Fall Big Read · 2026
Defying
Tyrants
Following Jesus in a World of Christian Antichrists
Broadleaf Books · October 6, 2026
Christian antichrists
Noun, plural
Those who use power to harm others in the name of Jesus.
When the word antichrist appears in the Bible, it is usually plural — not the single figure who populated the nightmares of fundamentalism's young people, arriving from somewhere outside. Antichrists originate within the church. They justify harm and vengeance theologically, pointing people away from the God who entered humanity as a colonized peasant in the hinterlands of the Roman empire.
The Book
Where did it
all go wrong?
“Quite simply, Defying Tyrants is a book every Christian should read.”
Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne
Christian fixation with political power is the theological emergency of our time. Jesus directed his followers away from the race for power. Somewhere along the way, many Christians turned him into a mascot for imperial domination.
In Defying Tyrants, Matthew D. Taylor traces the origins of Christian supremacy in a trenchant reckoning with the murder, mayhem, and monsters of Christianity: the early church and the Crusades, colonialism, slavery, and the Holocaust. With cogent argument and moral precision, he excavates the scriptural texts and shows how imperialism infected the body of Christ.
It is not only an indictment. The book is also a search party. Taylor spotlights a countertradition of Christians who lived generous lives of sacrifice and stood up to authoritarians across the centuries, and he calls readers to find in the teachings of Jesus and the witness of the early church a model of rebellion against tyrants of all kinds.
Because if Jesus is Lord, Caesar isn't.
How a Big Read Works
One book. One evening.
One conversation.
A Big Read is exactly what it sounds like: we pick a book that meets the moment, then sit down with the person who wrote it. Free, online, and open to anyone. No prior reading required, though we'll give you a head start.
Tuesday, October 6
The book arrives
Defying Tyrants publishes with Broadleaf Books. Pre-order now and it reaches you on release day, two days before we meet.
Thursday, October 8 · 7:00 PM ET
The Big Read
Ninety minutes with Matthew D. Taylor, streamed live and free. Bring your questions: the live chat is where they go, and we work through as many as the evening allows.
March to April 2027
Keep going
For readers who want more than an evening, Taylor returns to teach Christian Antichrists, a six-week online seminar that puts the book's central category to work.
The Author
Matthew D. Taylor
Scholar of Christian Extremism
Matthew D. Taylor is a scholar of Christian extremism and the author of The Violent Take It by Force, a study of the movement that carried charismatic Christian networks into the centre of American politics. In Defying Tyrants he turns from one movement to the long history that made it possible.
Free to be Faithful readers have met him before: he taught The Christian–Jewish Question Today in spring 2026, and he returns in spring 2027 with Christian Antichrists, a six-week seminar built on this book.
Registration
Save your
seat — free
The book publishes two days before we meet, so registration comes with a head start: an excerpt lands in your inbox as soon as you sign up.
- An excerpt of the book, emailed immediately, to read before the evening.
- The livestream link, plus a reminder the day before.
- Nothing to pay. The Big Read is free, and always has been.
You're registered.
Check your inbox. The excerpt from Defying Tyrants is on its way, along with the livestream link. We'll send a reminder the day before. If nothing arrives in a few minutes, look in your spam folder, then write to info@icscanada.edu and we'll sort it out.
Thursday, October 8, 2026 at 7:00 PM ET.
Read Along
Get the book
Hardcover, 257 pages, from Broadleaf Books. Pre-orders ship on publication day, October 6, in time for the evening. You don't need to have finished it to join us.
On the Night
Watch live on YouTube
The conversation streams on the ICS channel. Registered guests get the link by email, but the door is open to anyone who finds it, and the live chat is where your questions reach us.