Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus cover art

Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus

Holy Heretics: Losing Religion and Finding Jesus

Written by: The Sophia Society
Listen for free

Holy Heretics seeks to foster honest conversations about the state of religion in the 21st century. We interview experts, spiritual seekers, scholars, and activists in our quest to examine just exactly how modern-day Christianity lost the Way of Jesus while also discovering how it can be regained through subversive thought and action.

All episodes copyright 2021 The Sophia Society. Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
Episodes
  • Ep 96: From Original Sin to Original Blessing w/Matthew Fox

    Ep 96: From Original Sin to Original Blessing w/Matthew Fox
    Apr 6 2026
    Episode Summary:What if humanity didn’t begin with a fall, but with a blessing? What if your original identity wasn’t sinful, but good?In today’s Holy Heretics podcast episode, I’m joined by the renown Dr.Matthew Fox, one of the most provocative and influential theologians of the last half‑century. A former Dominican priest and the author of Original Blessing, Fox is best known as the founder of Creation Spirituality, a spiritual and theological framework that challenges Western Christianity’s deep fixation on sin, guilt, and separation. Instead of starting the human story with the Fall, Fox roots the world in wonder, creativity, goodness, justice, and our sacred connection to the cosmos.Fox first gained international attention in the 1980s through Original Blessing, a book that directly confronts the doctrine of original sin, arguing that it distorted both Christianity and Western culture. Fox’s work brought him international acclaim—and serious institutional resistance. In the 1980s, his theology came under formal investigation by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and later Pope Benedict XVI. Fox was eventually censured and silenced by the Catholic Church, barred from teaching for a year, and later expelled from the Dominican Order after refusing to abandon his core theological convictions. One could argue that Fox’s willingness to challenge orthodoxy should make him the patron saint of the deconstruction community.Drawing from medieval Christian mystics like Meister Eckhart and Hildegard of Bingen, as well as Judaism, Buddhism, Indigenous wisdom traditions, and modern science, Fox proposes a radically different starting point for spirituality, and the whole of creation: that the universe is fundamentally good, and that human beings are born in blessing, not in brokenness.In this conversation, we explore the core ideas of Creation Spirituality, including:Original Blessing vs. Original Sin — how a theology of blessing reshapes our understanding of God, humanity, and the natural worldThe Four Paths of Creation Spirituality — awe, compassion, creativity, and justice as spiritual practiceThe recovery of the Divine Feminine — and why the suppression of feminine images of God has had catastrophic consequences for both religion and societyFrom there, the conversation turns to the present moment.Drawing on Creation Spirituality and the Christian mystical tradition, Fox brings his theological scalpel to contemporary culture and politics, offering a sharp critique of the MAGA movement as Antichrist. His most recent book, Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti‑Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, engages the biblical and mystical archetype of the Antichrist—not as a literal end‑times figure, but as a spiritual symbol for whatever stands in opposition to the teachings and spirit of Jesus. Fox argues that authoritarianism, the rejection of truth, contempt for compassion, and the sacralization of power reveal Antichrist dynamics at work in our contemporary moment.This episode is bold, intelligent, and paradigm changing. At its heart is a question that feels especially urgent right now: What kind of spirituality do we need to survive—and transform—the crises of our time?If you’re ready to rethink sin, reclaim sacred connectivity, and hear theology speak unapologetically into our current cultural moment, this conversation is for you.Please Follow us on social media (use the buttons below) and help us get the word out! (Also, please don’t hesitate to use any of these channels or email to contact us with any questions, concerns, or feedback.)If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review, or share on your socials 🙏Show notes:http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/original-blessing-matthew-foxFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyheretics | Substack: holyheretics.substack.comAdvertising inquiries: garyalan@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon or Substack and get early access to episodes and premium content like our online class on deconstruction!https://www.patreon.com/holyheretics or subscribe to our Substack to gain access to Holy Heretics Shorts, premium content, and our online class on faith deconstruction!This episode was produced by The Sophia Society and written by Gary Alan Taylor. Music is by Faith in Foxholes.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Ep 95 Bishop Trumps President w/Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde

    Ep 95 Bishop Trumps President w/Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde
    Mar 16 2026

    Episode Summary:

    You may have first encountered the Right Reverend Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde in January 2025, when she stood in the pulpit at the Inaugural Prayer Service and spoke directly to President Trump with a clarity that astonished the nation. But that moment was not an anomaly. It was the public expression of a life shaped by decades of priestly courage, intellectual honesty, and a fierce commitment to the vulnerable. Long before a national audience knew her name, Bishop Budde had been standing in the places where power wounds people—naming what is true, binding up what is broken, and refusing to look away.

