Sabbathways goes to Patmos, Greece—the small island in the Aegean Sea where John the Revelator received the vision that inspired the Christian Bible's last text, the apocalyptic Book of Revelation.

This episode is a reading of the Book of Revelation in its entirety recorded just outside the cave where John received his prophecy and dictated his vision to his scribe in the first century CE. Today, the cave and the surrounding monastery is a major Christian pilgrimage site.

Music by X. Prince

Selections from Stephen Mitchell's Into the Whirlwind: A Translation of the Book of Job (1979). One of the books of wisdom literature from the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Job centers on the character of Job, a righteous man who seemingly suffers without cause. Mitchell's poetic translation brings an additional layer of vibrancy and emotion to this classic of Jewish literature that explores the human condition in its darkest moments.   

This episode speaks to issues of human suffering, divine (in)justice & existential doubt

Music by X. Prince

Selections from The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1951). Heschel's work beckons us out of the material and invites us to reflect on what the love of a day means and our relationship with the Divine as eternal time even as we confront our temporal limits.

This episode speaks to issues of labor, material expression and acquisition, the valuing and devaluing of our time and rest as a holy act.

With music inspired by The Eagles.

Selections from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) by Frederick Douglass. While Douglass naturally despised all slavemasters, having been an enslaved person himself in Maryland, no slavemaster drew his ire like the pious slavemaster. However, Douglass did not reject Christianity, far from it. Instead, he boldly differentiated between the "Christianity of Christ" or the true religion of Christianity as demonstrated by Jesus and that of "Slaveholding Religion" or the false hypocritical religion that masqueraded as Christianity.

This episode speaks to hypocrisy in religion and politics, the moral corruption of the Church and institutional corruption.

With music inspired by Drake, Bob Marley and Michael Jackson

A reading of The Declaration of Sentiments Adopted by the Peace Convention held in Boston in 1838 by The New England Non-Resistance Society. This episode speaks to nonviolent protest, the legitimacy of human governments and war monuments, the use of force by governments against their own citizens and others and Christian Anarchism. Leo Tolstoy also makes a brief appearance.

With music inspired by Britney Spears and the hymn Love Thy Neighbor.