Beneath the Headlines

Stuck in the Present: How History Frees and Forms Christians - Episode 40 interview with David Moore

Today’s One Hundred Plus Podcast is a bit different. Over the last year, Mike has been walking through an historical overview of 100 of the most important people, places and ideas of the last 2,000 years. It has been a survey of the forces and factors that have shaped today’s world, the Christian faith and you. The plan has been to lay the track of the one hundred topics and then to double back with supplemental material - such as interviews with authors or deeper dives into certain topics. We a...

Episode 39 - The Protestant Reformation Part 5: Calvinism - 100+ Significant Moments in Church History

Episode 38: The Protestant Reformation Part 4

Episode 37: The Protestant Reformation Part 3

Today’s episode is the third part in our overview of the Protestant Reformation, which started when a young Augustinian monk nailed 95 theses onto the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, and became one of the most influential revolutions in Western Civilization. We have been focused on one of the true pivot points in Western Civilization – the Protestant Reformation, which happened in the 16th century when Martin Luther – the monk with the mallet - set out to correct a prob...

Episode 36: The Life of Martin Luther - The Protestant Reformation Part 2

Episode 35 - The Reformation Part 1 - 100+ Significant Moments in Christian History

Episode 34: The Renaissance

Episode 33: Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and the Intersection of Faith and Art

Today we begin our multi-week focus on the Renaissance, staring with Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and then stepping back to consider the important intersections of faith and art.

Episode 32: The Origins of Human Rights

A. In today’s lecture, Mike will be discussing on the rise of Human Rights, showing how they are grounded in the Christian Worldview and tracing their development over three thousand years.

Episode 31: The Art of Reading Christian Literature

Episode 30: The Origins of the Protestant Movement: The Return to Prominence of the Most Important Book in History

In today’s lecture, Mike will be focusing on two of the Pre-Reformers, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, explaining what they did that got them sideways with the authorities, and why. The Bible is the most significant book of all time. Most claims to be “the best” or “the biggest” are long on hype. Not here. There are many ways to substantiate the Bible’s dominance. Today we turn to two men who are significant for a few reasons. First, because they point ahead to an event that is going to rock Europe i...

Episode 29: The Great Council

This episode will focuses on the Fourth Lateran Council, a 13th century event you have likely never heard of – and can’t imagine you are listening to a lecture on it. But this council – which is often referred to as the Great Council – is important for a handful of reasons. The one Mike will be highlighting today deals with the formalized endorsement of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Which is the Roman Catholic idea that the communion elements become the actual body and blood of Christ duri...

Episode 28: The Crisis in the Late Middle Age Church

Episode 27: Facts and Myths from the Life of St Francis of Assisi

Episode 26: The Rise of the University

Today, Mike will be focusing on the rise of the Medieval University, which is important because it was largely a Christian venture and university education begins to have an increasingly significant impact across the world. In a future lecture Mike will be talking about the rise of Higher Education in the United States, which is its own story. Today he briefly looks back at the academies that were sprouting up back during Augustine’s life, before skipping ahead to the Monestary and Cathedral sch...

Episode 25: The Scholastics

We'll be focusing on Aristotle, Anselm, Aquinas and their contributions to the rise of Scholasticism.

Episode 24: The Crusades

Episode 23 - Politics, Power, and the Church: Pope Gregory VII and the Cluniac Movement

A. In today’s podcast, we will be exploring the challenges the church has with power and looking at some of its internal efforts at reform – most notably, the work of Pope Gregory VII and the Cluniac movement.

Episode 22: The Great Schism

In today’s podcast, we'll focus on the Great Schism of 1054, which divided the church between the West — the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches — and the East — the capital “O” Orthodox churches.

Episode 21 - Charlemagne

Episode 20 - The Venerable Bede

Today we're looking at the impact of one of the most famous Brits of all time – a quiet Benedictine Monk named Bede. He is then going to show how Bede fits into a long line of Christians who elevate the life of the mind.

Episode 19: The Impact of Islam on Christianity

Episode 18: The History of Missions

At this moment, about one-third of the world’s population makes some sort of claim to be a follower of Christ. That means that the group Jesus launched with just a few, has spread and grown more dynamically than any other movement in history. How did this happen? In Episode 18 of One Hundred Plus, Mike is going to leverage the impact of Saint Columba, a 6th century Irish missionary, to provide an overview of the history of mission. He will back up to show Jesus commissioning his simple and unimp...

Episode 17: Gregory the Great

On today’s episode we look at Gregory the Great, a remarkable figure who shaped the church and impacted the world at a fragile moment in Western History. It is hard to imagine how different our lives would be without this man. Mike is going to give you an overview of his life, talk about how he changed the trajectory of the West and suggest that we all look to raise our game in light of his example.

Episode 16: Monasticism

Today, we continue our slide into the Middle Ages with a look at Monasticism in general and St. Benedict in particular. Not that long ago, monks were viewed as odd and quirky. Today, they are often celebrated for their wines and cheeses, and their monasteries have gained quite a bit of cultural cache as exactly the kind of place to go to detox from this crazy world. Neither view is particularly accurate, so in this episode, Mike will be exploring the origins of monasticism as well as tracing its...

Episode 15: St. Patrick

Episode 14: The Council of Chalcedon

In the last episode, Mike discussed the fall of Rome and offered a quick summary of the arch of Western Civilization. In today’s podcast we pick up 125 years after Nicaea. The barbarians now control growing sections of the West – which hopes that the East will come to their rescue. But they do not, in part because the emperor there – a man named Theodosius - is trying to stay on top of a religious dispute. One that deals yet again with our understanding of Christ, and one that will be addressed ...

Episode 13: The Fall of Rome

Welcome to One Hundred Plus – episode number 13, in which Mike Woodruff will focus on the fall of Rome and also provide a brief overview of the development of Western Civilization.

Episode 12: Jerome

The man we study in today’s episode was a cranky curmudgeon that few could get along with, but he was a thoughtful scholar and a man determined to chase after God. And in the end, God used him in very important ways. His name is Jerome, and among the many works he produced was a translation of the Bible that shaped the west for more than 1,000 years.

Episode 11: Augustine

Today we look at Augustine, who is the most important figure to date – A post-Nicaean Father, A doctor of the Church. A philosopher, a writer, a pastor, a bishop and someone who is so big that in some ways he bridges the divide between antiquity and theMiddle Ages. As a theologian, writer, thinker and church leader, he has shaped your thinking whether you know it or not.