six books, unchanged since 1611. Except the 1611 edition had eighty. Between Malachi and Matthew, the original…
Theology Made PodcastThe First Christians Didn’t Own Bibles
Did early Christians have Bibles? For the first several centuries of Christianity, almost no believer owned a Bible, most couldn’t read one, and the complete…
Theology Made PodcastThe First Christians Didn't Have a Pastor
Somewhere this Sunday, a man will walk onto a stage, and everyone will call him the pastor. A Christian from the year 60 would have no idea who he is. The New…
Theology Made PodcastNobody Knows What Jesus Looked Like
You can picture his face right now. Long hair, soft beard, calm eyes. That face is not his, and it cannot be, because nobody who knew Jesus wrote down what he…
Theology Made PodcastThe First Christians Didn’t Say the Sinner’s Prayer
Most people think you become a Christian by praying a prayer. Admit you’re a sinner, believe Jesus died for you, ask him into your heart. It feels ancient…
Theology Made PodcastThe Man Who Calculated Everything, Then Bet on God
In 1662, a servant found something sewn into the lining of a dead man’s coat. He had carried it against his chest for eight years and never told a soul it was…
Theology Made PodcastThe Saint Who Couldn’t Stop Sinning
Sometime around 370, a group of teenage boys in North Africa stripped a neighbor’s pear tree in the middle of the night, carried off more fruit than they could…
Theology Made PodcastThe Woman the Church Misread for 1,400 Years
For 1,400 years, the church called her a prostitute. She wasn’t. Mary Magdalene is one of the most recognizable figures in Christian history and one of the…
Theology Made PodcastWhy Follow Your Heart is the Oldest Heresy
In the second century, a brilliant theologian named Valentinus nearly became pope. His idea was simple: the truth is inside you. Trust it. Follow it. The…
Theology Made PodcastWho Decided Children Mattered
In the Roman world, leaving an unwanted newborn at the base of a public column was legal, common, and considered a reasonable household decision. Aristotle…
Theology Made PodcastThe Woman the Church Couldn’t Ignore
In the twelfth century, a nun with no formal authority, no official platform, and no institutional power began writing down what she saw. Kings wrote back…
Theology Made PodcastFaust: The Story That Predicated Modern Life
Five hundred years ago, Europe told a story about a man who sold his soul for unlimited knowledge, unlimited power, and a life without limits. We turned him…
Theology Made PodcastWhy Smart People Still Fall For Cults
You think you’d never fall for a cult. Most people do. But the truth is, cults don’t prey on stupidity, they rely on something far more dangerous…
Theology Made PodcastScience vs Religion Is a Myth? What Darwin Actually Changed
In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species—and many believed it marked the end of faith. Science had won. Religion had lost. But that story…
Theology Made PodcastThe First Christians Didn't Try to Change the Empire
The first Christians lived under the most powerful political system the world had ever seen. They didn’t lobby it, campaign against it, or try to capture it…
Theology Made PodcastThe Bible Wasn't Meant to Be Read Alone
Theology Made is a listener/reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. For most of…
Theology Made PodcastThe First Christians Didn’t Go to Church. Here’s Why.
For the first 300 years of Christianity… there were no church buildings.No services. No “going to church” the way we think of it today. So what were the first…
Theology Made PodcastThe Man Who Chose to Own Nothing
Theology Made is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. What if security isn’t…
Theology Made PodcastJesus Didn’t Write Anything. So Why Do We Trust the Gospels?
Jesus never wrote a single word. No letters. No books. No firsthand account. And yet, billions of people trust what was written about Him. So why? In this…
Theology Made PodcastYou Think You’re Thinking for Yourself. You’re Not.
You probably think your beliefs are your own. That you’ve weighed the evidence, thought it through, and arrived at your conclusions honestly. But what if most…
Theology Made PodcastThe Man Who Explained Everything and Then Stopped
Thomas Aquinas spent forty years building the most ambitious intellectual project in Western history, a single unified framework to explain God, creation…
Theology Made PodcastThe Devil’s Pitchfork: When the Church Put the Fork on Trial
In 1004 AD, a Byzantine princess arrived in Venice with a scandalous piece of gold luggage: a two-pronged fork. To the local clergy, this wasn’t high…
Theology Made PodcastThe Atheist Christians: Why One God Looked Like None
In the Roman Empire, the first Christians weren’t persecuted for believing too much. They were persecuted for believing too little. When we hear the word…
Theology Made PodcastThe Church Invented the Weekend
Did you know the modern weekend exists because of theology? In this episode, we explore how the Jewish Sabbath, the Christian Lord’s Day, and the Industrial…
Theology Made PodcastHow Christianity Spread Without a Bible
How did a global movement survive without a handbook? We live in a print-first world where authority is “final draft” and footnoted. But the early Church had…
Theology Made PodcastThe Myth of the Constantinian Corruption
We’ve all heard the story: A small, persecuted sect made a shady deal with Emperor Constantine, traded its soul for power, and took over the world by force…
Theology Made PodcastWhy Every Generation Thinks the Church Is Dying
Headline: The Church is dying. (At least, that’s what we’ve said since 100 AD.) It feels like we are living through a unique collapse. Attendance is cratering…
Theology Made PodcastWhy St. Patrick is Nothing Like the Version We Celebrate
Once a year, St. Patrick becomes a mascot. Green hats. Parades. Beer labels. Snakes chased into the sea. The problem? Almost none of that has anything to do…
Theology Made PodcastJefferson vs. Franklin: The Fight Over Three Words That Changed America
In the red corner, Thomas Jefferson. In the blue corner, Benjamin Franklin. In June 1776, a single editorial change shifted the foundation of American history…
Theology Made PodcastIs "The Right Side of History" a Biblical Concept?
