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36. Incarnation (Christmas Special)
The word ‘Incarnation’ comes from the Latin incarno, meaning “in flesh”, which is generally drawn from John 1.14 – “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” In simple terms, it’s God becoming human. The creator getting amongst the…
35. December 25th (Christmas Special)
Figuring out why Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December is actually quite difficult. It’s a real tangle of traditions and sources and ideas. But first, I want to clarify that Christmas is not just one day. The 25th…
34. Magi (Christmas Special)
The story of the magi, the wise men from the east who followed the star to Bethlehem to kneel before Jesus and present him with valuable gifts that predicted Jesus’ ministry, is such an iconic piece of the Christmas story.…
33. Advent (Christmas Special)
The word advent comes from the Latin word adventus which means “coming” or “arrival” and was generally used to refer to the arrival of an important person. So within Christian tradition, it refers to the period of reflection in the…
32. Infallibilism
This week’s topic is on biblical infallibilism, which is closely relate to the idea of inerrancy. They are virtually synonymous, but have slightly different meanings. Infallibilism means that the Bible cannot contain errors, whereas inerrancy does not contain errors. Inerrancy…
31. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Born in 1906 in Breslau, which is now part of Poland, Bonhoeffer was a twin and born into a large family of 8 children. They were a religious family but didn’t think church attendance was especially important, they weren’t big…
30. The Crusades: Over the Hills and Far Away
Where that initial ragged army and their disastrous attempt to get to Jerusalem – to barely get beyond Christian lands – was known as the People’s Crusade, or the Peasant’s Crusade, the real First Crusade (though they didn’t know that…
29. The Crusades: God Wills It!
The reality of the crusades is that they were actually pretty giant failures. Aside from being moral failures, the crusades were a bumbling mess that ended up with so many going bankrupt, some returning as conquering heroes to find their…
28. Feminism
Feminism, in general, is the pursuit of equality between the genders. This includes the assumption that women have generally been suppressed for the majority of human history, that there has generally been a bias toward men, and that political and…
27. Egalitarianism
The basic gist of egalitarianism is that there are no gender specific roles. Neither women nor men are restricted in terms of the roles they can or are expected to perform within the church or within a marriage. This is…
26. Complementarianism
Over the next few weeks we are going to look at a few contentious isms, generally looking theologically at women, in the church, in family households, and women in general. It seems weird to me that this would be such…
25. Wesley & Methodism
John was born in June 28th, 1703, in Epworth in England, which is north of London, close to Sheffield, to Samuel and Susanna Wesley. Samuel was a clergyman and a poet, while Susanna was busy giving birth to 19 children.…
24. The English Reformation: Mary & Elizabeth
The English Reformation began with the desire to end a marriage, it was sustained because the Pope said no, and then upheld by the economic advantages of not having to send money to Rome. Thomas Cranmer seemed genuinely interested in…
23. The English Reformation: The Tudor Teens
We last left this story with Henry VIII’s death. He had successfully separated the English church from Roman Catholicism, but theologically and practically, very little had actually changed. Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had been trying to push through…
22. Revelation: The Beast
Who or what is the beast? What is the author of Revelation trying to say here? Let’s get straight to the primary source, let’s have a read of Revelation 13. I’m going to read it in full, so that we…
21. Revelation: Millennialism
Before we address the millennium, it’s probably helpful to explore four different ways that Revelation is generally interpreted. How you interpret not just the millennium, but lots of other images and symbols and things going on Revelation, like the beast…
20. Apocalypticism
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Said Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, in the movie Apocalypse Now, a movie set during the Vietnam War that portrayed with extreme prejudice the utter horror of the…
19. Sacramentalism
Generally speaking, a sacrament is a sacred ritual as part of living within the church community and sacramentalism is, within Catholic doctrine, the belief that partaking in these sacred rituals is essential for salvation. They are spiritually efficacious actions that…
18. Chalcedonian Schism
Following, then, the holy Fathers, we all with one voice teach that it is to be confessed that our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same God, perfect in divinity, and perfect in humanity, true God and true human,…
17. Nestorianism
Nestorius was born in Syria in the year 386CE and became patriarch of Constantinople in 428. This was an important and much envied position, particularly for those in the east. Where the bishop of Rome, who would become the pope,…
16. Arianism
We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things, visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, the only-begotten, that is, of the essence of the Father, God…
15. Flesh and Blood
The Apostle Paul wrote this epistle, which is just the Greek word for letter, to the Jesus followers of Corinth in Greece somewhere in the early to mid 50’s, about 20 years after Jesus’ death. And it’s basically responding to…
14. The English Reformation: A New Religion
Welcome to another episode of the Isms and Schisms Podcast and this week we are continuing our story of the English Reformation. We left the Tudor family with Henry, with the help of Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell and inspired…
13. The English Reformation: The Beginnings
From the 13th century, there was a groundswell movement toward reformation. Wycliffe, the Lollards, Hus, Luther. And then back in England, everyone is hearing about what is happening in Germany and a lot of people are freaking out, including Henry…
12. Hedonism
“Pleasure is the first good. It is the beginning of every choice and every aversion. It is the absence of pain in the body and of troubles in the soul.” (Epicurus) Hedonism is basically on the other end of the…
11. Theodicy
So why does suffering exist? Why is there evil? Why would a good God allow that? This question is generally reserved for the area known as apologetics, which is an important discipline, but I’ll come at it from more of…
10. Asceticism
Asceticism comes from the Greek word askeo, which means to work or to exercise. Basically doing what you can to the best of your ability. And so asceticism is about training your self to attain a spiritual goal. It’s all…
9. Christology
Usually, Christology is broken up into two key components: who Jesus was, and what Jesus did. And then both of those have several sub-components. Let’s begin with who Jesus was. Occasionally, you might hear someone say that Jesus never existed.…
8. Alcuin of York
Before we get into Alcuin of York, let’s step back and understand the context. Frankia – much of what is modern day France, Germany, and Italy – was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty (who took it from the Merovingians, who…
7. Postcolonialism
Generally, postcolonialism refers to the study of the impact of colonialism on societies, particularly the conquering and colonisation of countries around the globe by European powers, and includes the oppression and displacement of the indigenous people of those countries. the…
6. Imago Dei
Imago Dei – Image of God (Genesis 1.26-27) Basically, it means we are God’s mini-me’s. We are made to reflect God and to bear his good characteristics. Images are always from a particular perspective, and I think the beauty of…
5. Gnosticism
I think this topic if fascinating. But there’s one major problem: most of what we know about this early Christian ‘heresy’ (see the episode on heresiology) comes from the opponents of Gnosticism – the early Christian apologists. So those accounts…
4. Heresiology
Typical definition of heresy is a belief or doctrine that is contrary to the orthodox position. What is orthodoxy? Simply put, it is ‘right belief’ and refers to those doctrines that the church has concluded is the correct thing to…
3. Trinitarianism
One of the key distinctive beliefs of Christianity – God exists as three distinct and equal persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is, first and foremost, an attempt to make sense of what is…
2. The Papal Schism
The Papal Schism occurred in the 14th and into the 15th century, when three legitimately elected Popes vied for the Chair of Peter at the same time. A bit of background… Boniface VIII elected Pope in 1294 and became very…
1. Eschatology
Eschatology, lit. “the study of the last things” – the end of history, and of the present age, dealing with issues of judgment and the destiny of humankind, both collectively and individually. Everything else makes way more sense when we…
A. K. Chidgzey 