In this episode Father John explores the way in which the loss of sacramental experience among Calvinists led to the rise of a political ideology that would unintentionally lay the foundation for utopia.

In this final episode of Part 2 of the podcast, Fr. John discusses the catastrophic wars that broke out in western Christendom during the Reformation age. These wars, along with other forces unleashed by developments in the Reformation and earlier, would ultimately result in the loss of Christianity's legitimacy, leading to the rise of a modern, secularized form of Christendom centered upon the experience of utopia.

Fr. John concludes his account of the influence of the Franks by returning to the question of the filioque and how the papacy's resistance to its insertion in the Creed finally came to an end on the eve of the Great Schism.

Fr. John delineates the various ways in which Constantine contributed to the Christianization of the Roman state.

Fr. John continues to discuss St. Augustine by looking first at his notorious doctrine of original sin and its impact on the conception of man in the West.

In this episode Father John describes some of the most noteworthy effects of the Protestant Reformation on Western Christendom, emphasizing the decline of a sacramental basis for civilization and the rise of a primarily moral one.

Returning after a long absence from the podcast, Fr. John in this episode introduces a new reflection on the crisis of western Christendom prior to the Reformation by discussing the penitential context of Martin Luther's famous Ninety-Five Theses.

Fr. John Strickland talks about the newly released book The Age of Paradise. The book is available at store.ancientfaith.com.

Fr. John discusses the spiritual transformation of time by Christianity.

Fr. John discusses the ways in which the Church tries to create a sanctified topography in Christendom.

In this, the first episode of the Paradise and Utopia video edition, Father John provides a video lecture from his office in Puget Sound, showing, with the use of powerful, full-color icons such as those of Andrei Rublev, how hesychasm inspired some of the greatest art in the history of eastern Christendom.

In this special video episode (the first of two parts), Father John discusses the background to the revolution in art during the Italian Renaissance. Though it produced some of the most stunning and innovative works ever, secular humanism represented a radical departure from the heavenly orientation of traditional Christian art.

This is part 2 to last week's special video episode, on the revolution of art during the Italian Renaissance.

In this anecdotal introduction to Reflection 21, Father John relates a remarkable but short-lived revolution in fourteenth-century Rome that served as a sign of what the age of utopia would bring. Listeners who enjoy the music of Richard Wagner will recognize the ill-fated revolutionary's name and understand why the turbulent nineteenth-century composer was attracted to him! And speaking of music, if you are wondering about the new closing sequence, it is a chorus from Mozart's utopian opera The Magic Flute and consists of the following (in translation): "When virtue and justice strew with fame the path of the great, then earth is a realm of heaven, and mortals are like the gods."

Modern historians often bring attention to the effects of secularization on the West. Once traditional Christianity ceased to influence Western culture, the experience of the kingdom of heaven naturally diminished, something the famous German sociologist Max Weber called the "disenchantment of the world." In this episode, Fr. John describes how the concept of the saeculum, a kind of neutral cultural space cut off from the life of the Church, first appeared, and how, with Petrarch, it became a haven for humanists fleeing the pessimism of the fourteenth century.

In this reflection on an emerging post-Christian Christendom, Fr. John Strickland discusses two ways in which eighteenth-century philosophes—from Voltaire to Thomas Jefferson—worked to subvert the paradisiacal culture of the old Christendom. He explores their use of photic imagery such as "enlightenment" and their introduction of the tripartite utopian model of history consisting of ancient, medieval, and modern periods. He concludes with a brief description of Edward Gibbon's famous and influential work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

What was the genius of classical music during its nineteenth-century golden age? According to Fr. John Strickland, it was an effort to rescue Christendom's transformational imperative in an age when secularization threatened to sever earth from heaven. No longer influenced by traditional Christianity, great composers like Beethoven exaggerated earthly passions (especially sexual love) to communicate the West's primordial desire for transcendence. But the emotionalism that resulted threatened to take the floor out from underneath them. This episode concludes by analyzing famous works by Schubert and Berlioz which show how transcendence gave way to descent, and how utopian hopes plunged into irreversible spiritual agony.

