“Before there was a West, there was Christendom.” Fr. John Strickland has written a monumental four-part history of Christendom—from the first millennium of Christendom which he deems “the age of paradise” to our current cultural condition which he labels “the age of nihilism.” telling the story of how both came to be.
On this episode Fr. John Strickland joins Hank to discuss Christendom’s most tumultuous century. As nihilism began to cast its menacing shadow on the eve of the First World War, a self-styled “antichrist” named Friedrich Nietzsche and an obstinately Christian Fyodor Dostoevsky both offered ominous visions of what the West would become if “God is dead” and any moral act thus becomes permissible. Though total warfare seemed to confirm such predictions, a project arose in its wake to rebuild utopia with secular ideologies that, in the case of Nazism, opened the abyss even further. Communism and liberalism were left after the Second World War to compete for ultimate preeminence, but both would ultimately fail to replace the lost transcendence of the West’s deep first-millennium past. As the twenty-first century opened, utopia was as elusive as ever, and a culture of paradise once again beckoned to a civilization exhausted by centuries of secularism.
Topics discussed include: What is the age of nihilism? (2:30); the impact and enduring legacy of Friedrich Nietzsche (9:00); Friedrich Nietzsche and the transvaluation of values (16:35); ideas have consequences—atheism always leads towards self-destruction (21:15); Nietzsche was the leading prophet of nihilism, the destruction of anything with value (31:40); Sigmund Freud’s impact on the age of nihilism (37:50); the rise of communism and the practical consequences of a world without God (43:00); how nihilism emboldens communism to manipulate Truth—as seen with Pravda (47:20); ideological worldbuilding—the efforts of the powers that be to break the influence of traditional values in society (57:25); ideological worldbuilding, Social Darwinism and Nazism (1:05:25); the individualistic legacy of liberalism (1:11:00); abortion as an unassailable value and ideal of liberalism (1:18:30); how liberalism is a counterfeit of traditional Christianity (1:20:20); “Without God anything is permissible”—Fyodor Dostoevsky and the importance of repentance (1:24:15); Dostoevsky’s conviction (1:29:30); Putin on how progressivism leads to nihilism (1:34:00); transgenderism as the ultimate personification of nihilism (1:41:20); Christians must be a lighthouse in the midst of our current cultural storm—the paradisiacal transformation of the culture through the life of the Church (1:48:40).
For more information on receiving
The Age of Paradise, The Age of Division, The Age of Utopia, and the Age of Nihilism individually, as a package of two or three or the full 4 Volume set for your partnering gift please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-the-age-of-paradise-the-age-of-division-the-age-of-utopia-the-age-of-nihilism-4-volumes-on-ages-of-christendom-hup/
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