Does Christianity reject sacrifice, or require it? Is sacrifice its heart, or a corruption that stole in while no one was looking? Is Christ the end of sacrifice, or its beginning? Such questions have roiled the church since its earliest days.

In this episode, Sam chats with Jonathan Sheehan, Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of European History at the University of California, Berkeley, about his important study, On the Altar: A History of Sacrifice from the Sacred to the Secular (Princeton University Press, 2026).

[Full disclosure — this book is dense . For a good overview, see D.G. Hart's review at the Wall Street Journal. There's a paywall but the reader willing to hand over her email can read for free.]

By focusing on the history of sacrifice in the history of the Latin West, Sheehan shows how secularism fails to live up to its promise of autonomy, since it owes many of its normative commitments to the Christianity from which it emerged. Like Christianity (which however does not claim autonomy from human truths and histories but rather to offer them fulfillment in Christ), secularism is subject to what Sheehan calls heteronomy—subordination to forces beyond its control.

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online.

Thinking of visiting a church?

Click here to find an Anglican church near you.

Credits

This episode's cover art is The Mass of Saint Gregory by Albrecht Dürer (public domain). Music licensed through Soundstripe.
Code: HSCNPIVWF5DFFNVQ, FZPEWYUIBV0KTIVE.

What would it be like to live in a world where one rash action could lead to a wasteland for all? What if we live in just such a world? What might the old tales tell us about how to live in such a world by the hope of the Gospel?

Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with priest and poet ​M​alcolm Guite, about the first of his four-volume Arthuriad, Merlin's Isle, entitled, Galahad and the Grail. Find​ it now at Rabbit Room (US) and Canterbury Press (UK).

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn about training for Anglican gospel work, check out Ridley's ⁠⁠⁠⁠Certificate in Anglican Studies⁠⁠⁠⁠, and other ⁠⁠⁠⁠lay theological formation offerings⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Thinking of visiting a church?

Visit ⁠here⁠ to find an Anglican church near you.

Humans cannot help but understand ourselves and our story through ritual. For Christians, as also for many irreligious people in the west today, this happens nowhere more powerfully than through the liturgy of the Church.

Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Cosima Clara Gillhammer of Oxford University's Lady Margaret Hall. Drawing on insights from her new book, Light on Darkness: The Untold Story of the Liturgy, this conversation explores how Christian liturgy — in many senses the soil of the Western imagination — invites us to renew our participation in the story of Christ.

Find the companion website for Cosima's book here.

We apologize for the sheer profusion of Tolkien allusions in this episode. Merry Christmas, and "Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima! "

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn about training for Anglican gospel work, check out Ridley's ⁠⁠⁠Certificate in Anglican Studies⁠⁠⁠, and other ⁠⁠⁠lay theological formation offerings⁠⁠⁠.

Thinking of visiting a church?

Visit here to find an Anglican church near you.

We apologize to listeners for our error in the first release of this episode, and have corrected the error in this release. Please enjoy this interview with Stephen Presley!

In the West, the term "God" has become virtually a placeholder, a moniker kept pristinely vacant. Even Christians have been known to treat the scriptures as butterflies to pin, probe and prod, comb and codify, until some "value" can be extracted. For the Church Fathers, things worked differently. They came to scripture armed with convictions about God, which in turn provided the framework and habitat in which they incubated their biblical theology and cultivated a genuinely ecclesial culture.

What might it mean to retrieve patristic culture-craft — the formation of communal life that flowed from their inhabiting the Bible — in the midst of contemporary secular society?Join Sam Fornecker for a ⁠second⁠ conversation with Stephen Presley, Senior Fellow for Religion and Public Life at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy and associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on his recent book, ⁠Biblical Theology in the Life of the Early Church⁠ (Baker Academic, 2025), on how the Church can learn from our ancient grandparents the liturgical, sacramental, and storied habit of scriptural engagement necessary to renew the Church in her vocation of "culture-craft" today.

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn about training for Anglican gospel work, check out Ridley's ⁠⁠Certificate in Anglican Studies⁠⁠, and other ⁠⁠lay theological formation offerings⁠⁠.

In the West, the term "God" has become virtually a placeholder, a moniker kept pristinely vacant. Even Christians have been known to treat the scriptures as butterflies to pin, probe and prod, comb and codify, until some "value" can be extracted. For the Church Fathers, things worked differently. They came to scripture armed with convictions about God, which in turn provided the framework and habitat in which they incubated their biblical theology and cultivated a genuinely ecclesial culture.

