Feb 23, 2018
How to Practice Virtue (by Chasing Hookers Away with Red-Hot Pokers)
The great thinkers of the Mediterranean have already identified the seven virtues and how you can acquire them! It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Feb 9, 2018
How the Founder of American Evangelicalism Was Felled by Dirty Magazines
In the end, it wasn’t being at odds with his board of elders that brought Jonathan Edwards down—it was dirty magazines. Because, isn’t it always dirty magazines?
Jan 26, 2018
The Bizarre Reason Michelangelo’s Moses Has Horns
For several centuries, if you wanted to make sure the viewer knew you were sculpting Moses, you gave him horns. Weird, right?
Jan 12, 2018
The Saint Who Got Barbecued Alive
St. Lawrence was literally barbecued to death. And then the Catholic Church made him patron saint of chefs, presumably to rub it in.
Dec 22, 2017
No, Christmas Isn’t Secretly Pagan: A Very Merry D-List Saints Christmas Special (For the Whole Family)
The point is, it’s Christmas (or actually Advent, but since no one seems to understand the difference between Christmas and Advent, whatevs, call it Christmas if you want, sure)!
Dec 11, 2017
You Are Not Actually Reading This Right Now: The Paradox of the Mind, and Why I Wrote a Psychological Thriller
Fiction is what we turn to when we have nagging questions that we can’t quite put into more precise language.
Dec 1, 2017
The Church Father Who Cut off His Junk
Jesus’ solution to your own sinful tendencies isn’t presented as inconveniencing, insulting, or harming the people around you—it’s presented as handicapping yourself.
Nov 22, 2017
The Digital Art That Graces Our Lives: Boss Fight Books and the Need to Take Games Seriously
Boss Fight Books is a quirky, charming series that weaves together journalism, criticism, game theory, and often a heavy dose of memoir.
Nov 17, 2017
The Christian Rock Star Who Put Out a Hit on His Wife
I like to think that, centuries from now, “Christian rock music” will be thought of as yet another inexplicable oddity of Church history, alongside Origen’s self-mutilation, the Crusades, and whatever it is with Lutherans and Jell-O.
Nov 3, 2017
That Time the World Didn’t End in 1844
Miller predicted Christ’s return based on all that stuff in Daniel about “time, times and half a time” that everyone pretends to understand but doesn’t.
Oct 20, 2017
The Only Reason You Drink Coffee Is Because 400 Years Ago a Pope Baptized Some Beans
Coffee culture is weird, you guys.
Oct 6, 2017
The Ladder That Pretty Much Only Jesus Can Move
Christianity was unusually unified at the time the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built, but things have been falling apart (literally and figuratively) ever since then.
Sep 22, 2017
The Flagpole-Sitting, Maggot-Infested Saint of the Desert
Protip: when you’re too pious for monks, it might be time to dial it back a bit.
Sep 8, 2017
The Holiest City on Earth (Will Drive You LITERALLY INSANE)
A lot of dumb things have happened in Church history and in the Bible—and it’s through the dumb stuff that God is at work.
Aug 25, 2017
The Children’s Crusade: Y’know, for Kids!
Nicholas led his followers through the Alps, because when you’re leading a bunch of 12-year-olds, you obviously go full Hannibal.
Aug 11, 2017
The Advent of the Drive-In Church, Which Was Not at All Ridiculous and Definitely Needed to Be a Thing
Please understand that when I call drive-in theaters one of the worst ideas of all time, I’m speaking from direct experience.