Fr. John looks at the development that took place within the Frankish lands themselves, especially those concerning the liturgy.

Fr. John discusses the rise of the Franks in Western Christianity.

Fr. John describes the desanctification of the world that began to occur in the time leading up to the Great Schism.

Fr. John looks at a couple of consequences of St. Augustine's anthropology in the West.

Fr. John continues to discuss St. Augustine by looking first at his notorious doctrine of original sin and its impact on the conception of man in the West.

Fr. John addresses the foundations in the West of a growing pessimism about man's condition, paying particular attention to Augustine.

Fr. John contends that to understand the coming of the Renaissance and its humanism, one really needs to understand how in the West the doctrines about man became increasingly pessimistic.

Fr. John discusses the dignity of man according to the Greek Fathers

In the first episode of part two of his four-part podcast "Paradise and Utopia," Fr. John Strickland, a professor of history at Saint Katherine Orthodox College, describes how Pope Nicholas I paved the way for the rapid development of the papal theory of empire.

Fr. John looks at some of the actual texts of early Christian hymns and the way in which they gave expression to the vision of early Christendom.