Everyone says it. Politicians, activists, corporations, and even churches. We’re told to stay on “the right side of history,” but we rarely stop to ask: Why…
Theology Made PodcastHow the Bible Shaped Your Calendar
Every time you check the date, you’re stepping into a story you didn’t choose. The year on your phone, the seven-day week, even the emotional rhythm of the…
Theology Made PodcastWhy Ancient Christians Didn't Use Crosses for 300 Years
For the first 300 years of Christianity, the most recognizable symbol of the faith today was almost entirely absent. No crosses on walls. No crucifixes in…
Theology Made PodcastMedieval Cathedrals Were the First IMAX Theaters
Before movies, projectors, or IMAX screens, medieval cathedrals were the most immersive storytelling spaces in the world. In this episode, we explore how…
Theology Made PodcastThe Monk Who Invented Modern Music
A thousand years before Bach, Mozart, Beyoncé, or your Spotify playlist, a Benedictine monk quietly invented the entire system that makes Western music…
Theology Made PodcastHow Christianity Created Universities
Step into Oxford in the year 1096: muddy streets, cramped halls, chickens underfoot… and the sound of students shouting Latin at the top of their lungs. It…
Theology Made PodcastTheology of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth
Before hobbits, elves, or rings, there was a pew. In this episode, we go beneath the surface of The Lord of the Rings and into the mind that built it, J.R.R…
Theology Made PodcastTolkien’s Father Christmas: When Imagination Became Incarnation
This Christmas week, we’re going to Oxford—into the quiet study of J.R.R. Tolkien, where a young father and future literary giant spent twenty years writing…
Theology Made PodcastSilent Night: The Song That Stopped a War
On Christmas Eve, 1914, in the trenches of World War I, guns fell silent. Across the frozen front lines, soldiers from opposing sides began to sing the same…
Theology Made PodcastAdvent: The Forgotten Season of Waiting
Before Christmas was a countdown, it was a cry for God to come. In this episode, we rediscover Advent; not as a warm-up to Christmas, but as a sacred season of…
Theology Made PodcastSaint Nicholas: The Real Story Behind Santa Claus
Before there was Santa Claus, there was a saint, a fourth-century bishop named Nicholas of Myra. He didn’t live at the North Pole or slide down chimneys… but…
Theology Made PodcastThe Theology of the Turkey: How a Bird Became America’s Sacred Symbol
Every November, one bird takes center stage on millions of tables and somehow, it’s not the bald eagle. The wild turkey, awkward and unmajestic, became…
Theology Made PodcastAbraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation: How Gratitude Was Born in a Time of War
When we think of Thanksgiving, we picture peace — family tables, roasted turkeys, gratitude lists, and pumpkin pie. But the real story of America’s national…
Theology Made PodcastThe First ‘Thanksgiving’ and the Theology of Gratitude
We all think we know the story of the First Thanksgiving, Pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a peaceful feast over turkey and pumpkin pie. But the truth is…
Theology Made PodcastThe Puritans and the Birth of American Theology
Step aboard the Mayflower and into the stormy origins of American faith. The Puritans and the Birth of American Theology explores how covenant, Scripture, and…
Theology Made PodcastThe Origins of Halloween: When the Saints Took Over
Halloween didn’t start with candy, costumes, and haunted houses. Long before pumpkins glowed on porches, the night belonged to bonfires, monks, and saints. In…
Theology Made PodcastThe Jesus People and the Electric Guitar
The Jesus People and the Electric Guitar In the late 1960s, no one expected a revival to break out among America’s hippies. They were supposed to be lost to…
Theology Made PodcastThe Hymn That Went Viral Before TikTok: Amazing Grace
“Amazing Grace” may be the most famous hymn ever written — sung at funerals and protests, in cathedrals and stadiums. But its origins are stranger, darker, and…
Theology Made PodcastThe Monk Who Discovered DNA (Before DNA)
In the 1800s, a quiet Augustinian friar in a monastery garden uncovered the laws of heredity, decades before anyone knew what DNA was. His name was Gregor…
Theology Made PodcastThe Saint Who Invented the Devil We Know
What comes to mind when you picture the devil? Horns. A pitchfork. Red tights. But that image isn’t biblical, it’s medieval. In this episode, Jordan traces the…
Theology Made PodcastThe Monkey Trial That Rewired America 100 Years Ago
In 1925, a small-town courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee became the stage for one of the most famous trials in American history. The “Monkey Trial” wasn’t really…
Theology Made PodcastEmpire of Relics
Empire of Relics: When Bones, Blood, and Bread Became the Currency of the Sacred What happens when faith turns material? In the Middle Ages, relics were more…
Theology Made PodcastWhy Angels Don’t Have Wings
We all picture angels with white feathers, halos, and harps, but the Bible never describes them that way. In Scripture, angels show up as messengers, warriors…
Theology Made PodcastWhen Coffee Came to Church
In the 16th century, a bitter, dark drink swept into Europe from the Muslim world and panic followed. Priests called it “the invention of Satan.” Rumors…
Theology Made PodcastHow a Murder Solved a Theological Debate
Rome, 897. On a gray January day, the streets of the Eternal City fill with bakers, monks, and merchants, all walking toward the Lateran Basilica. Inside…