The apostles preached Christ to the ends of the earth—and nearly all of them paid for it with their blood. In today’s readings, we move from the outward courage of the apostles to the inward struggle of the soul, and then to the careful precision of Trinitarian theology. From John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, we hear the sobering accounts of Philip, Matthew, James the Less, Matthias, Andrew, Mark, Peter, Paul, Jude, Bartholomew, Thomas, Luke, Simon, John, and Barnabas. Their deaths differ—crucifixion, stoning, beheading, exile—but their witness is unified: the Gospel was worth their lives. Augustine then turns the spotlight inward in The Confessions, Book 5, Chapter 10, exposing his former Manichean error—imagining evil as a rival substance and even picturing God in spatial, material terms. His confession reminds us how easily piety  ...