29 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American musician who co-founded Underoath as its original vocalist and drummer — and whose later solo acoustic work under his own name addresses spiritual and personal themes more directly than the metalcore format allowed.
British historian at Durham who wrote Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World and Unbelievers — arguing that Protestantism's inner dynamics (the individualism, the doubt, the anguish) generated the modern secular world through its own self-dissolution.
Augustine's autobiographical spiritual account — narrating his early life, intellectual journey through Manichaeism and Neoplatonism, conversion to Christianity, and theological reflection — the first autobiography in Western literature and the foundational document of confessional self-examination.
British novelist and Christian apologist — Oxford and Cambridge literature professor — author of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and The Problem of Pain — the most widely read Christian apologist of the 20th century.
Volume III of Will and Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization — covering Roman history from its origins through the early centuries of Christianity — one of the most widely read accounts of ancient Rome and early Christianity.
American actor whose physical transformation from comedic overweight Parks and Recreation star to action hero Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World made him one of Hollywood's most commercially successful stars — and whose Christian faith has been a public part of his identity.
Augustine's 397–400 CE autobiographical prayer — the first autobiography in the Western tradition — following his intellectual wanderings through Manichaeism and Neo-Platonism to Christian conversion, and exploring the psychology of sin, grace, and the restless heart.
Roman Emperor (306–337 AD) — who reunited the Roman Empire after civil wars, issued the Edict of Milan (313 AD) legalizing Christianity, moved the capital to Constantinople, and presided over the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) — the most consequential patron of Christianity in history.
American New Testament scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary who is a leading authority on the historical Jesus and the Gospel of Matthew — and whose work on eschatology and the historical Jesus is foundational for contemporary Jesus scholarship.
American Jungian analyst who has written on the intersection of Jungian psychology with religious traditions — particularly Christianity and Judaism — exploring how depth psychology illuminates and is illuminated by religious experience.
Russian novelist — author of Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and Notes from Underground — who explored the psychology of guilt, freedom, and faith through characters facing extreme moral situations — considered the greatest psychological novelist.
First-century Jewish preacher from Galilee — the central figure of Christianity — whose teachings, crucifixion, and claimed resurrection became the foundation of the world's largest religion, and who for René Girard represents the unique moment in history when the scapegoat victim's innocence is proclaimed by the text that recounts his death.
The apostle John — traditionally identified as the author of the Fourth Gospel, three epistles, and Revelation — whose Gospel differs fundamentally from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) by presenting Jesus as the eternal Logos (Word) who became flesh.
Irish-American New Testament scholar who co-founded the Jesus Seminar and wrote The Historical Jesus — arguing that Jesus was primarily a Jewish peasant social revolutionary and Cynic sage rather than an apocalyptic prophet — making him one of the most prominent and controversial historical Jesus scholars.
The author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles — who wrote the most literary and historically conscious of the Gospels, addressed to a Gentile audience, and whose parable of the Prodigal Son is the most psychologically profound of all Gospel narratives.
Australian cosmologist at Western Sydney University — author of A Fortunate Universe (with Geraint Lewis) — who argues that the fine-tuning of physical constants is a genuine scientific puzzle that theism explains better than the multiverse.
The author of the Gospel of Mark — the earliest of the four canonical Gospels (~65–70 CE) — whose urgent, compressed narrative (characteristic Greek word 'immediately') presents Jesus's ministry as a sequence of dramatic actions leading to the cross.
The apostle Matthew — traditionally identified as a tax collector who became a disciple of Jesus and whose Gospel (written for a Jewish Christian audience) presents Jesus as the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecy and the teacher of the new law in the Sermon on the Mount.
Paul of Tarsus — the apostle who transformed Christianity from a Jewish sect into a universal religion — whose epistles form the theological core of the New Testament and whose doctrines of grace and justification by faith define Protestant Christianity.
Jewish-Christian apostle who wrote most of the New Testament epistles — Romans, Corinthians, Galatians — and whose theology of grace, justification by faith, and the universalism of the Gospel defined Christianity's transformation from a Jewish sect into a world religion.
Simon Peter — Galilean fisherman who became the leader of Jesus's disciples — whose denial of Jesus during the trial and subsequent restoration by the risen Jesus is the New Testament's most psychologically rich story of failure, forgiveness, and recommissioning.
North African bishop and theologian — author of Confessions and The City of God — who created the Christian theological framework for original sin, predestination, grace, and just war — whose thought shaped Western Christianity more than any other figure after Paul.
Galilean fisherman and the chief apostle of Jesus — renamed Peter ('rock') by Jesus — first Bishop of Rome (according to Catholic tradition) — martyred under Nero — whose leadership in the early church shaped the institutional structure of Christianity.
Danish philosopher — author of Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, and Concluding Unscientific Postscript — who created existentialism's foundational concepts (anxiety, leap of faith, authenticity) and attacked both Hegelian system-building and Danish State Church complacency.
Tom Holland's 2008 narrative history of the years around 1000 AD — when Christendom as a distinct civilization was forged from the multiple crises of the Viking, Magyar, and Saracen raids — arguing that the Church's reform movement and the year 1000's apocalyptic expectations transformed Latin Christianity into Western civilization.
Brian Muraresku's 2020 argument — that ancient Greek mystery religions (especially Eleusis) used psychedelic beverages, that early Christianity adopted these rites, and that psychedelic experience is the origin of Western religion — combining classical scholarship with chemical archaeology.
John Allegro's 1970 argument — that Christianity originated as a mushroom fertility cult, and that biblical names are encoded references to Amanita muscaria — the most linguistically elaborate psychedelic-origins theory in religious history.
British popular historian — author of Rubicon, Persian Fire, Dynasty, and Dominion — host of The Rest Is History podcast — the leading popular historian of the ancient world and early Christianity for English-language audiences.
Greek theological concept — derived from Philippians 2:7 (Christ 'emptied himself' — ekenosen — taking the form of a servant) — describing the divine self-limitation or self-emptying by which the eternal Logos became incarnate — one of the most generative concepts in Christian theology and contemporary philosophy of religion.