Today's episode is sponsored by Telepaidea, a collection of live online courses in Latin,

ancient Greek and the classical humanities offered by the Paidea Institute.

Telepaidea courses are 10 weeks long and meet in small groups of no more than five students,

and the spring term begins on February 23, 2025.

Register now at Paidia Institute.org or via the link in the episode description,

and I'll tell you more about what they offer at the end of the episode.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 318, Orthodox Questions with Father John Strickland, part one.

It's my pleasure today to welcome back Father John Strickland to the podcast.

Four episodes ago, we talked in detail about the divine liturgy and its place at the heart of Byzantine life.

I put out the call for listeners to ask questions, particularly those of us not familiar with orthodoxy or ecclesiastical issues in general,

and Father Strickland has kindly returned to answer them.

The questions are wide-ranging, and so demand thorough answers, which Father John provides,

so we decided to split them over two episodes. Today we tackle the Orthodox view on salvation

and purgatory, as well as the role of the ecumenical patriarch and thoughts on the Byzantine understanding of how the divine played a role in daily life.

And then we finish with the Orthodox view of Catholicism, church union and evangelization.

Thank you for these excellent questions. They provoked what I found to be a fascinating discussion.

For those just tuning in, John is the pastor of an Orthodox Church in Pulsborough in Washington State.

He wrote a four-volume series about the history of Christian civilization called Paradise and Utopia. He's also recorded a

podcast of the same name as an accompaniment to the books, which you can find wherever you get your

podcasts or at ancient faith.com. If you're interested in ancient languages, then check out

the Paidea Institute website. The link is in the episode description,

and I'll talk more about what they offer after the interview. Father John Strickland,

...