In The Age of Nihilism, Fr. John Strickland brings to a conclusion his four-volume history of Christendom and it is a phenomenal capstone to this venture. I only read the third volume, The Age of Utopia, but I did not feel as lost as I did in that one as Fr. John ties the cultural and political movements in this volume back to the previous volumes quite seamlessly and this aids the reader in understanding the overarching themes of the entire series.
Fr. John opens this volume with a section titled “The Specter of Nihilism” and illustrates the rise of this pessimistic view of humanity through the experiences of two men—Friedrich Nietzsche and Fyodor Dostoevsky. I felt that the pairing of these two writers perfectly encapsulates the later ideas that Fr. John brings forth later on. Not only do the two figures complement each other well, they also tie the entirety of the upcoming 20th century to the previous age of utopia that was covered in the preceding volume.
Throughout this work, Fr. John repeatedly writes about the counterfeits to the vision presented by the early Church of heavenly immanence and transformation. This is most notable in the long section where Fr. John elaborates on the major ideologies of the mid-2th century—Communism, Naziism, and Liberalism. His presentation of these ideologies was refreshing as I think it is very easy for those in the modern West to dismiss too easily the ideas of Naziism and, to a lesser degree, Communism given the horrendous track-record of each of these worldviews. However, liberalism, if not actually engaged and critiqued, is too easily imbibed as it is such a big part of our culture. One of the most important ideas that Fr. John lays forth is that each of these ideologies seeks to transform the world and the people who live in it. Nevertheless, all three ultimately fail as they are incapable of taking into account the spiritual nature of man, only dealing with the “saeculum.”
Though one does not pick up a book with a title such as this expective to go away with a sense of hope, Fr. John nevertheless is able to impart a bit of hope to his readers. In spite of the failures of the past that he documents well in this and his other volumes, the call to transformation is still there and it only requires our response to make it a reality. Not in ideological world-building, but rather in a spiritual renewal in which we are transformed by Christ.
I highly recommend this book if you have read the previous volumes in this series or if you want to gain a deeper understanding of the 20th century world and all of its competing notions of personhood and what the purpose of life really is. ( )