The Unintentional Heretic

This episode of The Unintentional Heretic explores St. Benedict and the Rule of St. Benedict as one of Christianity’s quiet revolutions, a way of life rooted in listening, prayer, work, humility, stability, hospitality, and shared community. In a culture shaped by speed, noise, anxiety, self expression, and constant distraction, Benedict invites us into a different rhythm, one that forms us slowly into people of deeper presence, peace, and love.Would love to hear your thoughts!

This episode of The Unintentional Heretic explores the Inquisition as one of the most sobering examples in Christian history of what happens when faith becomes entangled with fear, certainty, institutional power, and coercion. We look at the medieval, Spanish, and Roman Inquisitions and ask how a tradition centered on the mercy and compassion of Jesus could come to justify forced conversions, torture, and even death in the name of protecting truth — and what that history still warns us about today.Would love to hear your thoughts!

This episode of The Unintentional Heretic explores the ancient Christian idea of theosis — the startling belief that salvation is not merely about being forgiven or going somewhere after we die, but about humanity becoming divine by grace, participation, and communion with God. Drawing from the Eastern Church, Athanasius, Irenaeus, icons, the Transfiguration, and Gregory Palamas, the episode asks what Christianity might look like if we understood salvation less as a transaction and more as healing, transformation, and becoming fully alive in the life and love of God.Would love to hear your thoughts!

This episode of The Unintentional Heretic explores the Crusades as one of Christianity’s most sobering examples of what happens when faith becomes entangled with empire, violence, certainty, and political ambition. It traces the Crusades through their most consequential and tragic moments — the First Crusade’s conquest of Jerusalem, the rise of Saladin, the heartbreaking Children’s Crusade, and the catastrophic Fourth Crusade — while asking how a faith centered on the way of Jesus became capable of blessing holy war, and what that history still warns us about today.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, we explore Gnosticism—the ancient Christian movement that taught salvation comes through awakening to the divine spark within—and the profound influence of Platonic philosophy, the Demiurge, Valentinus, Marcion, and the battle for the soul of early Christianity. Along the way, we ask a question that remains surprisingly relevant today: is the goal of spirituality to escape the world, or to discover the sacredness of creation, embodiment, and ordinary human life?Would love to hear your thoughts!

For centuries, Christianity wrestled with a profound question: are our bodies, desires, and passions obstacles to God or places where God is revealed? In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, we explore how Greek dualism, Augustine, monasticism, and purity culture shaped Christian attitudes toward sex—and why many Christians today are rediscovering the sacredness of creation, embodiment, and desire itself.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, we explore how Christianity gradually shifted from being a movement centered on following the way of Jesus to a religion increasingly focused on worshiping Jesus and defining correct belief about him. While creeds, doctrine, and institutions have great value, their purpose is ultimately to lead us into lives shaped by mercy, compassion, justice, and love—the very things Jesus emphasized when he said, “Follow me.”Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores the history and evolution of biblical inerrancy, distinguishing it carefully from literalism while examining how modern Christianity came to equate certainty with faithfulness. Drawing on church history, biblical scholarship, theology, and personal experience, the episode argues that Scripture can remain deeply inspired, authoritative, and spiritually transformative without requiring every passage to function as a historically or factually flawless account.Would love to hear your thoughts!

This episode explores the fascinating evolution of Satan from “the accuser” within the divine council of ancient Israel to the cosmic devil of modern Christianity, revealing how ideas about evil, suffering, and spiritual conflict developed across centuries of Jewish and Christian history. Along the way, the episode examines the serpent in Eden, Persian dualism, apocalyptic literature, Revelation, Dante, Milton, psychology, and scapegoating — ultimately arguing that theology evolves as humanity wrestles with the mystery of evil and the deeper call toward love over fear. Would love to hear your thoughts!

This episode explores the moments in Christian history when long-held “orthodox” paradigms were forced to evolve through crisis, discovery, and changing human understanding — from the fall of Rome and the Copernican Revolution to Darwin, democracy, and modern science. Rather than portraying faith as static certainty, the episode argues that Christianity has always been a living tradition wrestling to reinterpret itself in light of new realities, often resisting change at first before slowly moving toward deeper truth and greater humility. Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores immigration through the lens of Scripture, history, and the teachings of Jesus, tracing the Bible’s evolving relationship with outsiders, strangers, and the vulnerable. Challenging the rise of Christian nationalism and the dehumanization of immigrants, the episode asks whether Christians will choose fear and exclusion—or recognize Christ already present in the stranger at the border. Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores the long and complex evolution of Christian doctrine surrounding LGBTQ inclusion, tracing the conversation from ancient purity codes and Greco-Roman assumptions to modern understandings of sexuality, human dignity, and the radically expansive love of Jesus. Drawing on Scripture, church history, theology, and lived human experience, the episode asks whether Christianity is ultimately about protecting boundaries of exclusion—or participating in the ever-widening circle of grace revealed in Christ.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores the often-contentious relationship between Christianity and evolution, tracing the journey from Darwin and the Scopes Trial to the visionary theology of Teilhard de Chardin, Ilia Delio, and process theology. Rather than seeing evolution as a threat to faith, the episode reframes creation as an ongoing sacred unfolding in which God is not preserving a static universe, but continually drawing all things toward deeper consciousness, compassion, communion, and love.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores the illusion of control, humanity’s deep evolutionary longing for certainty, and why Jesus consistently offers presence instead of predictable answers or guaranteed outcomes. Drawing from Scripture, philosophy, mysticism, and personal experiences of crisis and transformation, the episode reflects on how suffering, uncertainty, and even our wounds can become the very places where grace reshapes us into deeper compassion, courage, and Christlikeness.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores the evolution of heaven through Scripture, theology, Greek philosophy, mysticism, and church history—challenging the common assumption that Christianity is primarily about escaping earth for a distant afterlife. Drawing on the Bible, other faith traditions, contemplative spirituality, and modern near-death research, the episode reframes eternal life not as somewhere we eventually go, but as a deeper participation in divine reality already breaking into the present moment.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores the fascinating evolution of Christian salvation theology—from the mystical and diverse world of the early church, through Plato’s influence on Western Christianity, to the rise of the Ransom Theory, Anselm’s satisfaction theory, and modern penal substitution. Along the way, the episode asks how culture, philosophy, and history shaped the Gospel itself—and whether salvation is ultimately less about divine bookkeeping and more about healing, liberation, and awakening into union with God.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores whether Christianity was ever meant to be an exclusive system focused on who is “in” and who is “out,” or whether Jesus was inviting humanity into a deeper way of love, union, and abundant life. Drawing on voices like Matthew Fox, John Duns Scotus, Ilia Delio and Richard Rohr, the episode reimagines salvation not as escaping punishment, but as awakening to the Universal Christ already present within and among us.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores the fascinating evolution of YHWH—from a regional storm-warrior deity within the ancient Near Eastern world to the universal, cosmic vision of God revealed in Christ. Drawing on biblical scholarship, archaeology, and voices like Dr. Justin Sledge, the episode traces how theology develops over time and what that might mean for faith today.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In this episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg explores how modern ideas about Hell were shaped much more by Dante, medieval art, and fear-based theology than by the Bible itself. Journeying through Sheol, Hades, Tartarus, and Gehenna, the episode reexamines what Jesus actually taught about judgment, fear, and the path toward abundant life.Would love to hear your thoughts!

In the first episode of The Unintentional Heretic, Greg Farrand shares his spiritual journey—from growing up as a third culture kid in Japan and Taiwan, to finding certainty in Evangelicalism and becoming a Presbyterian pastor, to eventually questioning the theological systems he once trusted. Through wrestling with issues like women in ministry, LGBTQ inclusion, and the deeper question of how we know what is true, Greg reflects on faith, deconstruction, and the ongoing journey of becoming an “ever-expander” who believes the spiritual life is less about certainty and more about awakening.Would love to hear your thoughts!