The Age of Paradise: The Rise and Fall of What the West Once Was, published in 2019, is the first volume in a projected four-volume cultural history of Christendom by the Eastern Orthodox priest and historian, Father John Strickland.
“Before there was a West, there was Christendom. This book tells the story of how both came to be,” the author states at the outset, adding that he views Christendom as a “civilisation with a supporting culture that directs its members toward the heavenly transformation of the world”.
While recent books such as
Tom Holland’s Dominion have examined the influence of Christianity, Strickland places a particularly strong focus on what he sees as the unique transformational imperative of the Christian faith: the need to “participate in the renewal of the cosmos by bringing it into alignment with the kingdom of heaven”.