Bible Study Prep: My Background and Previous Articles

A list of articles I've written on history and theology, plus the evolution of my personal faith journey

I have written a number of previous articles on theology and history that are good background reading for our upcoming Bible study, including an entire history of the world’s religions and my ongoing secret societies series. All of these articles can be found in the “Theology” section of my Substack site, as shown in the screenshot below.

The Theology Section of Capitalism & Glitter

Some articles are free and some have a free intro, with more information behind a paywall. The most important article I’ve written for background reading — A Brief History of Space and Time — is entirely free. Joining this Substack as a paid subscriber is a great way to support this ongoing free Bible study! As well as the rest of my work on health & wellness, history, and theology.

The most relevant articles to this Bible Study include:

A Brief History of Space and Time

Secret Societies Part 1: The Original Pyramid Scheme

Secret Societies Part 2: Let Them Eat Cake

Secret Societies Part 3: Discovery of the Americas

Secret Societies Part 4: Land of the Free(masons)

The Health Benefits of Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh

And of course, my first two posts on this Bible study, which hopefully you’ve read and can be found here:

Introducing: Capitalism & Glitter Bible Study Plan 2026

A Brief History of the Bible

My Background

Many of you have asked what my religious background and experience is.

I’m a cradle Catholic, born to an Irish-American mother and Italian-American father who both lapsed in religious practice and divorced before I turned 2. I was baptized Catholic but never confirmed. It’s been so long since I’ve been to Mass that I would probably still instinctually say, “And also with you.”

My school photos from 1990-1993

I went to an Episcopal grade school, which is technically Protestant, but pretty much the most Catholic of all the Protestant sects. It’s essentially Diet Catholic. I suffered a health crisis at the end of 3rd grade and was expelled from my Episcopal school for fighting and questioning the teacher’s interpretations of the Bible. It was like if Joan of Arc and Martin Luther had a daughter with vaccine-induced encephalitis and PANDAS.

In high school, I attended Unity Church and became an elected youth leader planning weekend retreats for 200 high-school kids across California, Nevada, and Hawaii. Unity Church emerged in the 1800s and is a New Thought church — and New Thought is like Bible-based New Age, incorporating Buddhism, Hinduism, and many New Age schools of thought. At the time that I was involved in Unity Church, our most famous members were Oprah Winfrey and Marianne Williamson (who I once met when she came to our church on a book tour).

Unity Church photos 2000-2003

Like most people in my generation, I spent much of my 20s and 30s spiritually and religiously driftless. In college, I went full agnostic and studied psychology — though my favorite classes were philosophy classes taught by a Catholic professor. I was fairly skeptical of all religion including the New Age spiritual practices that had surrounded me growing up in California. I met a nice (culturally) Jewish boy in college, who was also basically agnostic, and we eventually got married and had a baby.

When I was 35, I had a health crisis that ripped the rug out from under me. I lost my health and career nearly overnight, and I begged God, daily, if He existed and could hear me, to heal me and tell me what I am meant to do with my life if it was not everything I had spent decades building towards. I began receiving divine inspiration that was clearly from God (via the Holy Spirit) guiding me on methods to heal myself, and urging me to share that information with others using my personal and professional background (much of which you can find in the ‘Health’ tab of this Substack). I also experienced my fair share of demonic interference during this time — which persists from time to time today (and is one of the reasons I have not yet found a church home, and my family and I watch Mass/sermons online on Sundays).

For the last several years, my audience has been asking me to talk more about my religious studies and experiences, especially as it pertains to deep-dives on nearly every conspiracy theory popular today. I’ve gone down all the rabbit holes and come out the other side knowing that the way and the truth is Jesus Christ. And I’m finally ready to do a year-long deep dive into the most significant religious text in history.

I am so excited to read the Bible with you!

xoxo Adrian Claire