I still use Logos occasionally. Mainly for language tools and cross-referencing, but I've drifted more toward historical and comparative work over time. I'm usually more interested in context, and how these texts formed, what conversations they were responding to, and how they were understood.

Mostly early church and historical theology stuff lately.. like the Apostolic Fathers, early councils, and how doctrine slowly took shape over time. Scholars like Sanders, Hurtado, Bauckham, Wright, and Dunn for broader context. Even when I don’t always agree. I’ve currently been spending a lot of time in Craig Evans’ Jesus and the World of Second Temple Judaism right now. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m the only one, but half the time I’ll start with one question, and I look up and think… how did I even end up here? 😂

I think this question only works if we assume the councils were primarily theological rather than political. In practice they seemed more like rule setters than unity preservers. Like deciding which interpretation would protect imperial power and which would be excluded. In that sense "failure" would depend on metrics. For example if the goal was lasting doctrinal unity across cultures, languages, and centuries, than yes history suggest that didn't hold up. But, if the goal was institutional coherence and control, they were remarkably effective. The fragmentation after Chalcedon doesn't just reflect theological disagreement, it exposes how fragile unity becomes once enforced from the top down.

That’s a fair take, and I agree with you on one thing right out of the gate, once motives get tangled up with power, the original goal almost always takes a hit. With Constantine, honestly I have a hard time calling it cleanly positive or negative. On one hand, yeah… he stopped the bleeding. Persecution ends, texts survive, Christianity doesn’t get wiped out in its infancy. To me that matters. But once faith gets welded to empire, everything changes. Unity stops being something people arrive at and starts being something that’s enforced. Disagreement goes from “let’s wrestle with this” to “this is now a threat.” So if we’re talking Christianity as an “institution”, Constantine probably helped. If we’re talking Christianity as a movement, I’m not so sure. Might’ve been a necessary move… but not a harmless one. Curious how you personally weigh that tradeoff.

Hello from Alabama. Other than the obvious studying theology, I myself enjoy bass fishing. Recovering bass tournament addict lol. Favorite book is actually the Gospel of Thomas, but since you said Bible it is Ecclesiastes.