Did King James I really rewrite the Bible to serve his own political purposes? The real story is far more interesting. In this episode, we trace the King James Bible back through Tyndale, the Matthew Bible, the Geneva Bible, and the Bishops’ Bible to discover how the Authorized Version of 1611 was actually created. Along the way, we explore the religious and political struggles behind the translation—and ask just how much of the “King James Bible” actually belonged to King James.

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In this episode we interview Dr. Warren Throckmorton about his book; "The Christian Past that Wasn't; Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths that Hijack History." We often hear the narrative that America is a Christian Nation and that the Constitution has divine origins. Dr. Throckmorton's book corrects this narrative with the actual accounts of the Constitutional Convention and its aftermath. 

Dr. Warren Throckmorton  is an author and speaker specializing in psychology and history. Now retired, he worked as a psychology professor at a Christian college and produced, wrote, and hosted the critically acclaimed podcast series Telling Jefferson Lies. His writing has appeared in Salon, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Christianity Today, and Religion Dispatches, among others, and he has appeared on CNN, NPR, the Holy Post podcast, and more. Throckmorton is the coauthor with Michael Coulter of Getting Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson.

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In this episode, John Ericson, Executive Director at St Luke’s Historic Church & Museum, interviews Dr. Amy Stallings, Adjunct Professor of History at the College of William & Mary, on the enduring lessons of Bacon’s Rebellion. Dr. Stallings is also a public Historian who portrays Lady Berkeley, the wife of Virginia Governor Sir William Berkeley. In this conversation, we explore the causes and personalities of some of the major figures in this civil war in Colonial Virginia’s last quarter of the 17th century, a conflict that echoes in our own time. 

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Sacred Remembrance: In this episode St Luke’s Executive Director John Ericson interviews Chadra Pitman about her work in remembering the victims of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The discussion covers the many slave codes of the 17th century Virginia Colony and how they divided the labor class according to skin color thus creating the social construct of race. 

Chadra Pitman is an Anthropologist, Human Rights Advocate, Remembrance Celebration Coordinator, Public HIstorian and the Executive Director of the Sankofa Project. Chadra holds a B.A. in Anthropology from George Mason University and a Masters of Anthropology of Peace and Human Rights from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Chadra’s publications include; “Mother of the Movement: Remembering Bambara and the ‘African Bones’ in the Briny Deep,” and “If Bones Could Speak.” 

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In this episode St Luke's Executive Director John Ericson discusses an exciting new tour opportunity that will allow for both onsite and offsite visitation, the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, and a conversation about sacred sites and messy history. 

John Ericson is the Executive Director of St Luke's Historic Church & Museum. A graduate of Roanoke College and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He has worked up from Docent to Executive Director over his tenure of nearly 12 years at St Luke's. 

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In this episode John Ericson, the Education Coordinator at St Luke's and Host of the Old Brick Church Podcast, interviews Joseph McGill. Joseph is the founder and Director of the Slave Dwelling Project that seeks to offer a more inclusive narrative about our Nation's founding. Joseph and other members of his team have slept at plantations and other sites to highlight the stories of the Enslaved and ensure that their memories and legacies are preserved. Joseph is the Co-Author along with Herb Frazier of "Sleeping with the Ancestors; How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery."

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John Ericson discusses the recent Symposium at Jamestown Settlement entitled: Ways of Being; Evolving Religion and America with Dr. Travis Harris, Visiting Assistant Professor at Norfolk State University. 

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The Reformation raised doubts about centuries-old church doctrines. Did this contribute to the emergence of atheism in the modern world? Or was it the violence of religious wars and the oppression stemming from the marriage of religion and government? St Luke's Education Coordinator John Ericson takes a look in this episode at Atheism in the 17th century. 

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In this episode, we interview Dr. Naomi Pullin, a Professor at Warwick University in the UK, about the Quaker story on both sides of the Atlantic. The Society of Friends was persecuted for their beliefs but held fast to their ethics of equality and nonviolence in one of the most violent centuries in Western history. Join us as we discuss this fascinating story of perseverance and the Quakers' important role in the history of religious freedom.

Naomi Pullin is an Associate Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Warwick. She is the author of Female Friends and the Making of Transatlantic Quakerism, 1650-1750 (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and editor of Negotiating Exclusion in Early Modern England, 1550-1800 (Routledge, 2021). She has also published a number of other chapters and articles on different aspects of early Quaker culture and facets of women’s identities and experiences, including forthcoming articles in the English Historical Review and Journal of Early Modern History. She is currently working on a new monograph entitled A Social History of Solitude in Early Modern Britain, which was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship.

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Today we often talk about the impact of social media on forming public opinion, its effect on elections, and how it fuels division. In 17th century England, the printing press and the proliferation of pamphlets were doing similar things. In this Episode, we speak with public historian and historic book binder, Hunter Willis, on the Pamphlet Wars. 

Hunter Willis is an amateur historian and has been researching and practicing the art of bookbinding for a decade. He has conducted extensive research and delivered historical lectures on various topics, including bookbinding, printing, and literary history. In addition to bookbinding, Hunter has over two decades of experience as a historical interpreter of 19th, 18th, and 17th century history. His full-time career is in cloud Product Marketing for IBM.

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