RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
As far as the Zondervan Counterpoints go, this is a better volume. I will forgo a thorough review, since expositing some essays would take many, many pages (and I plan to do that in my book on EO). So here is a short overview, with strengths and weaknesses:
Thesis: Are Evangelicalism and Eastern Orthodoxy compatible? Notice that the thesis is not whether one position is true or not (though that inevitably comes up). The answers:
Yes: Bradley Nassif. My favorite of the EO writers today. While I enjoyed his essay, sadly he does not represent most Orthodox. His criteria of compatibility, as dissenter Berzonsky noted, were drawn from Evangelical, not Orthodox sources.
No: Michael Horton and Vladimir Berzonsky. Horton notes that Orthodoxy's own criteria precludes any real "compatibility." He then does explicates the NT teaching on justification and compares it with EO sources. If Evangelicals cannot budge on this point--and they cannot--and if EO cannot incorporate it into their own theology, instead of making sublating everything into theosis, then there isn't much possibility of compatibility, much less union.
Berzonsky's essay does little more than offer numerous assertions on why Evangelicals should reject their sinful identity and become Orthodox. At least he is honest. He thinks everyone is a radical Anabaptist and doesn't make any attempt to interact with Horton's arguments. In the final reflections, he is quite silent on Horton's specific rebuttals.
Maybe: George Hancock-Stefan and Edward Rommel, Romanian Baptist and American orthodox respectively. Stefan gives a very interesting, but anecdotal essay of his life as a convert in Romania. He explains how the Romanian Orthodox elite silenced and stifled evangelical voices. I sympathized with his essay but it isn't much in the way of logical argument. However, he did point out that in Orthodoxy the church mediates everything through the priest. This is the theology of Pseudo-Dionysius.
Conclusion: Horton and Berzonsky are correct. Per the latter, if Orthodoxy is the fullness of the faith, then what precisely does Evangelicalism have to offer? On the other hand, if Orthodoxy is indeed the fulfillment, then please deal with Horton's arguments.
Thesis: Are Evangelicalism and Eastern Orthodoxy compatible? Notice that the thesis is not whether one position is true or not (though that inevitably comes up). The answers:
Yes: Bradley Nassif. My favorite of the EO writers today. While I enjoyed his essay, sadly he does not represent most Orthodox. His criteria of compatibility, as dissenter Berzonsky noted, were drawn from Evangelical, not Orthodox sources.
No: Michael Horton and Vladimir Berzonsky. Horton notes that Orthodoxy's own criteria precludes any real "compatibility." He then does explicates the NT teaching on justification and compares it with EO sources. If Evangelicals cannot budge on this point--and they cannot--and if EO cannot incorporate it into their own theology, instead of making sublating everything into theosis, then there isn't much possibility of compatibility, much less union.
Berzonsky's essay does little more than offer numerous assertions on why Evangelicals should reject their sinful identity and become Orthodox. At least he is honest. He thinks everyone is a radical Anabaptist and doesn't make any attempt to interact with Horton's arguments. In the final reflections, he is quite silent on Horton's specific rebuttals.
Maybe: George Hancock-Stefan and Edward Rommel, Romanian Baptist and American orthodox respectively. Stefan gives a very interesting, but anecdotal essay of his life as a convert in Romania. He explains how the Romanian Orthodox elite silenced and stifled evangelical voices. I sympathized with his essay but it isn't much in the way of logical argument. However, he did point out that in Orthodoxy the church mediates everything through the priest. This is the theology of Pseudo-Dionysius.
Conclusion: Horton and Berzonsky are correct. Per the latter, if Orthodoxy is the fullness of the faith, then what precisely does Evangelicalism have to offer? On the other hand, if Orthodoxy is indeed the fulfillment, then please deal with Horton's arguments.