Most Americans know Tchaikovsky as the composer of the delightful dances contained within the Nutcracker Ballet. As Fr. John Strickland shows, however, there is much more to be heard in their melodies, and little that was delightful about the emotionally agonized life behind them. Using selections from a variety of works, he explores how the romantic agony came for Tchaikovsky in his boyhood and thereafter never departed. Special attention is given to an analysis of the famous Sixth Symphony, nicknamed Pathetique. First performed just days before the composer's abrupt death, the work brings the generation of the romantics to a heart-rending and emblematic conclusion.

Fr. John Strickland announces the release of the third volume of his book series. The Age of Utopia: Christendom from the Renaissance to the Russian Revolution (store.ancientfaith.com/the-age-of-utopia) is a companion to the podcast, but, as he notes, contains quite a bit of material that is unique. Here he summarizes some of its content.

In this long-delayed episode (due to work on The Age of Nihilism, available at store.ancientfaith.com/the-age-of-nihilism-christendom-from-the-great-war-to-the-culture-wars), Father John presents the historical origins of liberalism as a modern secular ideology. Atheistic philosophers like Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill provided the philosophical basis for hope in a secular "kingdom of posterity."

Fr. John Strickland continues his account of the rise of secular ideology with a presentation on the Russian intelligentsia and the case of Karl Marx.

Fr. John Strickland concludes his account of the origins of modern political ideology with the rise of nationalism, a force that not only proved to be a counterfeit to traditional Christianity, but the cause of one of utopian Christendom's greatest tragedies.

In this final episode of part three of the podcast, Fr. John Strickland traces the outcome of secular humanism in the case of the Russian Revolution. Though numerous Orthodox Christians warned of the impending disaster facing a post-Christian Christendom, Vladimir Lenin and his Bolsheviks took advantage of discontent caused by the First World War to plunge violently into a project of counterfeit transcendence they called "building socialism."

Fr. John Strickland gives an overview of his latest book, The Age of Nihilism, available at Ancient Faith Store: https://store.ancientfaith.com/the-age-of-nihilism-christendom-from-the-great-war-to-the-culture-wars

In this introduction to the final part of Paradise and Utopia, Fr. John reads the prologue to his recently released book, The Age of Nihilism: Christendom from the Great War to the Culture Wars. The episode introduces the nihilistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the role compositions by Richard Wagner played in his formation. Included are musical excerpts of the latter's famous "Wedding March" and "Ride of the Valkyries."

In this episode, Fr. John begins an account of Friedrich Nietzsche by discussing Richard Wagner, a direct influence on the philosopher whose infidelity with women and famous operatic work, The Ring of the Nibelung, helped inspire the coming age of nihilism.

Friedrich Nietzsche is in many ways the father of modern nihilism. In this episode, Fr. John describes the philosopher's relationship to the atheism of contemporary utopian Christendom, and how the music of Richard Wagner played a role in leading him toward nihilism. As with previous episodes, this one introduces the listener to some music that is both beautiful and historically important.

In his continued account of Friedrich Nietzsche, Fr. John discusses the megalomaniac philosopher's effort to replace the Gospel with an atheistic "transvaluation of all values."

In this final presentation on the nihilistic philosophy of Nietzsche, Fr. John considers the philosopher's final work, an autobiography entitled Ecce Homo. The book's strange title is discussed in light of Nietzsche's claim to be the West's alternative to Christ. The episode ends with a spiritual and psychological reflection on why, having completed the work, Nietzsche went totally insane.

