A History Worth Questioning
What became “normal” had to come from somewhere.
The Scattered Flock examines the people, councils, laws, and religious systems that helped shape the Christianity inherited by the modern church.
The Edict of Thessalonica
Our research treats the Edict of Thessalonica as a turning point: Catholic Christianity became the required religious order of the empire, and disagreement could carry severe consequences. Faith and imperial power were increasingly joined together.
Jerome
The Scattered Flock's research places Jerome near the center of the formation of the Bible received by later Western Christianity. Our research also examines his personal life, his withdrawal from society, and the possibility that compulsive or obsessive traits and experiences of abuse influenced his views of intimacy, marriage, and women.
These questions matter because the person translating and organizing religious texts is not separate from the assumptions he brings to the work.
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine followed many of the teachings associated with the developing church tradition shaped in Jerome's era. The Scattered Flock considers City of God deeply troubling in its treatment of subjects including rape, torture, marriage, sexuality, and suffering.
The Council of Ephesus
Our research examines the Council of Ephesus as part of the continuing elevation of Mary within church teaching, including the claim that the council effectively placed Mary above God in the religious imagination that followed.
The Second Council of Nicaea
The Scattered Flock's research treats the Second Council of Nicaea as a restoration of idol worship under Christian names and purposes, with older visual and devotional practices reintroduced into the life of the church.
A break that carried much of the old system forward
When Protestant churches separated from Catholic authority, they rejected important parts of the old institution but carried many of its teachings, assumptions, structures, and inherited interpretations with them.
From this perspective, Protestantism did not begin on untouched ground. Much of what had already been formed remained in place under new names and new leadership.
Why this history matters
People are often told that the form of Christianity they inherited is simply “the faith.” The Scattered Flock asks a different question: how much of what people accept as timeless was shaped by particular men, political needs, councils, inherited fears, translation choices, and institutional power?
For people who have already left church, this history can help explain why familiar teachings sometimes feel disconnected from the life, relationships, and freedom they expected faith to produce.