1517 Podcasts
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The Christian History Almanac is a daily 5-minute podcast that highlights those stories- sometimes well known, other times less so- that have shaped the history of the church. Hosted by historian and author Dr. Daniel van Voorhis, each daily podcast concludes with a piece of prose or poetry and the reminder that because of the Good News, everything is going to be ok.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Dan Van Voorhis makes Christian history approachable while preserving the uncertainties, textual limits, and theological stakes that give it substance.
Christian History Almanac turns church history into an act of careful interpretation. Dan Van Voorhis moves between brief weekday entries and extended weekend editions, pairing historical detail with questions about what a text, practice, or technology can legitimately tell us.
A Y2K-compliant church ad: your unlikely doorway into Dan Van Voorhis's history lesson.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A hymn-history tour that turns a Passion classic into a lively, slightly digressive church archive.
Christian History Almanac uses its weekend slot to follow the odd afterlife of "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," moving from an old love-song melody to a Passion text shaped by medieval Latin devotion and 17th-century Lutheran hymnody.
A playful tour of church websites, dead domains, and 2001 web weirdness.
Dan Van Voorhis follows a 2001 web snapshot into the early Christian internet, when pay phones, internet cafes, and ministry sites still marked the edge of the map.
A grounded history of Christian radio, from Fessenden's Christmas Eve voices to the early evangelists on the air.
The episode treats Christian radio as part of broadcasting's early history, moving from Reginald Fessenden's Christmas Eve 1906 voice transmission to KDKA's early regular programming and the first religious service soon after.
An early Christian text, handled with care and a light touch.
The episode treats the Didache as an early Christian guide that sheds light on practice without pretending to speak for every church. It moves from Holy Week and Easter to the Bryennios manuscript, with the historian's caution that one surviving copy is still one copy.
A clear walk through fasting, Yom Kippur, and the quirks of biblical language.
This weekend edition turns fasting in the Old Testament into a tidy walk through language, ritual, and translation. Dan moves from the many fasting references in the Hebrew Bible to the one prescribed fast tied to Yom Kippur, then lingers on the odd detail that Leviticus…
A compact church-history tour that makes old songs about the cross feel vivid again.
This weekend edition traces a compact history of how Christians have sung the cross, moving from catechetical lines to Latin hymnody and medieval lament without losing the thread.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Live sermons with Easter-shaped urgency.
The host traces the surprising 500-year journey of the hymn 'O Sacred Head Now Wounded' from its origins as a 16th-century German love song through its transformation into a Lenten meditation, incorporation into Bach's St.
Dan Van Voorhis frames Christian History Almanac's weekend edition as a 'Lenten devotional mixtape' built from 10 hymns and songs, with musical clips and a public Apple Music playlist.
This episode explores the history and theology of Lenten fasting, tracing its roots from Old Testament practices to early church traditions.
The weekend edition opens with a thank-you to listeners and a note that the host is traveling, then eases into a longer, loosely scripted lecture on broadcasting and Christian broadcasting in America.
This episode explores the Didache, an early Christian manual from the first century that served as a guide for baptism, the Lord's Supper, and church life in mixed Jewish-Gentile congregations.
Dan Van Voorhis uses a February 19, 2001 Christianity Today issue to revisit Christian reactions to the early internet, including ads for stackable church chairs at $28.50 and a cover line about whether god.com is dead.
Dan Van Voorhis traces Christian singing from the apostolic age to the 380s, comparing Justin Martyr’s account of Sunday worship with Pliny the Younger’s report of Christians singing antiphonally to Christ as God.
This episode introduces the story of the Sudan Interior Mission and its impact on Christianity in Africa, focusing on key figures like Walter Gowans and Dr.
This episode discusses the first documented battle at Megiddo in 1456 BC and its significance in biblical and church history, leading to the concept of Armageddon.
This episode explores the life of Anne of Bohemia and her role in connecting Wycliffe's reforms in England with Hus in Bohemia during the papal schism.
This episode discusses the baptism of King Mieszko and the signing of the Consensus of Sandomiers in 1570, a rare unity among Reformation churches in Poland.
Host Dan Van Voorhis answers a listener's question about the history and popularity of Psalm 23, discussing its use in lectionaries and its significance for Good Shepherd Sunday.
Dan Van Voorhis answers listener questions about baptism, lectionaries, New Year's Eve grapes, evangelical history, missions, and Christian identity.
This episode promotes upcoming 1517 events before beginning a weekend edition of the Christian History Almanac.
This episode begins with announcements about upcoming 1517 events, then transitions into the Christian History Almanac weekend edition hosted by Dr.
This episode tells the story of Festo Kivangere, an African evangelist born in Uganda in 1919, who became known as the 'African Billy Graham' after his conversion and revival experiences.