Irenic Encounters
Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism edited by James Stamoolis
Zondervan, 2004
(294 pages, $14.99, paperback)
reviewed by Warren Farha
We received the letters which your love sent us and the booklet which contains the articles of your faith. We accept your love, and in compliance with your request we shall endeavor to clear the issues in which we agree and those in which we disagree” (Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople to the Tübingen theologians, writing on the Augsburg Confession in May 1576).
“We ask your holiness to accept our reply with a glad countenance and a gentle spirit, to read it attentively and carefully . . . to scrutinize it commensurate with your own piety and wisdom in these great matters. We will piously and peacefully discuss the articles in dispute” (from the theologians’ reply to the patriarch).
I only seem to begin this review with a digression. The remarkable correspondence of the patriarch and the Lutheran theologians is a direct precursor of the book under review, unmistakable evidence that true Christian ecumenism is a centuries-old project. Its erudite and irenic spirit and its structure of statement and response are mirrored in Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism, the most recent addition to Zondervan’s Counterpoint Series.
Editor James Stamoolis, former graduate dean at Wheaton College and author of Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology Today, has assembled for this volume: Brad Nassif, professor of biblical and theological studies at North Park University in Chicago and for decades an Orthodox leader in Orthodox-Evangelical dialogue; Michael Horton, professor of theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary and a minister in the United Reformed Church; Vladimir Berzonsky, an Orthodox priest and theologian; George Hancock-Stefan, a Baptist theologian and pastor and adjunct professor of church history at Eastern Baptist Seminary; and Edward Rommen, an Orthodox priest and an authority on missiology.
These men speak about Orthodox-Evangelical encounter through years of theological and existential struggle. Stamoolis is a convert from Greek Orthodoxy to Evangelicalism; Nassif, raised an Antiochian Orthodox, converted for a time to Evangelicalism but returned to Orthodoxy during his studies at Conservative Baptist Seminary; Hancock-Stefan was born in Romania but left Romanian Orthodoxy to become Baptist; and Rommen taught missions and theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School before converting to Orthodoxy.
Yes, No, Maybe
The book is divided into three sections, answering the question, “Are Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism compatible?” with a “yes,” “no,” or “maybe.” Position papers are presented for each answer, followed by responses from the other contributors and a concluding statement by the original presenter.
The “yes” position is set forth, in the longest and (along with Michael Horton’s) most substantial essay, by Nassif. It is a cry from the heart of one who has spent most of his life communicating his conviction of the essential compatibility of Evangelicalism and Orthodoxy.
Warren Farha is the founder, owner, and operator of Eighth Day Books (www.eighthdaybooks.com) in Wichita, Kansas, where he lives with his wife and three children. He and his family are Orthodox Christians and attend St. George (Antiochian) Orthodox Cathedral, where he helps with catechism and his wife directs the choir.
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