« No Enduring City - David Bentley Hart | Main | Scripture as Witness to the Word of God - Brian Zahnd »

December 24, 2013

Comments

Jonathan Skeet

Wow, very interesting, thank you. I'm at the very early inquiry stage but already benefitting from Orthodox prayer practice, after more than 50 years as protestant evangelical (which I don't want to speak against any more than absolutely necessary, as it's been my sustenance until now)

Blaise Foret

This was very encouraging and very enlightening. Thanks for sharing your journey!

Adam

Brad,

Just stumbled on to this today! I am from Abbotsford and been impacted by how you have served and loved this community. Thanks for sharing your journey in such an intimate and yet succinct way.

I too identify with much of the insights and epistemological approaches to God within the Orthodox tradition. I value an apophatic approach and find the liturgical expressions within the tradition refreshing and deepening. Also, I have had some close friends recently join the Orthodox church in what seems to be a mini-exodus from low to high church.

As one who is also tired of the neo-Baalism, neo-Shamanism, and anti-intellectualism (because of a dependancy on a modern paradigm) prevalent in the Revivalist/Charismatic churches, I find myself deeply uncomfortable. Because I am not a minister my departure would be similar to my friends, and I wouldn't have to do a blog post like you, explaining it to everyone. Two things keep me in my current tension. In no particular order...

1) The exclusive eucharist - it would be hard to belong to a tradition that would not allow other confessions to the table, hence why I tend towards a more celtic version of the anglican church.

2) Much of my theological awakening has been navigating how I see and read the text. I wonder how many people after moving from the security of literalism towards an interpretation of tensions, gravitate towards the security of a magisterial tradition. I love the Tradition(s) and their liturgical expressions in the same way I love the story of God, creation, and god's people as recorded in the biblical narrative and would engage both with the same level of critique, contemporization, and re-integration. I am leery though of joining the low to high trend because I see that many joining the high church utilize it as a type of security blanket mechanism, and I wonder about my own desires for 'institutional' security. Note it is less about the 'what' and more about the 'how/why'.

If you have time I would love to hear your response...

The comments to this entry are closed.