The Rise and Fall of the West

The rise of the Christian West was spectacular. The fall of the West was similarly spectacular, especially for those who witnessed it firsthand. But the rise was more spectacular than its fall. That’s the conclusion drawn in this epochal story of the Western world. The fall of Western civilization constitutes the most significant seismic shift in world history since the fall of Rome. And, such eschatological developments call for an immediate response — an extended explanation based in a definitive Christian interpretive framework. What conclusions should Christians draw from this cataclysmic event?

The timing was never better for a 2,000 year survey of the rise and fall of the Christian West. We are living in a moment when we must understand the times in order to know what to do, and how to respond. The West has already fallen, although the news has yet to sink in with most Europeans and Americans in 2021. The East is on the rise. The Christian faith is fast moving east and south, and the glory has departed from the West.  

Epoch carefully chronicles the phenomenal impact of Jesus Christ and His people upon the culture, economy, religious character, charitable institutions, educational systems, science and technology, and worldview of the Western world—and the West’s subsequent impact upon the whole earth. The book then traces the devastating decline and fall of a civilization, identifying the principal defectors and key provocateurs along the way. 

The story plays out at a good clip for maximized efficiency, impact, and clarity. Author Kevin Swanson zeroes in on the most defining events and persons that would eventually make or break a civilization and the faith that ungirded it. The battle for the soul of Western civilization continued for a thousand years. As the smoke clears on the field, the survivors should be aware of the chief breaking points that brought about the demise of the West, such as the fateful forgery devised in Rheims, the Fourth Lateran Council, the Dum Diversas bull of 1452, the publication of Darwin’s Descent of Man and Keynes’ Economic Consequences of Peace, and more. 

Yet, the war is not over yet. The world goes on. So Epoch concludes with an international vision for the Christian church, and a clarion call for Christians to press forward in the work of discipling the nations in the generations to come.

By Kevin Swanson

Hardcover. 747 Pages (3rd edition printed in 2023)