Eternal Christendom is a non-profit institution officially founded on August 15, 2023 on the Feast of Our Lady’s Assumption, to whom we have consecrated this apostolate. As every page of our website states at the bottom:
Dominae Nostrae consecratum
Ad Dei gloriam oblatum
In English, this means “Consecrated to Our Lady for the Glory of God.”
The vision behind Eternal Christendom has been brewing for many years. It arguably began when our Founder and President, Joshua Charles, was in college, and read these haunting words by professor Neil Postman in his prophetic 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death:
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…
As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.
At the same time, as a classically trained concert pianist, Joshua developed an artistic sensibility that deeply appreciated the importance of beauty, pathos, and ethos in reaching the human heart. Logical arguments, while essential, are not always, or even often, the first or even primary key to changing hearts and minds. The heart must be touched.
From the combination of these two elements—the intellectual, and the artistic; the rational and the emotional—Joshua concluded that if there was any hope of re-introducing modern people to the depth of the Great Tradition, it would require factoring in the realities of a culture that had not only been orphaned from its heritage and knew virtually nothing about it, but found itself in an irreversibly digital and visual world that rewards images and instant gratification over text and delayed gratification.
He became convinced that we must once more enthrone beauty in her proper role in first drawing the heart in order to convince the mind. So long as even the greatest of classics were contained in books containing little more than bare text with no art, no illustrations, no charts, and no explanations for readers, particularly amidst the highly visual digital ecosystem of the 21st century, they would remain unread and unpondered.
This has been the theme of much of Joshua’s writing and scholarship: making the riches of the Great Tradition more accessible and engaging, without in any way compromising their depth and substance.
The vision for Eternal Christendom would ultimately crystalize, however, only after Joshua converted to the Catholic Faith at the age of 31 after a lifetime of protestantism. He talks about that conversion
here. Fundamentally, it was a result of recognizing the inconsistencies within protestantism, and encountering the writings of the Church Fathers. He came into the Church on July 13, 2019. In the process of converting, Joshua made a promise to Our Lady: “If this is your Son’s Church, I will spend the rest of my life defending it.”
Soon after, his friend and mentor Michael Sollazzo—who had been raised Catholic, but later left the faith for protestantism—came back to the Church. Michael was a very successful entrepreneur, and in 2021 told Joshua that he would like to somehow support him in his evangelistic and apologetic endeavors for the salvation of souls. Joshua was grateful, and both agreed to pray about it, trusting that if God was behind this generous offer, its timing would become clear.
Over the next two years, Joshua evangelized via social media on the side while he worked for various clients after his time at the White House.
But in the spring of 2023, he felt the time had come to make good on the promise he had made to Our Lady while he was converting. So he dropped most of his clients, intending to take up to 6 months off to pray, go on retreats, travel, and hear the Lord’s voice.
A few months into this sabbatical, Michael once again approached Joshua, this time with Thomas Huckins, a lifelong Catholic who had a great deal of experience working with many great Catholic institutions. Michael proposed that with Tom’s expertise in fundraising and administration, and Joshua’s scholarship and communication abilities, now was the time to start an apostolate that could win souls for Christ. Now was the time to begin implementing the vision God had given Joshua over the previous 15 years—a vision that required the Catholic Faith to crystalize into its final form.
Joshua prayed on Michael’s suggestion, and came to concur with it.
Thanks to the generosity of our founding patrons, Michael and Susana Sollazzo, the result was the founding of Eternal Christendom, which we are presenting publicly for the first time on the traditional feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, March 7, 2024.
