Description
This course will draw upon the instructor’s book, The Age of Division: Christendom from the
Great Schism to the Protestant Reformation, to tell the story of how the West became separated
from the East. Though Orthodox Christianity had once flourished in its Latin, Germanic, Celtic,
and Anglo-Saxon forms, by the fateful year of 1054 cultural, political, and ecclesial divisions
brought about one of the greatest tragedies in the history of Christendom. What is more, the
Protestant Reformation and the Wars of Western Religion that came five centuries later were not
the only outcome of this tragedy: The loss of a cosmologically affirmative and anthropologically
optimistic culture would in turn pave the way for the secularization of the West.
Course Details
Dates/Times: Tuesdays at 8:00 PM EST, beginning April 28. Recordings will be provided to all students.
Length of Course: 5 weeks
Class Format: 90-120 minutes of presentation and discussion.
Instructor
Father John Strickland is a priest of the Orthodox Church in America and serves as the rector of
Saint Elizabeth Orthodox Church in Poulsbo, Washington. He is the author of The Making of
Holy Russia and the four-volume Paradise and Utopia: Rise and Fall of What the West Once Was. He holds a
doctorate in history and for more than two decades has taught in a variety of college settings. He
is married with five children and in his free time enjoys woodworking and listening to classical
music.