Religion for Breakfast

If you are interested in issues of ancient religion and early Christianity, check out Andrew Henry’s YouTube channel “Religion for Breakfast.” Religion for Breakfast is (as the about page notes) an educational video log “dedicated to the academic, nonsectarian study of religion. We strive to raise the level of conversation about religion on YouTube by exploring surprising facts about humanity’s beliefs and rituals through an anthropological, sociological, and archaeological lens.” And the home page for the channel describes the purpose of the series in this way:

Religion for Breakfast believes everyone should know a little bit more about religion. It touches every aspect of human civilization—our art, politics, history, and culture. It has inspired some of our most ethereal music. It has motivated some of our greatest leaders. And, yes, it has also sparked some of our biggest wars and social injustices…

Andrew has an academic blog on the subject as well but his really original contribution is this YouTube channel that regularly releases short (2-10 minute), fast-paced, and jumpy video blogs designed to educate the public about the academic study of ancient religion. Influenced by educational videolog channels in the sciences (check out, for example, this PBS Space Time vlog on the speed of light and this CrashCourse vlog on the history of early Christianity), Andrew is a pioneer in applying this genre to ancient religious studies.

His series so far has included short videos on topics such as:

How did the Nicene Creed form?
Using Computer Models to Study Religion? (featuring Dr. Connor Wood)
How did December 25 become Christmas?
What did Gnostic Christians believe?

And while most of these concern religion generally–and not Corinth per se–at least a few are directly relevant to the Corinthian situation, including, for example, How to Make an Ancient Curse Tablet (cf. Stroud’s publication of curse tablets in Corinth XVIII.6) and Where did Ancient Christians Meet?, which begins with a survey on Acrocorinth and discusses meeting places in Corinth and other regions of the Roman Mediterranean.

And for some background: Andrew is an advanced PhD student in religious studies at Boston University with interests in the intersection of material culture and early Christianity. He has worked at the ASCSA Excavations in the Athenian Agora, and participated for a summer in the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project, a project that Bill Caraher, Scott Moore, and I direct in Cyprus. I also had the privilege of working with Andrew during his brief stint at Messiah College.

These vlogs should be a great resource for use in the classroom and will be of interest for anyone who wants to know about the academic study of ancient religion.

With Passover and Orthodox Easter approaching, this marks our final post in a series about resources for the study of religion, Judaism, and Christianity in Corinth. Earlier posts include: