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By Jordan Bajis
Eastern Orthodoxy is not just another version of what you heard in Sunday school or saw on tv. It is the ancient faith of the apostles and their followers handed down through the centuries, rooted in the worship and experience of the God who has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. If I had one book to give to someone interested in Eastern Christianity who was coming out of a Roman or Protestant background, this would be it! After rereading the book a few times over the past 15 years, I am more convinced than ever that this is the best book to give to friends who are interested in the Eastern Church, or to read for yourself if you are looking eastward!Why read this book? He's done his homework! If you read this book several things will happen. You'll get a great introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy, geared to the Protestant and Catholic mindset. You'll get an incredible reading list by reading the very extensive endnotes (almost another book). In addition, you will most likely learn more about your own history, whether you're Protestant or Catholic. It will challenge your assumptions and sterotypes as well as help you rethink what the New Testament actually is for and about. You cannot go wrong with this book. Please buy it. Light and Life publishers sells it currently as a 2006 reissue.
Other books of interest: "Not by Scripture Alone" by Sungenis, "The Orthodox Way", "The Orthodox Church", and "How are We Saved?" by Bishop Kallistos Ware. Congar's "Tradition and Traditions" is a great work of Catholic scholarship by one of the masters. "The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church" by Vladimir Lossky will reshape your brain (and your nous)! For those of you who are more daring and looking to bite into something more meaty: "Being As Communion" by John Zizioulas; "Energies of the Spirit" by Duncan Reid; "The Ground of Union" by Williams. They deal with east/west theologies of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit, but they touch on everything else in between! Very deep stuff, takes time to read, but highly recommended!
After reading it through and having discussed it with friends who have read it, I would rank this book as in the top 6 of introductions to Orthodoxy for Protestants. This is also something of a primer on Protestant theology, so it serves a double function. I recall from my Lutheran days being shocked at the "Catholic" side of the tradition, being raised in a rather romaphobic parish and school. This book would have helped me gain a better perspective of both my own Protestant position and that of the more authentic/established/universal Tradition. It gets into some deep waters. True, it is intended as a college textbook and is based upon the author's lecture notes (who is Protestant), but it may be a little too much for Protestants who are used to guitars, clowns and mimes in church. Even so, if you are seriously thinking about these issues, this would be a good place to start to wade into the deep end of the ocean and away from shore (once you begin to realize that your theological sandcastles were never meant to resist the tide of historical truth, perhaps, as it was for me).
In a very real sense, creation is incomplete until the occurrence of the Incarnation. Most theologians from the ancient Church would agree that God would have become incarnate regardless of the fall, our felix culpa. And Mary is a pivotal character and reason for this event. But many Christians have no idea about Mary. I remember growing up as a Lutheran and the only time Mary was hardly ever mentioned was during the Christmas sermon since it is generally hard to ignore her part in the story. Even there it was reiterated, in typical Lutheran fashion, that she was "just as much of a sinner as the rest of us, that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory and that there is only one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus. So let's talk about Jesus..." As I moved away from that tradition and embraced Eastern Orthodoxy, I was amazed to realize that Christians from the beginning have fulfilled her prophecy that "all generations will call me blessed" by venerating her as the Mother/Birth Giver of God (Theotokos) and that her prayers were asked for in the ancient liturgies and that her image was painted frequently and that she was considered the essential Christian, given her willingness to do the will of God even as it cost her everything.