Paradise and Utopia

In this, the first episode of the Paradise and Utopia video edition, Father John provides a video lecture from his office in Puget Sound, showing, with the use of powerful, full-color icons such as those of Andrei Rublev, how hesychasm inspired some of the greatest art in the history of eastern Christendom.

Fr. John explores specific examples of icons and the way in which they manifested early Christendom's experience of the kingdom of heaven.

Fr. John introduces the principle of heavenly orientation and then explores actual forms of art, beginning with iconography.

Fr. John discusses the ways in which iconography was defined and produced in Byzantine Christendom.

Fr. John explores the triumph of Orthodoxy in the year 843 and the way in which it enables the art of Christendom to express the deepest conviction about man's relationship with God and the possibility of communion with Him.

Fr. John explores marriage within the life of early Christendom.

Fr. John explores what exactly monasticim was in the days of St. Macarius.

Fr. John tells the story of when St. Macarius journeyed from the desert to the city to meet two laywomen who were superior to him in their spirituality.

Fr. John discusses the design, history, and importance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Fr. John looks at traditional Christianity's eucharistic rites in order to see how they served to reorient the world toward the kingdom of heaven.

Fr. John discusses eucharistic worship as an experience of paradise.

Fr. John discusses the ways in which the Church tries to create a sanctified topography in Christendom.

Fr. John discusses the spiritual transformation of time by Christianity.

Fr. John discusses the importance of worship to Byzantium, the immense degree to which its culture was influenced by liturgy, and the significance of "facing East."

Fr. John discusses the life and activities of St. Pulcheria, as well as how the Trisagion came into Orthodox worship.

Fr. John draws attention to a feature of Byzantine statecraft in which the Emperor persecuted and manipulated the leadership of the Church.

Fr. John discusses the case of Caesaropapism and the symphony when it was actually achieved.

Fr. John addresses the uncertainty in Byzantium following the death of Constantine and then the consolidation of Christianity shortly after that.

Fr. John evaluates the impact that the Christianization of Rome had on the state's conception of sacrifice.

Fr. John delineates the various ways in which Constantine contributed to the Christianization of the Roman state.

Fr. John explains how the Church cultivated a higher level of sexual dignity and explores how Christendom served to elevate women in Roman society.

Fr. John explores how the Church began to address, confront, and challenge the pagan culture of the Roman Empire, particularly during the third century.

Fr. John fills in the picture of the Church's early subculture.

Fr. John explores what could be called the catacomb culture of the Church in relation to the Roman Empire.

Fr. John discusses cosmology, a concept that was very important to the early Church.