Collection: Paradise and Utopia: The Rise and Fall of What the West Once Was

A four volume series of fascinating, anthropological and cultural history of Christendom, a civilization with a supporting culture that gave rise to what we now call the West. Authored by Fr John Strickland, an Orthodox scholar, professor, and priest-offers a vision rooted in the deep past of the first millennium. At the heart of his story is the early Church's "culture of paradise," an experience of the world in which the kingdom of heaven was tangible and familiar. Drawing not only on worship and theology but statecraft and the arts, the author reveals the remarkably affirmative character Western culture once had under the influence of Christianity-in particular, of Eastern Christendom, which served the West not only as a cradle but as a tutor and guardian as well.