What might it mean to retrieve patristic culture-craft — the formation of communal life that flowed from their inhabiting the Bible — in the midst of contemporary secular society?Join Sam Fornecker for a second conversation with Stephen Presley, Senior Fellow for Religion and Public Life at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy and associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on his recent book, Biblical Theology in the Life of the Early Church (Baker Academic, 2025), on how the Church can learn from our ancient grandparents the liturgical, sacramental, and storied habit of scriptural engagement necessary to renew the Church in her vocation of "culture-craft" today.

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn about training for Anglican gospel work, check out Ridley's ⁠Certificate in Anglican Studies⁠, and other ⁠lay theological formation offerings⁠.

For centuries, the lodestone of the West's moral compass pointed to Jesus. Today, it points away from Hitler. That shift from a positive to a negative moral touchstone can be seen in popular culture's panoply of dark lords—Darth Vader, Sauron, Voldemort—each a rather unsubtle echo of Hitler himself.

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Alec Ryrie, Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University and author of The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It (Reaktion, 2025). According to Ryrie, the story of the war against Hitler has become “not only our Trojan War, but our Paradise Lost." What Ryrie calls anti-Nazi values have set the agenda for the West since the war: but that moral consensus is fast collapsing.

The question is, what will follow it? And what is the Church's role in preserving the moral lessons of the twenty-first century, while also—God willing—modeling a way of being in the world that leads to greater human thriving than anti-Nazi values on their own can sustain?

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn about training for Anglican gospel work, check out Ridley's Certificate in Anglican Studies, and other lay theological formation offerings.

How can Christians stay embedded within our culture while pursuing virtue and rejecting vice, in personal and in public life? Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Stephen Presley, author of Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World like the Early Church (Eerdman's, 2024), about what the modern church has to learn from Christians of the second and third centuries.

According to Presley (Cultural Sanctification, p.12), "Christians are necessarily embedded within their culture and must seek sanctification (both personal and corporate) in a way that draws upon the forms and features of their environment to transform them by pursuing virtue. This Christian performance of sanctification involves [1] defending the faith, [2] sharing the good news of salvation found in Christ, and [3] visibly embodying all the virtues of the Christian spirituality in ways that persuade others."

Presley contends that a revival of something very like ancient paganism is underway in the modern world. What might the pre-Nicene Church have to teach us, who live on the far side of Christendom?

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn about four full-time positions for young people exploring gospel work, learn more about Ministry Apprenticeship: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://standrews.church/ministry-apprenticeship/⁠⁠⁠⁠.

What has God to do with politics? What has the kingdom to do with the cross? And what does it mean to work for a kingdom whose origin lies beyond creation, but whose destiny lies within it?

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Mike Bird, deputy principal and lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia, about insights unpacked in Mike's new book with NT Wright, entitled Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies (Zondervan, 2024).

For more on this week's conversation, see Mike Bird's Religious Freedom in a Secular Age (Zondervan, 2022) and Tom Wright's The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion (HarperOne, 2018).

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, connect with us online: Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠⁠. To learn about four full-time positions for young people exploring gospel work, learn more about Ministry Apprenticeship: ⁠⁠⁠https://standrews.church/ministry-apprenticeship/⁠⁠⁠.

What do Christians miss when we extol the cross of Christ (three cheers!), but fail to place emphasize correspondingly the resurrection of Christ, with all its implications for our lives today? How do we turn up the volume on this critical element of the gospel message?

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Tim Patrick (Principal, Bible College of South Australia). Drawing on two of Tim's books — The Whole Counsel of God (with Andrew Reid, Crossway, 2020), and Establishment Eschatology in England's Reformation (Routledge, 2023) — this conversation asks, "What role has the Bible to play in rectifying a shallow understanding of the resurrection, and its implications for our lives?"

For more on this week's conversation, see Tim and Andrew's The Whole Counsel of God, and Tim's Establishment Eschatology in England's Reformation.

Enjoying this podcast?

To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, stay connected with us online: Website: ⁠⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠⁠. Twitter: ⁠⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠⁠. To explore full-time gospel ministry, learn more about Ministry Apprenticeship: ⁠⁠https://standrews.church/ministry-apprenticeship/⁠⁠.

Sam Fornecker speaks with Paul Miller about his recent book, A Praying Church: Becoming a People of Hope in a Discouraging World (Crossway, 2023).

Why does God care if I pray with other Christians? Is a prayer meeting really the best use of my time? What would God do through corporate prayer that He wouldn't do in response to private prayer—or, for that matter, regardless of any prayer at all?

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Paul Miller, Executive Director of seeJesus and author of several books, including his recent A Praying Church: Becoming a People of Hope in a Discouraging World (Crossway, 2023).