Paradise and Utopia - a history of Christendom

(St. Katherine College) - This is a series of forty reflections on the history of Christian civilization, or Christendom (and will include additional introductory and concluding episodes). It is divided into two halves tracing the “rise” of Christendom in early times and its “fall” in modern times.

The entire podcast is organized around the theme of “paradise and utopia”—that is, of the civilization’s orientation toward the kingdom of heaven when traditional Christianity was influential, and of its “disorientation” toward the fallen world in the wake of traditional Christianity’s decline in the west following the Great Schism.

Fr. John Strickland is a professor of history at Saint Katherine College near San Diego and serves as an attached priest at Saint John of Damascus Church (OCA) in the nearby town of Poway. He is the author of The Making of Holy Russia, which will be published by Holy Trinity Publications, Jordanville, in September.