In this episode, Ryan interviews historian Brad Gregory, Henkels Family College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. In his book The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society, Brad connects the Reformation in surprising and sometimes controversial ways to the making of the modern world, from secularization and the privatization of religion to the battle between faith and science.

Brad argues that the naturalism proper to the natural sciences can’t provide a full understanding of human life; as temporal beings who live in a present that has been shaped by events of the past, history is a vital component to meaningfully understanding the world around us. In this packed conversation, he and Ryan discuss how historical knowledge impacts our understanding of such diverse fields as economics, theology, and eschatology.

Among the many questions they ask, some pose painful challenges to the modern Christian. What if Christianity in the Western world holds responsibility for such things as the climate crisis and the sin of slavery? If pre-history was characterized not by scarcity, but abundance, what justifies the avarice so characteristic of our times? Can we hope for goodness here on earth, or is the virtue of hope only fulfilled in heaven?