Returning to a literary career after a decade of exile, Fyodor Dostoevsky confronted one of the great delusions of secular humanism: that man is ultimately a rational being whose happiness depends on the exercise of self-interest. Characters in his novels The Idiot and Demons were designed to demonstrate that nihilistic self-destruction is the only outcome of such convictions. Father John concludes the episode by showing how nihilism played itself out in the fictional moral collapse of Dostoevsky's protagonist Raskolnikov and the real-life moral collapse of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Fr. John recorded these comments in his car on the way to the Sunday of Orthodoxy Vespers service in his region. He asks, "What is the difference between Triumph and Triumphalism?"

In this episode, Fr John reflects on the Scripture readings for the Divine Liturgy of the Feast of the Holy Ascension—and their impact on our mission and commission as Orthodox Christians.

In today’s episode, Fr John Parker addresses “becoming fishers of men” using Mormon practice as a catalyst to missionary work.

In these episodes, Fr. John Parker reads Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven by Saint Innocent of Alaska, a beautiful, simple, and short book on the basics of Christianity, authored by one of our North American saints. Introduction, pp.5-7. For permission to read, Fr. John thanks Holy Trinity Publications, Jordanville, NY. Indication, ISBN 0-88465-075-8, can be purchased at http://www.holytrinitypublications.com or at good bookstores and websellers everywhere.

In these episodes, Fr. John Parker reads Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heavenby Saint Innocent of Alaska, a beautiful, simple, and short book on the basics of Christianity, authored by one of our North American saints. "Part One: The Blessings that Jesus Christ has granted Us by His Death," pp 8-11. For permission to read, Fr. John thanks Holy Trinity Publications, Jordanville, NY. Indication, ISBN 0-88465-075-8, can be purchased at http://www.holytrinitypublications.com or at good bookstores and websellers everywhere.

In these episodes, Fr. John Parker reads Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven by Saint Innocent of Alaska, a beautiful, simple, and short book on the basics of Christianity, authored by one of our North American saints. "Part Two: How Jesus Christ lived on Earth, and What He Suffered for Us." pp 11-16. For permission to read, Fr. John thanks Holy Trinity Publications, Jordanville, NY. Indication, ISBN 0-88465-075-8, can be purchased at http://www.holytrinitypublications.com or at good bookstores and websellers everywhere.

Fr. John interviews Fr. John Dunlop, Dean of St. Herman’s Seminary, Kodiak, Alaska, about the seminary, the incredible Archives (which include the handwritten documents of St. Innocent as well as the journals of St. Iakov Netsvyetov), and his own missionary work in the villages.

Fr. John considers a recent Sunday Gospel text—fishers of men—and reminds us that driving a boat around hoping that fish will jump in is not sufficient for Christian evangelization.

On this holy day when we celebrate the Annunciation of the Mother of God, Fr. John Parker reflects on the evangelistic meaning of the feast.

You no doubt know of St. Mary of Egypt but have you read her story? Today on Lord Send Me, Fr. John reads the miraculous story of this saint's life. You can also read it here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/maryegypt.asp

Fr. John Parker gives his second reflection on his participation on the Faith Encouraged Live inaugural call-in program and shares four marks of a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Fr. Josiah Trenham speaks about the connection between church building consecration and people consecration at a clergy retreat for the Carolina Deanery of the Orthodox Church in America.

Fr. John shares the Homily of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) for the Sunday of the Last Judgment.

Fr. John shares about the Sunday of All Saints and gives a challenge for us to follow the examples of the missionary saints.

Fr. John encourages us to reflect on death and preparation for life eternal.

Fr. John reflects on the Synaxis of the Holy Apostles, commemorated on the day following the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. "Their proclamation has gone out into all the world, and their words to the end of the universe."

Fr. John reflects on the Resurrection and the importance of Christ's death.

Fr. John Parker begins a short series showcasing the lives and impact of OCMC missionaries, especially the role of mission work in Africa.

As the Lenten season begins, Fr. John Parker reads a brief sermon that he had penned, formerly read by Fr. Thomas Hopko, that is written in the style and tradition of St. John Chrysostom's well known and loved Paschal Homily.

Fr. John Parker speaks on the rule of St. Benedict, and how it caries over into the role of the parish priest in his community.