An interlude (sort of) in the middle of our present series. It does not address a historical challenge, but starts from the other end. What can Christians do today in responding to these challenges?

Barney interviews Professor Mark Glanville of Regent College, Vancouver, on his latest book, Improvising Church. We discuss questions like:

• How can the Bible speak meaningfully to new situations Christians face today?
• How can every Christian exercise leadership in his or her church community?
• How can you get people to wake up for a prayer meeting at 5:30am?

Thanks to Jamie Maule for his audio editing!

Everyone has heard of the Spanish Inquisition. But how accurate is the popular understanding of it? What really happened and how does it reflect on Christianity? Is this an episode Christians should repent of? What lessons can we learn for the modern day?

These questions and others are discussed in today’s episode. Austin and Barney are joined by Dr. Dennis Castillo who teaches Church History at St. Mary’s Seminary and University.

Thanks to Jamie Maule for sound engineering!

Continuing our “Faith and the challenges of history” series, we turn from biblical history to later history. First of all we want to tackle the crusades, one of the most frequently mentioned in debates about the authenticity of Christian claims to bring peace and justice.

We have invited Dr. Mike Horswell to join us in this discussion. He has spent many years studying not only the crusades, but common perceptions of the crusades in the modern era. He is ideally suited to help us unpack: (1) what the crusades actually were? (2) How do people think of the crusades today? (3) How should Christians think of this episode in their history?

Thanks to Jamie Maule for sound engineering!