The Age of Division: Christendom from the Great Schism to the Protestant Reformation

by John Strickland

If you have ever wondered exactly how we got from the Christian society of the early centuries, united in its faithfulness to apostolic tradition, to the fragmented and secular state of the West today, The Age of Division will answer all your questions and more. In this second of a four-volume cultural history of Christendom, author John Strickland applies insights from the Orthodox Church to trace the decline and disintegration of both East and West after the momentous but often neglected Great Schism. For five centuries, a divided Christendom was led further and further from the culture of paradise that defined its first millennium, resulting in the Protestant Reformation and the secularization that defines our society today.

Genres: History, Religion, Church History, Christian, Nonfiction, Christianity, Christian History

368 pages, Paperback

Published November 9, 2020

Reviews

[H Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with the Catholic church. I was raised in a generic-Protestant environment in a family that never attended church. I was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic faith at the age of twenty-three. By the grace of God, I was chrismated into the Orthodox church at the age of twenty-nine. During the short period that I was Catholic, I learned everything I could about the Catholic church, including the history and dogmas. Well, this book is the missing history - the history that no one teaches about the Catholic church and where it strayed away from the one true faith.

Mr. Strickland connects all the dots to complete the picture of Protestant history. He explains where the Catholic church has deviated from the faith, the absolute mess their deviation has caused, and the continuing repercussions. Think of all the "Protestant" religions there are today. They all stem from the Catholic church. Every flavor of Christianity belongs to the Catholic church in some form, except the one true faith of Orthodoxy. The Orthodox church has been safeguarding the faith as it was handed down to the Apostles for over 2,000 years. Mr. Strickland makes clear where our paths diverged, what keeps up apart, and why the only way to reconciliation is complete repudiation by the Catholic church of all their teachings over the past 1,000+ years.

We've been warned, and it is a well known tactic that in order to shift public opinion from right to left it needs to be done in small steps. This is exactly what the Catholic church did, and it was driven initially by a very small group. The popes claimed more and more power until they ultimately declared themselves to be the Vicar of Christ, Christ's representative on Earth. This was not a teaching handed down from the Apostles, and it is found nowhere in scripture. Clearly, it is a purely human invention in order to manipulate and control others.

Mr. Strickland breaks down the various differences between Orthodox and Catholic by explaining the subtle changes Rome brought to their faith in relatively small doses. And, he does it by making very astute observations, such as Augustinianism vs. the Eastern Fathers. Simple comparison, but it explains so very much! This book isn't always an easy or straight-forward read, and you can get lost in the history if you're not careful, but I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a real explanation of the differences between East and West.

[Kevin Godinho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm enjoying this series. Fr. Strickland offers helpful details and insights during the period of Church history from the great division to the Protestant Reformation. The way this book ended with the epilogue being a brief intro to the time of the Renaissance and Enlightenment was almost enough to give this book 5 stars. I'm eagerly anticipating reading the next in this series because of it. Ideas have consequences, and I am continually surprised at the connection some philosophies have with one another. I recommend this series.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the West is spiraling down a towel bowl then the Great Schism was the flush.

This series is incredible. Fr. John Strickland is an intriguing writer.

[Charles Streetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting History

I really enjoyed this second book of Strickland’s three part history of Christendom. It feels like have been given a map through time that helps me see how we got to where we are now. It makes me sad that I was never taught any of this in school because Christian history isn’t acceptable to teach even though it makes up the bulk of the history of world’s recorded history.

[Readius Maximus · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book to give a history of the Roman Catholic church from the Papal Reformation to the Protestant Reformation. Viewing these events from an Orthodox perspective is really the only way to understand them. Otherwise you left looking at one catastrophe after another without knowing why it's happening or who to root for.

I started this journey trying to understand why we in the West are so insane only to find we have been so since the beginning and it has taken us a 1000k years to question how we got here.

Since the Great Division the West has given up on divine immanence and participation which would result in personal metamorphosis, instead settling on 'reform for the better' directed at external transformation of society.

That has been the basic pattern but it has taken many forms and counter forms since then. Starting off with the Reform papacy backed by scholasticism and papal supremacy to nominalism and all the different religious orders each with their own vision of transformation. Ending in the Protestants and then the Deists, Atheists, and Nihilists.

The author tries to walk a careful line where he believes all our current tragedies are a result of losing touch with Orthodox Christianity while at the same time saying it wasn't all bad compared with today and this was still Christendom. Makes it confusing a little as he switches back and forth between "this was so bad" to "they were still Christians".

Not stated directly but it is interesting to learn about Orthodox political theory through it's contrast to the West. While the West fumbles from one theory of external transformation to another the Orthodox theory of repentance and personal transformation through the life and prayers of the church.

The author quotes a passage from The Revolution of the Saints by Michael Walzer on the definition of ideology which is very interesting. "The power of an ideology... lies in its capacity to activate its adherents and to change the world. Its content is necessarily a description of contemporary experience as unacceptable and unnecessary and a rejection of any merely personal transcendence or salvation. Its practical effect is generate organization and cooperative activity. Calvinist ideology can be briefly summarized in these terms."

[Hannah Rouley · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Stickland’s second volume, Age of Division, is a profoundly thorough recount of the schism as viewed through the eyes of someone particularly empathetic to the perspective of the East. Stickland provides a rich, historical background without simply annotating a timeline of early Christianity. Where the holes exist in the minds of many (due to either a lackluster religious education or little to no understanding of church history), Strickland provides the necessary background and context to better understand the decisions made by the early church that would later impact the body of Christ as we know it.

Strickland discusses the East and the West thoughtfully in the early stages, guiding readers through relatively complex church relationships and explaining deep theological symbolism that existed, and in many ways still exists, in the East. He makes it abundantly clear and understandable as to why and how the church suffered during the break, and what intellectual and theological consequences followed towards the West.

At points, I was tempted to get lost in the language - which is at points intellectual while remaining thorough. The read is worth it though, as beautiful parallels are drawn between the ancient Eastern faith and the life and works of Christ, as well as the reality of His work on the cross and the work of Christians thereafter to build a church that represented the love and transformation that exists in the faith.

Overall, Strickland’s work is a beautiful explanation of where we came from and where we are headed.

[Navel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing where the previous volume ended at the eve of the "Great Division" as Fr. Strickland calls the commonly known great schism between the 4 patriarchates in the east and the roman one in the west.

This volume takes us through the further schism in the west of the reformation to the eve of the enlightenment.

Discussed are the differences that arise in the west from the ancient practices in the east as the papal reformation driven under the Frankish kings takes place. The rise of scholasticism among the western theologians is discussed along with the encounter between western scholastism and the east during the 14th century.

The prevailing narrative is that Luther and his other reformers didn't come out of a vacuum but were simply a counter reformation to the previous 400ish years of papal reformation in the west.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four Stars as I did not have the opportunity of reading Part One as this is the second part of Mr. Strickland's book. It reads beautifully explaining the history of the early church fathers up until the schism that can be chalked up to more than just "church politics." I will be reading part one! :)

[Norsk_ole · Rating 5 out of 5]

a scholarly account of Christianity 1000-1500 AD

The emphasis is upon western Christianity while Orthodox Christianity is discussed as either a contrast or how the Roman Catholic Church impacted the Orthodox church.

The book provides a lot of details which I found useful in explaining how the universal church was fractured.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Church history as it should be told. There's so much that gets missed in the usual accounts that is explained and clarified here. Not quite as engaging as Age of Paradise, but still incredibly valuable. I expect I will reference it often over time.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Answers so many questions. Fills so many gaps. This book was essential for understanding faith and history. I think this history on the lead up to the Protestant Reformation will become an important text for scholars and laypeople alike in the future. Do not miss it.

[Nancy Knowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very ineteresting

Made sense of a lot of the history I studied as a child but was to young to understand why things happened like they did.

[Car D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth reading for a non-western Christian perspective on history.

[Jacob Medina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very well researched, weaving a concise yet powerfully bleak narrative. The West has fallen.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of today's generalized opinions overlook the micro-fractures in both East and West leading up to the Great Schism and its harrowing aftermath. Observing a more completed context within this book's narrative opened my eyes to see more of the politics which have infiltrated the church over time. Fr. Strickland has added a wealth of overdue perspective to our modern conversation about Christendom with this second volume in his series. I look forward to circling back and reading the first volume and others to come. Our "learned" world can no longer afford to cling to the safe, comfortable opinions of the past, and should instead draw nearer to documented facts, sorted through critical thinking. This book deflates empty opinions by connecting them back to their origins, telling their full story. A great read for any history buff or amateur, but in the language I would advise to be prepared to think and take notes - the detail will inspire assembling the timeline for yourself.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating to see the development of Western Theology and how it impacted the faithful and the intellectual culture of the West.

[Shea Layton · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Age of Divison, John Strickland continues his elaboration of the history of Christian life and practice that lead to a unique and dividing culture known know as Western Christianity. He does this job with the same balance, brilliance, and simplicity in this second volume as in his first, The Age Of Paradise.

With a reasonable recap of the first volume covering the first millennium of Christianity, Strickland continues with the same fundamental themes of Doctrinal Integrity, Divine Participation, Heavenly Immanence, and Spiritual Transformation. (He even covers monks from the same era as were in the first volume’s last chapter, illustrating similar themes, but they are different monks so as to compromise by recapping a theme and era but looking at it with a fresh character’s history.) These four themes, drawn from the book of Acts, help Strickland trace a profound and consistent lineage of Apostolic praxis through the centuries… and where the West departed from them.

Another of the qualities of his writing is that he does his best to elaborate fairly on the characters of history and their decisions. You see the flaws of some of the positively viewed actors, and the reasonable ideas behind the negative contributors to the West. I appreciate that this book did little to lead me to any anger towards the people it attributed broken tradition and novelty to. The West is not demonized by this book, simply mourned and, implicitly, given a proposed direction for recovery.

When some of the historicity is disputed in narratives Strickland refers to, he admits honestly that such things are not set in stone, but shows that even the preoccupation of a certain era with such themes makes his point just as well. Nothing about Strickland’s history feels white-washed, and I don’t feel a need to second guess that he might be offering nothing more than the best-possible-case for his own biased viewpoint.

I also appreciated that this volume used footnotes, rather than endnotes as in the last volume.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with his first volume in this series, Strickland offers a lot of information on Church history, particularly the evolution of the Western Church as it wrestles with its own issues and adepts new ideas to the Roman Church. One can see in his book the step by step changes that were made in and by the Papacy and how this affects the entire Western Church. Strickland presents this as a series of papal and Latin church reformations which ultimately yields the Protestant reformation which he characterizes as a 'counter-reformation' attempting to correct the problems caused by the serial reformations in Roman Catholicism. Many church histories in English are written from a 'biased' Western point of view and are often very critical of the East while attempting to shine a better light on the Western church's needs for reformations and the effects of these changes on Christianity. Strickland looks at Western Church history from the point of view of the Eastern Church and is critical of what he sees. Though he acknowledges many (or most) of the ideas that became reformations in the West actually originated in the East, and that the East often had versions of the problems of the West, sometimes he seems to gloss over those Eastern problems just a bit. He does see many aspects of the Russian Orthodox Church as being very influenced by these Western Church reformations. Overall a well researched book giving a tremendous amount of historical information.