From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond: The Long, Jagged Trail to a Postmodern Void

From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond traces the cultural and spiritual transition from a unified Christian civilization to the fragmented modern West. Thomas Storck examines how shared moral vision gave way to individualism, secularism, and political abstraction.

Thomas Storck, a convert to the Catholic faith, is a social and cultural philosopher and historian who has written widely concerning the intersection of Catholic faith and culture. He is the author of four previous books, including The Catholic Milieu, Foundations of a Catholic Political Order, and Christendom and the West, as well as numerous essays and articles. He is a contributing editor of The Distributist Review and a member of the editorial board of The Chesterton Review.

“Thomas Storck has quite possibly contributed more than any other living writer to the articulation, defense, and contemporary application of Catholic Social Teaching. But his incisive work on broader philosophical, cultural, and historical subjects is not known nearly as well as it should be, a misfortune this book will help remedy. Christendom, Modernity, and Americanism — among the most elusive quarry in the world of ideas — are fatally attractive, yet rarely captured in a convincing analysis. In these essays Storck shows that he has the wide-ranging thoughtfulness, command of detail, and synthetic vision to pull this off. Storck’s cultural and philosophical examination of the trajectory of recent centuries is invaluable for all who would understand more deeply the complicated and contradictory Western world we live in.” — PETER KWASNIEWSKI, Wyoming Catholic College, author of Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis

“I am stretched and challenged whenever I read anything by Thomas Storck. In this fine collection of essays, he examines the many streams of thought and convictions that have led our contemporary world away from its philosophical and religious roots into post-modernity. Particularly in the final chapter he brings this all together to describe the plight we, our children, and our grand-children now face. As Joseph Pearce states in his excellent foreword, ‘He must be heard and heeded.’” — MARCUS GRODI, founder and president of the Coming Home Network International, author of What Must I do to be Saved?

“Drawing upon the tradition of Belloc, Chesterton, and Dawson, Thomas Storck offers a compelling re-interpretation of developments within the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. Moving beyond the stale, false alternatives of liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, Storck argues for the necessity of a distinctly Catholic social vision predicated upon the organic unity of family, faith, economy, and culture. These essays are a true breath of fresh air offering new possibilities for an authentic public Catholicism open to the world yet committed to the first principles of the faith.” — CHRISTOPHER SHANNON, Christendom College, co-author of The Past as Pilgrimage