The Areopagus

The Areopagites tackle the phenomenon of the “Exvangelical,” the (de)conversion of prominent Evangelical Christians away from traditional doctrines or from Christianity altogether, tracing it back to the iconoclasm of the Reformation. They launch into a discussion of what Christian culture is and what this has to do with ritual. And Pastor Mike tells the story of how he parted the waters at a charismatic church service by doing his best Tasmanian devil impression.

Icon carver and YouTuber Jonathan Pageau joins the Areopagites to talk about parasitic storytelling in popular culture -- pushing the outsider and the marginal into the inside -- and offering both critique to diversity as a core value and positive responses to this inversion of hierarchy in culture. The revolution of the culture is coming to its end, but what will be next?

Germanic philologist and Amon Sûl podcast co-host Richard Rohlin joins the Areopagites to talk about the good, bad, and ugly in how modern people deal with the past and incorporate it (or don’t) into their present, not to mention why English spelling reform is a terrible idea and why there is no such thing as an “incense holder.”

Fr. Anthony Perkins, archpriest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA living in the State of Georgia, mission pastor covering two parishes, AFR podcaster, Ph.D. student in political science at the University of Georgia, former US Army intelligence officer, and probably not secretly an operative of the CIA, FBI and NSA all at once, joins the Areopagites to talk UFOs, aliens, the paranormal, conspiracies, and whether it’s all just a big joke -- featuring special guest appearances by Fr. Anthony’s birds.

The Pseudo-Areopagite Dr. Mike Petrow returns to the podcast after a 2-year hiatus to talk friendship (especially in the midst of pandemic), where he’s been all this time, and with long but relevant detours into the Ralph Bakshi (and other renditions of) Lord of the Rings. Prominently featured is the leaking of nearly every other podcast Fr. Andrew has ever made into this one episode of the Areopagus.

Reformation historian Dr. Cyril Gary Jenkins returns to the Areopagus to talk politics -- not candidates or elections, but what it means for Christians to live under human governments, what the Bible says about government, and the spiritual realities that we face here in 2020 America. And Fr. Andrew makes a dumb joke about a centaur.

Former Pentecostal pastor and now Orthodox Christian priest Fr. Barnabas Powell joins the Areopagites to discuss the book he's writing about the relationship between Pentecostalism and Orthodox Christianity, how charismatic gifts function within the Orthodox tradition, and what Pentecostal experience means in the light of that tradition.

The Areopagites welcome podcaster, Biblical scholar and On-Site Holy Land Professor/Instructor (NOT "tour guide"!) Dr. Cyndi Parker to discuss sacred space and sacred place, with an emphasis on her scholarly focus of the book of Deuteronomy. But they begin with a deep dive into whether there can be sacraments or even church life at the Starbucks.

Fr. Andrew and Pastor Mike discuss prominent Christians falling from grace, including comedian John Crist and Liberty University president Jerry Falwell, Jr. They finish up with the “Don’t Go to Church, Be the Church” slogan during the present pandemic. But first they begin with a listener question about whether schisms ever heal.

Shawn Raymer, a former ministry co-worker with Pastor Mike, has journeyed from mission work in the heart of the prophetic movement in the Pentecostal world to becoming an Orthodox Christian