Evangelicals and Orthodoxy

Jason Zengerle of The New Republic has written a thorough and detailed report on the movement of some Evangelicals into the Orthodox Church. I subscribe to TNR, which gives me access to its online resources, so I'm not sure if the entire article is available online via that link. Hope so, because it's a fascinating piece of reporting. Excerpt:

Gillquist and Ellsworth [two Orthodox priests who are converts from Evangelicalism] are among those who feel evangelicalism has mistakenly staked its foundation on the changing concept of personal Christian experience rather than on the firmer ground of theological doctrine. "Evangelical theology is rooted in only the last twenty-five percent of the history of the church, the post-Reformation period," Ellsworth says. "Orthodoxy goes back to the church fathers; it goes back to the roots and the first seventy-five percent of church history. There is a very real sense of continuity." Lacking this continuity, evangelicalism must continually adapt to modern life, a process that Orthodox converts like Gillquist say has inhibited the church's intellectual growth. "Worship has now been basically reduced to entertainment," he explains. "That carries people for two years, and then they start looking for something with more depth. Those are the people who we pick up: serious Christians who are hungry for more."

And, in some respects, hungry for less. Although the culture wars seem like a staple of evangelical life, the converts suggest that there is a growing fatigue with this worldly fight. One of the more striking things about the Orthodox Church is that it's not very political. That's not to say it isn't conservative. "As Orthodox, we don't believe that being gay is a legitimate alternative lifestyle, we believe it's an aberration. We also say abortion is murder," says Gillquist. But, unlike in many evangelical churches, these views--while strongly held--tend not to come up in the course of worship. As Daniel Larison, a conservative writer and Orthodox convert who attends a Russian Orthodox Church in Chicago, says, "As a general rule, the sermons are going to be related to the gospel and that's about it. Political themes and political ideas don't come into sermons directly. That's not why people are there. They want to keep that as far away as possible."

And, by keeping it far away, the Orthodox Church has been immune to the social and political conflicts that frequently flare up in the Anglican and Catholic Churches, where disaffected evangelicals once typically sought refuge. "In the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church, there's a lot of dialogue with the culture: For instance, what do we do with the whole creation versus evolution thing? Where does science play in?" says Andrew Henderson, an evangelical-turned-Anglican who recently converted to Orthodox Christianity and worships at Holy Transfiguration. "In the Orthodox Church, with that Eastern mindset that's just so ancient, those questions haven't really arisen. It just isn't a concern."

I've noticed that as well, and find it interesting. I've always admired Evangelicals from afar for their energy and engagement, but this article (BTW, the author is not a Christian; he called to interview me for the piece, but I told him I wasn't Evangelical and couldn't really answer his questions) suggests that at least some Evangelicals are dissatisfied with that aspect of their faith. As the Orthodox convert Hugh O'Beirne told me (quoted in "Crunchy Cons"), you don't enter church on Sunday morning on "war footing." Meaning two things: the service and sermon aren't likely to have much to do with politics, either secular or ecclesial. It really does have to do with a mindset, and I don't really understand it. My guess is that everybody, or nearly everybody, at my parish takes a conservative position on the key social issues that motivate the religious right. But it's just not front and center in the Orthodox consciousness. I'm mostly happy about this, I have to say, because the factionalism in Catholicism, which I was a big part of, can be awfully wearying. My experience in Orthodoxy is limited to my parish alone, but I've noticed the sermons manage to be serious with regard to spiritual and moral matters without being notably divisive. In my experience in other churches, priests tended to stick to platitudes and generalities, seemingly to avoid antagonizing and dividing. Which drove me crazy, especially because we all could have used some clear instruction on Church teaching and how it applied to our actual lives and to the controversies we all face in this society. I sometimes wish we'd get that in the Orthodox church, but I have to admit to liking being challenged by homilies that are theologically substantive but not so -- what's the word I'm looking for? -- contemporary.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't get the impression that the priests at my parish are trying to avoid controversy. Which is why that convert's remark about the Eastern "mindset" resonates with me in ways I don't fully understand. Orthodoxy really does re-orient your way of thinking. I can see quite clearly that it's going to be a long process for me. I do believe that any church has to have "dialogue with the culture" if it is to be embodied in a way that leads people to sanctification. Trying to avoid that "dialogue" is, I think, a big mistake. And yet, if there's too much "dialogue," we can easily lose sight of the permanent things. Church can become all about rallying around the right position on abortion, gay marriage, this or that political candidate or cause (left or right).

The late Orthodox priest Alexander Schmemann wrote critically in his diaries about the Orthodox Church's aloofness from the world. This he did not like. But how does a church manage to stay engaged in the world without getting overcome by worldly concerns? This is a mystery.

Thoughts?