The Areopagus

The Areopagites say that there is a crisis of the gospel in the modern world. A lot of people have no idea what it even is. There are numerous versions being preached. And almost all of them are missing something -- demons. And Fr. Andrew promises he’s not trying to sell you a book. Really. No, really.

What happens when ministry success outpaces personal character? The Areopagites welcome fellow AFR podcaster Jamey Bennett to discuss the new Christianity Today podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, which tracks the meteoric rise and collapse of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, led by Mark Driscoll.

Far from looking only at Mark Driscoll himself and the particular story of his church, the CT podcast examines the context that made that kind of rise possible and draws out lessons for any who are in ministry or Christian leadership. Fr. Andrew reminds Jamey that he owes him a goat, Pastor Mike does his cartoon Tasmanian Devil impersonation again, and Jamey offers his help with creating Rap Knights.

Fr. Stephen De Young comes back to the Areopagus to talk disenchantment and re-enchantment within a fractured Christian world. How did we get here? And does spiritual warfare “work” outside the Orthodox Church? Fr. Andrew quotes Hamlet, Pastor Mike casts out ghosts, and Fr. Stephen Hulks out.

Fr. Stephen De Young comes back to the Areopagus to talk disenchantment and re-enchantment within a fractured Christian world. How did we get here? And does spiritual warfare “work” outside the Orthodox Church? Fr. Andrew quotes Hamlet, Pastor Mike casts out ghosts, and Fr. Stephen Hulks out.

The Areopagites tackle the phenomenon of the “Exvangelical,” the (de)conversion of prominent Evangelical Christians away from traditional doctrines or from Christianity altogether, tracing it back to the iconoclasm of the Reformation. They launch into a discussion of what Christian culture is and what this has to do with ritual. And Pastor Mike tells the story of how he parted the waters at a charismatic church service by doing his best Tasmanian devil impression.

Icon carver and YouTuber Jonathan Pageau joins the Areopagites to talk about parasitic storytelling in popular culture -- pushing the outsider and the marginal into the inside -- and offering both critique to diversity as a core value and positive responses to this inversion of hierarchy in culture. The revolution of the culture is coming to its end, but what will be next?

Germanic philologist and Amon Sûl podcast co-host Richard Rohlin joins the Areopagites to talk about the good, bad, and ugly in how modern people deal with the past and incorporate it (or don’t) into their present, not to mention why English spelling reform is a terrible idea and why there is no such thing as an “incense holder.”

Fr. Anthony Perkins, archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA living in the State of Georgia, mission pastor covering two parishes, AFR podcaster, Ph.D. student in political science at the University of Georgia, former US Army intelligence officer, and probably not secretly an operative of the CIA, FBI and NSA all at once, joins the Areopagites to talk UFOs, aliens, the paranormal, conspiracies, and whether it’s all just a big joke -- featuring special guest appearances by Fr. Anthony’s birds.

The Pseudo-Areopagite Dr. Mike Petrow returns to the podcast after a 2-year hiatus to talk friendship (especially in the midst of pandemic), where he’s been all this time, and with long but relevant detours into the Ralph Bakshi (and other renditions of) Lord of the Rings. Prominently featured is the leaking of nearly every other podcast Fr. Andrew has ever made into this one episode of the Areopagus.

Reformation historian Dr. Cyril Gary Jenkins returns to the Areopagus to talk politics -- not candidates or elections, but what it means for Christians to live under human governments, what the Bible says about government, and the spiritual realities that we face here in 2020 America. And Fr. Andrew makes a dumb joke about a centaur.