Orthodoxy

Described by Oliver Clement as a 'masterpiece of synthesis', this important book by the highly-esteemed Paul Evdokimov, offers a unique presentation of the Orthodox faith. The author starts with a historical introduction and moves on through anthropology, ecclesiology and the faith of the Church, to the Church at Prayer and the Last Things. When first published in French in 1965 it was regarded as a landmark in religious publishing. This translation is of the revised, 1979 edition, an edition which is now almost impossible to find in French. Its publication for the first time in English makes it possible for a whole new readership to understand the world of Orthodoxy, benefiting from the author's wisdom and insight into this ancient and fascinating Christian tradition.

Orthodoxy by Paul Evdokimov Reviewed by Frank Regan in 'Renew' Issue: No 160; December 2011 Eastern European Orthodoxy evokes a feeling of vague mysticism alongside images of long-bearded priests dressed in ornate robes, swinging huge thuribles emitting thick wodges of smoke, singing in a basso profundo voice, hidden behind an icon-laden screen. We know little about lit as a church which traces its roots, 'spiritual, liturgical and evangelical to the "forefathers of God", St Simeon, St Anne, St Joseph and St John the Baptist. The Orthodox understand history differently. Their way of Faith was at one time the way of Faith of all Christians before the emergence of the Roman way with its legal structure, its rationality and its formal logic. Its centres are Jerusalem, Antioch, Athens and Byzantium. Western Christianity's centres are Rome, Hippo, Geneva and Augsburg. Over the centuries points of divergence have emerged: the most remembered is probably the Filioque debate. Is the Holy Spirit a gift given by the Father or, a gift given by the Father through the Son? The doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Infallibility of the Pope are also neuralgic points. Those are the divergences with Rome. There are also differences with Geneva and Augsburg. They look at Orthodoxy and see the hierarchical priesthood, the Apostolic Succession, the synergy of divine grace and human will, and the holiness of the new creature. Yet Orthodoxy does not see itself as a middle way between the two. Rather it claims to be spiritually complete in itself, non-prescriptive, homogeneous and true to its traditions. It further claims that it has never suffered any internal dissension, thus escaping the trauma of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. Indeed, the Church is the same in its organisation, spirituality, prayer and teaching as it was at the time of the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787. At the still centre point of Orthodox theology and spirituality is the experience of Tabor where the glory, the Shekinah of God was made manifest in the flesh of Jesus. Orthodoxy's greatest theologian, Gregory of Palamas, points to the distinction between the utterly unknowable and transcendent essence of God, and the uncreated grace or 'energies' which permeate and deify creation. It is by these energies that we come to know God. As we enter by prayer, practice and grace we begin a process of theosis by which we become, in God, all that God has meant us to be. As the Son became human, so we are destined to become divine. Orthodox thought is more characterised by analogy, simile and metaphor than by logical and rational analysis. The great divide between East and West occurred in the eleventh century when the West opted for a theological universe of sufficient causes, logical argumentation and scholastic analysis. For the West the approach was more intellectual and rational, a step by step approach to the knowledge of God. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "If the only way open to us for the knowledge of God were solely that of reason, the human race would remain in the blackest shadows of ignorance." The Orthodox tradition is more steeped in a belief, in contemplation, in theology and philosophy, which all tend to converge, to seek synthesis. It is more poetic than logical. I found this book a fine introduction to a tradition which I knew little about. It is divided into five Parts which cover Anthropology, Ecclesiology, Doctrine, Prayer, and Eschatology. For the Catholic Westerner Orthodoxy is a different, not to say, alien universe of Faith. I found it fascinating, perhaps because I tend to the apophatic (imageless) in my own approach to Faith. Reading it will not have made me a 'one book expert'. I would like to go more deeply into the effects of modernity upon a tradition which has escaped an experience of Reformation and, further on, an experience like that of Vatican II. The late author published this book in 1979. It is republished today as a fair

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