The Cadaver Synod

Re-enchanting the Cosmos | C.R. Wiley

In this episode of Strange Church History, we share a conference talk from C. R. Wiley on re-enchanting the cosmos. With his characteristic clarity and good sense, Wiley turns our attention to the architecture of creation itself—its hierarchy, order, purpose, and harmony. He reminds us that before the modern world thinned reality to particles and probabilities, Christians understood the cosmos as a house built by God, a place alive with meaning and structured for wisdom. This talk presses against the disenchanted assumptions of our age and calls us to recover a world thick with significance. Wiley argues that forgetting the cosmos is forgetting our place within it. He draws together Scripture, the Christian tradition, and the deep patterns of life to show that the universe is not a cold expanse but an ordered home in which God’s people are meant to dwell, act, and take dominion. Join us as Strange Church History revisits this compelling and timely message delivered at the Re-enchanting the Church conference in Logan, West Virginia—a reminder that the world is far larger, stranger, and more glorious than we have been taught to imagine.

Re-enchanting the Christian Imagination | S.D. Smith

In this episode of Strange Church History, we share a conference talk from S. D. Smith on the renewal of the Christian imagination. Drawing from story, Scripture, and the deep patterns woven into creation, Smith challenges us to consider what truly forms the inner life of God’s people. Imagination, he argues, is never empty. It is always being shaped, always being filled, always bending toward worship or toward something far darker. If our imaginations are not shaped by what is doxological, they will inevitably be shaped by what is diabolical. This talk calls the Church to recover a vision large enough for the world God actually made: a world that is storied, symbolic, and charged with meaning. Smith invites listeners to see again with childlike clarity, to recognize the quiet wonders we have forgotten, and to cultivate imaginations sturdy enough to live faithfully in an age of confusion. Enter Strange Church History as we revisit this timely and hopeful message delivered at the Re-enchanting the Church conference in Logan, West Virginia.

Re-enchanting the Church

In this episode of Strange Church History, we share a conference talk from Josh delivered in Logan, West Virginia, on the theme of re-enchanting the Church. This session explores how the Church can recover a deeper imagination, a sacramental vision of the world, and the ancient patterns that shaped Christian worship and life long before modernity stripped them of their wonder. Drawing from Scripture, history, and the symbolic world that once formed the Christian mind, Josh invites listeners to consider what it means to live as a people who see the world charged with the presence of God. This talk stands as both reflection and invitation. It looks back to the great story the Church has inherited and asks how that story can once again shape our communities, our worship, and our sense of place in God’s creation. Step inside Strange Church History and listen as the veil lifts a little, reminding us that the faith we confess has never been ordinary.

The Cadaver Synod

In the winter of 897, the city of Rome gathered in silence to witness the unthinkable. Inside the Basilica of St. John Lateran, a corpse sat propped on a throne — the body of Pope Formosus, dead for nine months, dressed again in papal robes. And before him, another pope pronounced judgment. This was the Cadaver Synod — one of the strangest and darkest moments in Church history. A trial of the dead. A symbol of power gone mad. But also, a mirror of the Cross: when heaven’s instruments are twisted by human hands, and yet grace still refuses to depart. In this episode of Strange Church History, we enter the madness of medieval Rome, trace the politics that led to the Synodus Horrenda, and uncover the meaning hidden within the grotesque — the truth that even in corruption, resurrection waits.

The Strange History of Halloween

It's the Hallowtide Season. The air is cold, the wind whispers through the trees, and the line between the living and the dead grows thin. Candles burn inside hollowed pumpkins. Children walk beneath the moon wearing masks of saints and spirits. But behind the costumes and candy lies one of the strangest stories in all of Christian history. In this episode of Strange Church History, we uncover the true origins of Halloween — not as a pagan survival, but as a Christian holy night: the eve of All Saints. From the shadow of ancient harvest festivals to the dawn of the Hallowtide Triduum, we follow how the Church claimed the season of death as a proclamation of resurrection. Hear how medieval Christians faced the darkness without fear, transforming superstition into sanctity, and how the strange beauty of this feast still echoes today — when heaven and hell both seem to hold their breath. Is Halloween trick... or treat?