(RNS) — The lights are dim, and two robe-clad figures from the early fifth century — Augustine, the saint and early church theologian, and Pelagius, a so-called heretic — are lit by spotlights near center stage. They’re mid-debate when suddenly, the background music kicks in and Pelagius launches into a song by 21st-century Christian artist turned creative mystic Michael Gungor.
“Give and take, snow or sand, it’s all the same from far away,” Pelagius sings. “You and me, we’re the stuff of stars and dirt, with eyes to see.”
On paper, the pairing of ancient figures and modern music seems odd, jarring even. But to Mark Smith, the creator of the new musical “Pelagius,” it’s an intuitive combination.
Beginning on Thursday (Aug. 22) and running through Sunday, “Pelagius” will be showing at Atlanta’s Legacy Theatre, which is owned by Smith and his wife, Bethany. While the show originally debuted last September, for these encore performances, Michael and Lisa Gungor will be in the audience.
“It’s beautiful, and it’s humbling, and bizarre, and exciting too, to see how cleverly he assembled music from such different points of my life, with such different outlooks on life, and found a coherent way of putting that in one space,” Michael Gungor told RNS. “I’m really just honored that my work could be used in that way, and that there could be a through line that I hadn’t even imagined myself.”
Michael and Lisa Gungor perform in August 2015. (Photo by Jacob Penderworth/Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
The Gungors met at an evangelical Christian university and began their music careers as worship leaders at a church in Grandville, Michigan, before several successful albums catapulted them to Christian music fame. But in 2014, they, like Pelagius, were branded heretics for views labeled unorthodox, including for suggesting Jesus could have been wrong about the creation story. Pelagius stressed the human ability to achieve salvation and the goodness of human nature, in contrast to a fall from grace that tainted the world, now in need of a savior.
In that same year, Michael began co-hosting “The Liturgists Podcast,” which gained hundreds of thousands of followers and grappled with deconstruction before the term became ubiquitous. The Gungors’ eclectic, experimental music evolved as they did.
Smith, who was raised in a loving but rigid Church of Christ community in the mountains of southern West Virginia, hears echoes of his own journey in Gungor’s albums, he said. In 2016, flimsy Christian responses to his struggles with addiction led Smith to interrogate his religious beliefs. As part of his healing journey, he began exploring John Philip Newell’s Christian mysticism and Celtic spirituality, which led him to Pelagius’ teachings from Wales on free will and denial of original sin, the Christian doctrine promoted by Augustine that teaches that humans inherit a condition prone to sin from birth.
Meanwhile, Smith was listening to Gungor’s 2016 exploratory trio of albums, the One Wild Life series “Body,” “Spirit” and “Soul.”
“Michael was doing his own deconstruction as well,” said Smith. “A lot of the music he was writing, and the lyrics, fit in line with this Pelagian thought.”
Mark Smith. (Photo courtesy of Legacy Theatre)
Soon, Smith teamed up with his college friend, playwright Thomas Ward, to develop an early version of the script. But the show, Smith thought, was missing something. In 2018, it clicked: The show needed Augustine.
Augustine was a contemporary of Pelagius from North Africa. The historical record is unclear on whether the two theologians ever met or corresponded.
“But Augustine was in Rome at the time Pelagius was there,” Smith said. “That’s when I thought, oh my goodness, there’s a whole other side of Michael’s music that is Augustine’s music.”
In the final version of “Pelagius,” Gungor’s earlier praise and worship anthems and more overtly theistic songs lend themselves to Augustine’s journey from rebellious, pear-stealing child to austere bishop. Paired with more rigid, linear dance movements, Augustine’s songs and story foil those of Pelagius, whose songs are more exploratory, and whose accompanying choreography is more fluid.
In 2023, Smith’s passion project was brought to life in the first staged version of the show. The first act largely focuses on the upbringings of Augustine and Pelagius. Because not much is known about Pelagius’ origins, Smith created a backstory of a Celtic, Druidic lineage. His mother and sister, whom Smith envisions as priestesses, provide inspiration for Pelagius’ teaching on the divine feminine. Act II centers on Pelagius and Augustine’s theological clashes.
For Jordan Ellis, the actor who plays adult Pelagius, the opportunity to perform in this show enticed him to fly from Milwaukee for both the original and encore productions. Raised in a Methodist home, Ellis identifies as more spiritual than religious these days and resonates with Pelagius’ teaching on the interconnectedness of creation.
Smith’s script “was just beautiful, and I think it just spoke to me on many levels,” Ellis said. “The conversations these people were having in, you know, the year 400, are conversations we’re still having today,” he said, pointing to the show’s exploration of feminism, sin, creation care and what it truly means to love others.
Still, the show isn’t about promoting Pelagius over Augustine. Leslie Cook, an Atlanta local whose son plays young Augustine, has seen the show eight times and plans to be back this weekend with her family. She’s a Christian, and she appreciates the show’s music, storytelling and ability to prompt questions.
A scene from “Pelagius” at Legacy Theatre in Atlanta. (Photo by Steve Thrasher)
“I think he does a great job in representing these men, their lives and what they believed, and it leaves it to the audience member to then have a conversation,” she said.
Though Smith originally asked permission to use Gungor’s music at a live recording of “The Liturgists Podcast” in 2017, the show wasn’t fully on Michael’s radar until his daughter, a musical theater fan, brought it to his attention this year. Though Michael readily admits that he’s not well acquainted with the musical theater genre, after viewing recordings of the original production, he says he appreciates the way “Pelagius” integrates all the iterations of Gungor, even the earlier CCM music he at one time tried to distance himself from.
“What I haven’t been able to do yet is find a space for that music to serve my current spiritual vision,” Gungor said. “I feel like it honors the music in a way that I really appreciate.”
This weekend’s reprisal is another chance for the Gungors, their fans and Atlanta locals to see the show live. While it’s unclear what the show’s future will be from here, Smith hopes viewers will leave eager to love those different from themselves and embrace the sacred in the present moment.
“I think there’s a genuine level of healing that happens through this show,” Smith said. “I think it’s maybe the combination of Michael’s music with this idea of these men who struggle with their place in the world. We can tackle the big issues within art, within theater. It can be entertaining, but also revelatory. It can change people.”
A scene from “Pelagius” at Legacy Theatre in Atlanta. (Photo by Steve Thrasher)
