Becoming Orthodox

Great introduction to Orthodoxy! Only downside is waking up early on Sundays again after it led me back to the church.

The quotes are the last words in the book. This 'manifesto' (imho) is not another 'conversion' story but rather the true story of a spiritual journey; a journey embarked by a group of fervent evangelical Protestants (Campus Crusade for Christ leaders) and which lasted over a decade. Peter E. Gillquist (the author) is a brilliant marketeer and presenter of his group's spiritual journey, of their search for the ancient faith and original New Testament Church.The book is devided into three sections:Part I describes the group's pilgrimage through the history of Christendom. This was done by assigning each members an area of research, such as church history pre-reformation and post-reformation, Biblical doctrine, and Christian worship. As Gillquist sumarizes this new journey in the last chapter, "the change came for us when we stopped trying to judge and reevaulate Church history, and for once invited Church history to judge and evaluate us."Part II entitled "Orthodoxy and the Bible" is the meat of the book (imho). Here Gillquist does an excellent job of explaining (and not overpowering or over-analyzing) the most mis-understood and puzzling components of the Orthodox faith and praxis. These topics include:a) explaining the use of all 5 senses in Orthodox worship,b) the reasons for having a Christian historical tradition ("Traditon is there not just to preserve the Bible, but also to interpret it."),c) using the title "Father" (Fr.),d) why should we honor Mary (aka Theotokos - God-bearer),e) and why does a Christian cross oneself?Part III is a narative highlighting the lows and highs of a decade of pilgrimage before the Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC - the name of over 2000 Protestants, 17 dioces who were becoming Orthodox) had been accepted and included into the Antiochian Orthodox Church.As my title suggestions, this books is a great marketing tool for anyone interested in the Orthodox Church and Faith. One should not expect doctoral answers to difficult questions from this 191 page book (although a lot of Biblical verses are quoted and used for explanation). Personally I found the writing style very easy to read (the larger font and spacing definitely helped), coherent and logical, and even entertainining in some spots. I wish Gillquist would have written more about the ones who dropped out early on from the church history research, or the priests/bishops in EOC who did not join the Antiochian Orthodox Church. As a liturgical Protestant I certainly do not agree with the statement that "to forsake the Church, you must also forsake the faith" (pg.143) and I wish Gillquist would have spent more time talking about ecclesiology and its view and development throughout the history of Christendom.Nevertheless, I found the tone, style, and content of this book to be non-polemical, Christian, and informative. I would recommend it for any Christian (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox) interested in why a large group (over 2000) of hard-core evangelical Campus-Crusade-for-Christ Christian activists became and joined the Eastern Orthodox Church. This book is also beneficial to any non-Christian intersted in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Mention "Orthodoxy" to the average American, and they're likely to give you a doubtful look and say, "That's Jewish, isn't it?"Such is our ignorance about the oldest branch of Christianity. Peter E. Gillquist, later Father Peter Gillquist, tells of how he and other young members of the Campus Crusade for Christ went on a search for their own, personal, Christian Holy Grail. It began on U.S. college campuses in the 1960s, and culminated in the late 1980s with the reception of 17 Evangelical Orthodox Church parishes with 2,000 members into the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in America.Gillquist and his fellow seekers, a number of whom also became Orthodox clergy upon their conversions, did not make a hasty decision based on a "Paul on the Road to Damascus" vision or a sudden inspiration from a spell-binding preacher. They carefully studied and discussed the Bible, particularly the New Testament, from cover to cover; prayed for guidance; met repeatedly with various members of the clergy; and moved slowly but steadily from their roots (most of them, anyway) in mainline Protestantism, to the conclusion that the true, original, uncompromising Church of Jesus Christ was the Orthodox Church.From forming their own Evangelical Orthodox Church, the seekers moved gradually but steadily toward a logical conclusion: They should meld their denomination into one of the established Orthodox archdioceses. After being rebuffed at the last minute when they expected to meet the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Orthodox former evangelicals finally turned to the Antiochian archdiocese, which welcomed them warmly and received them into its ranks.Gillquist's sincerity about his and his colleagues' conversion is unmistakable, and the book tells one a good deal about what one religious writer has called "the best-kept secret in American Christianity: the Orthodox Church." The narrative moves along at a stately pace, much as one might expect of a Divine Liturgy, in which everything has a time and place.As a lifelong Protestant who has found his religion unsatisfying for years (I no longer attend services), I have been fascinated by, and drawn to, Eastern Orthodoxy for a long time. As such, I found this book illuminating and informative, a read well worth it, if you find religion and the search for same an interesting topic. I learned things about both Orthodoxy and the teachings of the New Testament that I never knew before, when reading this book. These Christian seekers' journey makes a great story.