Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Exploring Belief Systems through the Lens of the Ancient Christian Faith Paperback – May 12, 2011

This book is a compilation of lectures first given for adult education at St. George Orthodox Cathedral in Charleston, West Virginia, and later at St. Paul Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. These were presented in audio format on Ancient Faith Radio as the Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy podcasts. For those who tune in, this is not a direct transcription of those lectures, but rather a revised expansion with corrections.INTENDED AUDIENCE: Fr. Andrew is an Orthodox Christian priest writing to an Orthodox Christian audience. He recognizes this work will probably be read by people who are not Orthodox (like me), giving the disclaimer "this book is not aimed at them, nor can its broad but nevertheless limited scope permit full justice to be done to other faiths' doctrines and traditions." YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! If you are not Orthodox, don't get upset that Fr. Andrew's synopsis may only scratch the surface of your beliefs; this is not an exhaustive, academic treatise on comparative religion or Orthodox theology. While not intended for a non-Orthodox audience, this book is accessible to anyone with a basic to intermediate knowledge of Church history and theological terminology. However, it is important to keep in mind that certain shared vocabulary has different technical meanings in different faith traditions, especially among Christians.PURPOSE: "To answer for Orthodox Christians the question of what the differences between the Orthodox faith and other faiths really are." This is a primer for Orthodox Christians seeking to learn more about other faith traditions and the major similarities and differences between them.BASIC PREMISES: One of this book's basic assumptions is that "Truth is not relative, and that Orthodox Christianity represents the fullness of the Truth. . ." and throughout Fr. Andrew emphasizes the Orthodox Church as the concrete, historical community founded by Jesus Christ through His Apostles. This work is not necessarily apologetic in nature, but rather catechetical (instructive in Christian teaching).Fr. Damick's introduction covers the basics of Orthodox teaching, summarizing core doctrines about the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, and Salvation & the Church. The introduction includes discussions on Truth and the purpose of religion.Other chapters included:Roman CatholicismThe Magisterial Reformation (Lutheranism, Zwingli, Calvin & the Reformed tradition, and AnglicanismThe Radical Reformation (Pietism, Anabaptists, Anglican offshoots, Baptists, and others)Revivalism (the Rapture, Mega-Churchism, Dispensationalism, Fundamentalism and more!)Non-Mainstream Christians (Universal Unitarians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science and others)Non-Christian Religions (Main world religions and many larger religions native to the Middle East)Fr. Andrew concludes with an epilogue that emphasizes the work of the Father through the Holy Spirit in the world through reason, history, Scripture, experience, and other agents.Also included is an appendix on atheism and agnosticism, and appendices which include a convenient timeline on Orthodox/Roman-Catholic relations and quick reference materials from both Orthodox sources and primary sources of the differing religious bodies.CONCLUSION: This is a well-thought out and well-articulated catechetical tool for Orthodox Christians. As a non-Orthodox Christian (albeit, with strong Orthodox sympathies) I enjoyed following Fr. Andrew's survey of the different faith traditions. I appreciated his honest approach, his clear articulation of the book's purpose, and his recognition of its limitations. He does his best to be fair, but that is not his stated goal (I thought his section on Lutheranism and the Magisterial Reformation lacked a discussion of the principle of confessionalism). I would highly recommend this book to any Orthodox Christian or anyone with a cursory knowledge of Orthodoxy who would like to know more about its similarities and differences with other religious groups. My only complaints are a typo on page 110 (Mark 13:3 is cited when it should be 13:13), and a few of the websites listed under quick references are no longer hosted.

As a "Cradle Orthodox" Christian, I had very limited exposure to other Christian denominations and other faiths growing up, so as an adult I have often wished that I had a scorecard and/or media guide to keep them all straight. Fr. Andrew, a convert to Orthodoxy, effectively provides such a scorecard and media guide along with some helpful narrative history. I don't think a "Cradle Orthodox" like myself could ever write such a book. Only a convert to Orthodoxy who experienced many other faiths before finding Orthodoxy could effectively write this book. I consider it a wonderful gift to "Cradle Orthodox" Christians from a devout Orthodox convert.This book began as a set of lectures for Fr. Andrew's home parish in Pennsylvania that was eventually made into a series of podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio. The book serves as a terrific reference, but I think the podcasts, with their side comments and humorous anecdotes, show more of Fr. Andrew's personality. I recommend buying and reading the book, but I also recommend listening to the podcast episodes. I can't comment on Fr. Andrew as a clergyman, but I will say that he is a keen observer and insightful analyst of the American scene--a world class social critic in every respect. I like to think of him as a culture critic in a cassock, and the podcasts really bring that out.I only gave the book four stars because I don't think it's for everyone. In particular, I would not share this book with my Roman Catholic friends; Fr. Andrew's objections to various Roman Catholic doctrines, although dogmatically sound, are very strident in tone and not a very good starting point for a serious ecumenical dialogue. I think we can safely say that Fr. Andrew will never be sent as an Orthodox representative to the World Council of Churches, to which I'm sure he responds, "Thank God".

My recommendation for this book goes to Orthodox Christians as well as to non-Orthodox Christians.As an Orthodox Christian, this book does an excelent job right from the begining by properly defining the terms so that there is no confusion from what Orthodoxy means to what heresy means and implies as in the first chapters it's important when going over what Roman Catholicism and Protestantism are. Though I used to be a Protestant and am very familiar with Roman Catholicism, not everyone is, especially the historical circumstances that gave birth to them with the various inovations in their traditions. So for Orthodox Christians it's great to be able to at least understand our heterodox friends and where they're coming from.The following chapters that focus on various other non-Christian traditions has excellent tidbits to wet the appetite on what their histories are. If anything, this is the part why I've taken out 1 star just because these chapters aren't as elaborate as the ones on other Christian traditions though it's understandable as the author already had mentionned that the goal was to give an "encyclopedia level" description of them so if you want to further follow up more in depth, you can.For non-Orthodox readers, I would recommend this book generally for the same reasons that I would for the Orthodox at least for getting a better historical context the various heterodox Christian groups and find the source of the doctorines and the reasons why they were adopted. I would have to warn Roman Catholics or Protestants/Evangelicals that some that is written may be hard to swallow and to avoid reading it if you're not open to the idea that your tradition may be heretical.In conclusion, this book has been a great help in being able to better understand the origines of various heresies within Christendom in a clear and interesting way.

I'd recommend this book to any Christian, I found it helped me to consolidate what I already knew about Orthodox Christianity, and it helped to clarify the HUGE and many differences between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.I was actually amazed to discover that the things I thought were unique to my old Church (I come from a Pentecostal background) are actually common Pentecostal traits. An example of this is the lack of theological education for the largely self appointed pastors - and more importantly, how this is deemed a good thing as theological education is pretty much frowned upon...after all, the "Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth". So say between 30,000 - 40,000 denominations.It also highlighted superbly the supermarket Churches so common in Protestantism, you just shop around until you find one that teaches what you want to believe....and what's "comfy" for you.Thoroughly enjoyed the book, will definitely be rereading it a few times - and recommending that others read it too.

My first time to use Kindle. I am findig it realy useful and i love the features. Great program and great book!