Another Man’s Treasure
Orthodoxy Revisited: Contrasting the Faith and Practice
of the Eastern Orthodox Church with Evangelical Doctrine
by Robert Lloyd Arnold
Regina Orthodox Press, no date
(254 pages, $22.95, paperback)
reviewed by Bryan M. Litfin
As King David and some companions were carrying the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem in an ox-cart, the oxen stumbled, the Ark shifted precariously, and Uzzah reached out to steady the holy vessel. Scripture records that the Lord’s anger “burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.”
This is among the more striking analogies Orthodox apologist Robert Lloyd Arnold uses to explain one of Evangelicalism’s defining characteristics, the doctrine of inerrancy. Evangelicals’ desire to protect the dignity of God is noble, he says, but their effort is misplaced because it is based on purely human judgments about what ought to be done. Such is the tone of his Orthodoxy Revisited. Evangelicals are depicted as good-hearted souls with a faith that is sincere but deeply misguided.
As a patristic scholar, I am already open to what Orthodoxy has to offer my tradition. Indeed, one of Touchstone’s senior editors, Antiochian priest Patrick Henry Reardon, has become a regular in my classes at Moody Bible Institute to round out the staunchly Evangelical fare my students normally receive. Yet even a friend of Orthodoxy like me becomes a spurned lover after reading Arnold’s book.
Been There
Arnold shares with the reader his own very personal journey from an Evangelical upbringing into the arms of the Orthodox Church, for which he possesses a zealous love. A Baptist student at a leading Evangelical seminary, he felt like something of a black sheep as he began to explore Christian life within a liturgical context. Eventually he found his way into what he calls the Ancient Church.
His book is written for the already-convinced: his fellow Orthodox who want a bit of insight into Evangelicalism from someone who has been there. Few Evangelical readers will be drawn to the Orthodox Church by reading this book.
One gets the sense that the author walked a wrenching spiritual path as he left the churches in which he was first nurtured. He appreciates much about his Evangelical heritage and is deft at capturing its foibles and quirks. I smiled often as I watched the idiosyncrasies of my own tradition being lampooned. Yet the book also offers a sustained critique of Evangelicalism’s core doctrines and practices.
Perhaps the most significant chapter is the first, in which Arnold rightly identifies the authority of Scripture as the central issue. He accurately describes for the uninitiated Evangelicalism’s ubiquitous biblicism, both at the doctrinal level (e.g., plenary verbal inspiration) and in its popular piety (his depiction of the Sunday-school “Sword Drill,” a kind of children’s Bible quiz, is a treat).
Evangelicals are shown to be true lovers of God’s Word. At the same time, Arnold raises what he considers to be real problems for Evangelicals, such as the short pedigree of the doctrine of inerrancy, the many contradictions in the pages of Scripture, and, most important of all, the inevitability of a traditioned approach to biblical interpretation.
Bryan Litfin was Professor of Theology at Moody Bible Institute for sixteen years, and now works as an acquisition editor at Moody Publishers. He has a Ph.D. in ancient Christianity from the University of Virginia. His most recent book is After Acts: Exploring the Lives and Legends of the Apostles (Moody Publishers, 2015). Bryan and his wife Carolyn live in Wheaton, Illinois.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on Orthodox from the online archives
more from the online archives
27.2—March/April 2014
Higher Education Should Advance the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God by Anthony Esolen
30.2—March/April 2017
The Education of Children Takes Generations of Fidelity by W. Ross Blackburn
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
