In 1925, a small-town courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee became the stage for one of the most famous trials in American history. The “Monkey Trial” wasn’t really about Darwin, evolution, or even a $100 fine. It was about dignity.

When Clarence Darrow grilled William Jennings Bryan on the witness stand, the courtroom laughed. Newspapers printed cartoons of monkey-preachers. And in that laughter, evangelicals—who had once stood at the center of American life, suddenly felt mocked, humiliated, pushed to the margins.

This episode tells the real story of the Scopes Trial: not as science vs. faith, but as a turning point in cultural psychology. It was the moment American evangelicals shifted from confident insiders to defensive outsiders. From mainstream to subculture. From leading the nation to building a world of their own.

Nearly a century later, we’re still living in its shadow.

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Empire of Relics: When Bones, Blood, and Bread Became the Currency of the Sacred

What happens when faith turns material? In the Middle Ages, relics were more than devotional objects, they were power. The finger of a saint could draw pilgrims across Europe. A vial of blood could bankroll a cathedral. A splinter of the “true cross” could legitimize an empire.

In this episode, we step inside the strange economy of holiness: where churches competed for body parts, kings went to war over bones, and ordinary believers risked everything to touch a fragment of the sacred.

Was it faith or fraud? Devotion or desperation? By the end, you’ll see how relics shaped not only medieval spirituality but the very map of Europe itself.

If you thought crypto was volatile, wait until you hear about the black market for saints’ teeth.

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We all picture angels with white feathers, halos, and harps, but the Bible never describes them that way. In Scripture, angels show up as messengers, warriors, and servants of God’s will but never as winged ornaments. So where did the wings come from?

This episode traces the surprising history of how angels grew wings: from the throne guardians of Isaiah and Ezekiel, to pagan gods like Nike and Hermes, to Byzantine mosaics, medieval theater, and Renaissance masterpieces. Along the way, we’ll see how desert monks reshaped the devil, how mystery plays fixed wings into the popular imagination, and how art from, Gislebertus to Botticelli to Bosch sealed the image we still carry today.

By the end, you’ll discover the fascinating truth: angels don’t need wings to carry God’s message. The real story is stranger and more awe-inspiring than the myths we’ve inherited.

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In the 16th century, a bitter, dark drink swept into Europe from the Muslim world and panic followed. Priests called it “the invention of Satan.” Rumors claimed it fueled heresy, addiction, and political unrest. Some feared it might even replace wine in Christian life.

The controversy reached the Pope himself. What happened next would transform coffee from a suspicious foreign vice into the drink of choice for priests, scholars, and theologians, and turn coffeehouses into the “penny universities” of the Christian world.

This is the strange, true story of how a hot cup of controversy became a catalyst for conversation, culture, and even the Church’s mission.

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Rome, 897.

On a gray January day, the streets of the Eternal City fill with bakers, monks, and merchants, all walking toward the Lateran Basilica. Inside, beneath flickering candles and the scent of incense, a corpse sits on the papal throne. What follows is one of the strangest trials in church history: a pope on trial months after his death.

This is the story of the Cadaver Synod. A mix of political revenge, theological controversy, and public outrage that forced the Church to answer a question still relevant today: Does the validity of a sacrament depend on the holiness of the person who gives it?

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They didn’t just pray for the sick, they stayed.

While the rest of the world fled plagues, early Christians moved toward the dying.They didn’t wait for governments to act. They built something entirely new: the hospital.

In this episode of Theology Made, we trace the radical roots of medical care not to ancient Greece, Rome, or science alone, but to the revolutionary compassion of the early Church. You’ll meet Bishop Basil the Great, see how monasteries became medieval trauma centers, and discover why the first hospitals weren’t sterile institutions, but small cities of mercy.

This is the story of how theology turned into infrastructure.And why, even in a world of advanced medicine, we still need a theology of compassion.

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We’ve all heard the story of the Salem Witch Trials, but most of what we know barely scratches the surface.

This episode unpacks the deeper forces behind one of America’s most infamous chapters: political instability, religious fervor, social vendettas, and the terrifying power of unchecked accusations. More than a tale of superstition, Salem reveals how fear and groupthink can turn neighbor against neighbor, and how justice can vanish when reason is abandoned.

What happened in 1692 isn’t just history. It’s a warning.

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Before the councils. Before the creeds. There was Macrina. She never wrote a book or held a title, but her faith, intellect, and quiet influence shaped two of the most important theologians in church history: Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. This episode tells the powerful story of the woman behind the Trinity as we know it and why her fingerprints are still on our faith today.

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The First Missionary You’ve Never Heard Of (George Liele)

Before William Carey. Before Adoniram Judson. Before the mission boards and the maps, there was George Liele. A formerly enslaved Black man who preached with power, crossed an ocean, and planted churches before the modern missions movement even began.

He had no passport, no denomination, and no platform. Just a Bible, a burning conviction, and the courage to go where no one had gone. So why isn’t he in the textbooks?

This is the story of the first American missionary, forgotten by history, remembered by heaven.

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If this post helped you see God or the world a little more clearly, you can keep the coffee flowing and the ideas coming by supporting me here.

In 1962, a 22-word prayer changed American history. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t controversial, at first. But when Engel v. Vitale reached the U.S. Supreme Court, it ignited a national firestorm over religion, freedom, and the role of faith in public life.

Was this the moment God got kicked out of the classroom?Or was it a courageous defense of religious liberty?

In this episode of theTheology Made Podcast, we unpack the courtroom case that still echoes through today’s culture wars. You'll hear the forgotten story behind the lawsuit, why Cold War fear shaped the debate, and what this case reveals about the danger of cozying up faith with political power.

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If this post helped you see God or the world a little more clearly, you can keep the coffee flowing and the ideas coming by supporting me here.