    In this conversation, we explore the deeper story beneath that moment—the spiritual formation, the Episcopal imagination, and the radical mercy that guides her ministry. Bishop Budde reflects on what it means to practice justice not as a slogan but as a way of life. She talks about the inner work required to offer public truth-telling without becoming hardened, and the practices that keep her grounded in humility, courage, and hope.

    We also trace the distinctive gifts of the Episcopal tradition that shaped her: a progressive and intellectually rigorous faith, a sacramental vision of human dignity, and a commitment to mercy. In contrast to the imperial Christianity on offer from the evangelical church, Bishop Budde embodies a different way—one that draws from the life and teachings of the historical Jesus, who was also a victim of imperial violence.

    This episode invites you into a faith that is spacious, courageous, and deeply human. A Christianity that remembers its calling not to bless the powerful, but to stand with the powerless. A faith tradition that asks you to resist the powers that be through non-participation with evil and the guiding question, “What is yours to do?”

    Please Follow us on social media (use the buttons below) and help us get the word out! (Also, please don’t hesitate to use any of these channels or email to contact us with any questions, concerns, or feedback.)

    If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review, or share on your socials 🙏

    Show notes:

    http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/bishop-mariann-budde

    Follow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyheretics | Substack: holyheretics.substack.com

    Advertising inquiries: garyalan@sophiasociety.org

    Support our work on Patreon or Substack and get early access to episodes and premium content like our online class on deconstruction!

    https://www.patreon.com/holyheretics or subscribe to our Substack to gain access to Holy Heretics Shorts, premium content, and our online class on faith deconstruction!

    This episode was produced by The Sophia Society and written by Gary Alan Taylor. Music is by Faith in Foxholes.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Ep 94 A Rebirthing of Humanity w/Roger Tempest

    Ep 94 A Rebirthing of Humanity w/Roger Tempest
    Mar 2 2026
    Episode Summary:There are places in the world where history doesn’t sit behind glass—it works directly with the present to shape the future. Broughton Hall is one of those places. Set across 3,000 acres in the rolling countryside of Yorkshire, England, the estate has been home to the Tempest family for more than 900 years. Its 97‑room manor house, a vast 16th‑century structure of stone and story, has held kings and queens, births and burials, and the quiet continuity of a lineage shaped by the land itself.But Broughton is not a relic. Under the custodianship of today’s guest, Roger Tempest, the 32nd generation of his family to steward this land, the estate has become a living organism—one that is remembering its wildness and rediscovering its soul.For decades, Roger has led one of the most ambitious rewilding efforts in the UK, allowing woodlands to regenerate, rivers to return to their natural courses, and wildlife to reclaim habitats long disrupted by industrial agriculture. The land is healing, and in its healing, it is teaching. At the heart of this renewal is The Sanctuary, a center for spiritual practice, creativity, and inner transformation. It’s a place where seekers, artists, contemplatives, and activists gather to reconnect with deeper rhythms of life. Here, outer rewilding and inner rewilding meet—where the land heals people, and people learn how to heal the land.Our conversation moves through the spiritual undercurrents of this work—the listening, the surrender, the sense that the land itself is dreaming a future into being. Roger speaks from a lineage that stretches back nearly a millennium, yet everything he’s doing feels oriented toward what humanity might become next.In this episode, Gary Alan and Roger discuss:How custodianship differs from ownership—and why that shift changes everythingThe spirituality that guides Roger’s visionThe outer and the inner lifeWildness as teacher and friendWhere the ancient and emergent meet in surprising waysBroughton as a living laboratory for human transformationWhat it means to cultivate a community that is both ancient and radically aliveRoger’s life offers a counter-narrative to the extractive, hurried patterns of modernity. His work at Broughton invites us to imagine a different way of inhabiting the world—one rooted in humility, reciprocity, and reverence for the more‑than‑human community.Please Follow us on social media (use the buttons below) and help us get the word out! (Also, please don’t hesitate to use any of these channels or email to contact us with any questions, concerns, or feedback.)If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating and a review, or share on your socials 🙏Show notes:http://www.sophiasociety.org/podcast/roger-tempest-rebirthing-humanityFollow us on social media! Twitter: @holyheretics | Instagram: @holyhereticspodcast | Facebook: @holyheretics | Substack: holyheretics.substack.comAdvertising inquiries: garyalan@sophiasociety.orgSupport our work on Patreon or Substack and get early access to episodes and premium content like our online class on deconstruction!https://www.patreon.com/holyheretics or subscribe to our Substack to gain access to Holy Heretics Shorts, premium content, and our online class on faith deconstruction!This episode was produced by The Sophia Society and written by Gary Alan Taylor. Music is by Faith in Foxholes.
    Show More Show Less
    52 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet