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Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith

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_Becoming Orthodox_ by Peter Gillquist is a first-person account of the spiritual journey of a group of evangelical Christians over a period of fifteen years to their reception into the Antiochian Orthodox Church. Many of them had been involved in Campus Crusade for Christ during the sixties and had remained in contact with each other during the seventies as they founded churches around the US. They agreed to study Church history to find out what the original New Testament Churches practiced. They noted from early Christian documents such as the writings of the Church Fathers that the Church had Bishops (ordained by the Apostles themselves), a hierarchial structure, Tradition, liturgical worship, communion as the literal Body and Blood of Christ, inscense, icons, the use of "Father" in addressing Priests, the veneration of the Virgin Mary as Theotokos ("God-bearer") and the Sign of the Cross. In examining the Schism of the Church in 1054 between Rome and the East, Gillquist and his fellow pastors acknowledged that Rome had erred in its Papal claims of universal authority over the Church, and the Western alteration of the Creed which originally stated that the Holy Spirit only proceeded from the Father, when now the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (known as the "Filioque"). Gillquist and his affiliated group of churches, which they had labeled the Evangelical Orthodox Church, sought to join one of the Orthodox Churches in America. They were unsuccessful in meeting with the Patriarch of Constantinople, but they were reviewed and accepted by the Patriarch of Antioch and the Antiochian Archdiocese in North America. The style of this book is remarkably easy and engaging, especially when it comes to the discussion of the "Filioque" in the Creed, and appears to be quite popular among both Orthodox and non-Orthodox readers, which is one of this book's strengths.

BECOMING ORTHODOX is a personal testimonial by Fr Peter Guilquist written to track the conversion of nearly a thousand Evangelical Protestants to Orthodox Christianity in 1987. This mass conversion was one of the biggest events in modern American Orthodoxy, and Fr Guilquist's book paints a vivid picture of the theological wrestling and jurisdictional complications which ended in the reception of the converts in the Antiochian Orthodox Church.

Fr Guilquist and many other leaders of this movement started their Christian occupations in the 1950s and 1960s as activists for Campus Crusade for Christ. They travelled widely, trying to organise rallies at such universities as the uber-liberal Berkeley and Roman Catholic Notre Dame. Their focus was entirely on bringing young people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, not on building community, which they saw as denominationalism. Over time, however, they became jaded by their work, because many converts fell away after the initial dedication. They understand the need for a Church which would provide lasting support. Yet, they had no idea what such a church should look like.

In the early 1970s these former CCC leaders came together to begin a study of what the Church looked like in the decades after Pentacost, using only the Bible and early Fathers, so that they might form a community mirroring it entirely. They found that the early Church was liturgical, retaining a Judaic structure of worship after the expulsion from the synagogues, and that it was built around the Eucharist, which was seen as no mere commemoration but as a true mystery of faith. They discovered that the Church had a three-tiered division of authority, with bishops defending the faith, and priests and deacons serving the flocks of faithful. In the end, they felt that the only place today that this ancient Church was continued and contained fully was the Orthodox Church. Over time, they discovered that many of the exotic qualities of Orthodox Christianity, such as veneration of Mary and icons, and the liturgical use of incense, were entirely in keeping with the Gospel that gave them strength.

However, they had no personal experience with the Orthodox Church, which in the North America of the time was still seen as an ethnic conclave, in spite of a steady stream on individual conversions. They attended various offerings at Orthodox churches, met with Orthodox apologists such as the famed Fr Alexander Schmemann, and tried themselves to follow Orthodox traditions in their own worship. For a long time they were unsure of how to enter the Church which seemed to fulfill the discoveries of their investigations, and the division of Orthodoxy in North America along numerous ethnic lines was a sad complication. The Greek Orthodox Church was disapproving of their entering the Church, afraid that so many Americans would "dilute Greek traditions", a shameful blot of nationalism on the Church. Their attempt to meet the Patriarch of Constantinople for guidance was shrugged off. In the end, many of them were losing hope that Orthodoxy could provide a lasting home for them. Then, the Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in America invited them to enter under his guidance, and wished that they would all come in within only a few months. The book ends with a recounting of the mass charismations and ordinations which brought these travellers home after a journey of over a decade. A new afterword written in 1992 talks about the victories made by these converts and their fellow Orthodox in the years since.

Fr Guilquist's writing is entertaining and smooth-flowing. Theological arguments are not very deep, but friendly to Evangelical Protestants without much formal training. I am reluctant to criticise a work of such admirable zeal and which is so spiritually uplifting. I wish, however, that the book could have enjoyed some tighter editing and academic typesetting. There is a profusion of exclamation points and italics, and the formatting of the text is not up to professional standards. As it is, the work looks unfortunately amateurish.

If you are curious about the Orthodox Church, an academic work like Kallistos Ware's THE ORTHODOX CHURCH (a modern classic) is a must. However, personal testimonials like BECOMING ORTHODOX are also worth reading, and many readers will Fr Peter Guilquist's story quite inspiring.

While the enthusiasm expressed in this work is encouraging, as is the energy witnessed in its expression, it is nonetheless wanting in the extent of its content.

Written while the author and his colleagues were new to Orthodoxy, it expresses much more of the 'coming home' sentiment and excitement than it does a detailed description of Orthodox theology or the Church. It is the author's 'conversion experience,' and not so much a discussion of what he was converting to, that is the focus of the work.

Yet this book will still find a strong readership in those who are from a Protestant/Evangelical background and are considering Orthodoxy, or are simply intrigued and interested in it. From that perspective, 'Becoming Orthodox' offers insights that will strike close to home, and address many of the issues that are encountered when viewing Orthodoxy from such a background.

This is the story of how a group of 2,000 Evangelicals end up converting to the Eastern Orthodox church, and it's written through the eyes of one of their leaders, former Campus Crusade for Christ leader Peter Gilquist.

STRENGTHS:

1. It's a narrative, and it's an easy read. For folks who don't want a lot of in-depth arguments, history, etc., this book will be a fair introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy.

2. It's enthusiastic, personal, and engaging. Gilquist has the convert's zeal as he writes, and it's quite infectious. He's obviously been deeply affected by his journey, and his enthusiasm makes this book a page-turner.

3. He shows how he and his peers handled typical Protestant stumbling blocks to Orthodox faith & worship (Mary, Saints, Icons, Liturgy, Tradition, etc.).

4. He writes about Eastern Orthodoxy using religious language the way Protestants do. (In otherwords, he's comfortable talking about "being born again," etc.) So, for a Protestant inquiring into the Orthodox faith, this book will be fairly easy to understand and pose no cultural or language barriers.

5. When he and his peers reach a point where they must decide between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the reasoning they use isn't just knee-jerk, anti-Catholic polemics.

WEAKNESSES:

1. While he does show how he and his colleagues reasoned their way into Orthodoxy, he hasn't set out to write air-tight cases for Orthodox beliefs and practices. He's simply trying to show Protestants that Orthodox beliefs are reasonable. So, those looking for more serious and complete argumentation will need to turn elsewhere.

2. He began his journey as a disillusioned Protestant. If you're a Protestant who's perfectly content with where you're at on your spiritual journey, you may not identify with him or the critiques of Protestantism which led he and his colleagues to begin their journey/search.

3. He writes about Eastern Orthodoxy using religious language the way Protestants do. I know I said this was a strength, but it's also (IMO) the book's greatest weakness. For someone who is Eastern Orthodox, the spirit of this book may seem quite Western in its approach to Orthodoxy. Rather than embracing the Church experientially, mystically, historically, liturgically, and from within the context of saint's lives, etc., Gilquist came to the Church as a judge, letting his own intellectual prowess and reasoning skills cement his convictions that Orthodoxy represents the "true Church."

OVERALL:

This book is good for what it is meant to do. Enjoy it. Learn a bit more about Orthodoxy because of it. If you're Protestant, don't think he's trying to convert you and feel all defensive. If you're Catholic, don't be upset at how easily he seemed to dismiss Catholic arguments without showing the reader how he came to his conclusions. If you're Orthodox, don't get hung up on how he came to Orthodoxy with a very so-called "Protestant approach." Afterall, he was Protestant at the time, and this is how Protestants do things.

A most fascinating story in the renewal of historic Christianity is the strange case of a few thousand Evangelical Protestants converting en masse to the Antiochian Orthodox Church in 1987. Originally begun as yet another attempt by a group of Evangelicals to "get back to the New Testament Church", they, unlike many such endeavors, studied Church history and discovered some unexpected things: liturgy, bishops, sacraments, and various other beliefs and practices reeking of Catholicism.

Becoming Orthodox is the story of this journey through the eyes of Peter Gillquist, one of the major players in the group, and details their growth from house Churches to an independent denomination and on to their final acceptance into Orthodoxy. The book serves as Gillquist's answer to the question he poses early in the book: whatever would possess two thousand Bible believing, blood bought, Gospel preaching, Christ centered, lifelong Evangelical Protestants to embrace this Orthodox faith so enthusiastically?

The book is divided into three sections detailing their disillusionment with Evangelicalism and their research leading them to believe the Orthodox Church was the Church of the New Testament, a summary and defense of Orthodox belief and practice, and the arduous process of joining Orthodoxy itself. The presentation is enthusiastic, fast paced, and not overly critical to their former Evangelical homes. The trek to Orthodoxy always is presented as a completion rather than a repudiation of the faith of their youth.

Most interesting is the comparisons between Orthodoxy and the other contender for the historic Church - Roman Catholicism. In deciding between the Roman and Eastern expressions of historic Christianity, this unusual group of "seekers" compared the major disagreements between the two Churches - with Rome in their eyes always coming up short. However, this criticism is strictly within the context of determining which is the "true New Testament Church". There is no anti-Roman bigotry or cheap shots at Catholics' expense.

It should also be pointed out that Orthodoxy does not always come out looking perfect either. When they decided to become Orthodox, the leaders of the group (by now called the Evangelical Orthodox Church) traveled to Constantinople (Istanbul) to see the Patriarch and submit to the Orthodox Church. In the strange politics of the Orthodox (from which we inherit our less flattering definition of 'Byzantine'), he refused to see them. To this day, the rejection has never been explained and - despite the final outcome - some hurt is still evident in the account.. The group later met with the Patriarch of Antioch who welcomed them into the Church, and they in turn have spearheaded many evangelistic outreaches for the Antiochian Archdiocese in America. The overlapping jurisdictions are still a major problem for a strong Orthodox witness to the West and the political intrigue and ethnic divisions serve only to exacerbate the problem.

A weakness in the book is a generally superficial treatment of the differences between Eastern and Western theological approaches. There are differences in the starting points of the Orthodox view in relation to Western Churches. The very project they embarked upon is analytical in nature and somewhat alien to the Orthodox ethos. Gillquist acknowledges this somewhat but it is never fully fleshed out and one is left with Orthodox conclusions from Protestant methodology.

Despite this issue, Becoming Orthodox presents a strong case for the Orthodox Church as a home for those discontented with the state of Protestantism. It may even be the best starting point since the book is written in the style of many Evangelical Protestant "witness" books. While it may leave some theological questions unanswered, the curious would have as accurate a view of the Orthodox Church and its intrigue as could be expected for an outsider.

Do you think that you are the only one who is dis-satisfied with Western Christianity? Is the constant blaring of praise music from a band and Power Point presentations on the church wall losing its appeal? Have you moved from church to church looking for something that is not quite there, not filling that spiritual hole that eats at your soul. Is all of your Bible study not answering the questions that keeps eating at you? Then reading the story of Peter Gillquist and his friends' search for a true relationship with God may be the first step on setting your mind at ease.

Fr. Gillquist was part of the Christian movement on college campuses during the 1960s and 70s. He and his friends were trying to offer to those of that generation a Christian alternative to free love, drugs, and sex. In their outreach to the youth they met on college campuses came very tough questions that despite all of their religious zeal were not being answered by Evangelical Protestanism.

As Fr. Gillquist and his friends searched for the truth, they found the truth lay not in the Western Church, the Church of Rome, Calvin, Luther, or Crammer. Their search for truth took them back to the Early Church, when there was no difference from East & West. As Fr. Gillquist and company found answers to very tough questions that tore at their souls, they realized that their core beliefs were those of Eastern Orthodoxy, the Church that has remained unchanged for a thousand years.

The story of Fr. Gillquist goes from the discovery of true Christian faith to the founding of a church based on Orthodoxy to final acceptance in the Eastern Church.

If you are searching for something that is lacking in your current Christian life and have wondered what Orthodoxy is all about, then read the journey of Fr. Gillquist, it may well start you on your own journey where you re-connect with God.

While it may be a well worn saying, this is a must read for those who wish to have an understanding of Orthodoxy

Perhaps it is because when this book was written the author was still in his infancy in his journey to Orthodoxy, and so he can be excused his breathless enthusiasm for everything and everybody he encountered on the way. However, style is no substitute for substance. His constant busyness, traveling from one side of the country to another, taking endless meetings with simply wonderful people, left my head spinning and wondering when he had time for his Church. I found his self-congratulatory tone offputting, and totally at odds with what a life in Christ requires of us: humility, sincerity, sacrifice. How many people he has brought to Christ or healings he has accomplished through prayer is information that does not belong in a book of this type, and would have been better left unmentioned.

It does have value in that it carefully lays out the means that Gillquist and his fellow seekers took to come to Orthodoxy: through Biblical research and study of the Church Fathers, references invaluable for all of us.

To sum up, this book would be ideal for the (evangelical) Protestant who is considering other faiths and is looking for an apologetic in his or her own lingo; for the rest of us, the book, for what it gives to the reader, requires too much struggle to get beyond the vernacular of Fr. Gillquist's past affiliations.

I was given this book to read by a fellow Methodist following our discussions regarding the disconcerting effect that certain seminaries have on sincere, loving Christian pastors. He had underlined a passage in which an older Christian warned a would-be student about unbelieving professors and the negative outcome of being taught by so-called "experts" in theological studies: those who have intellectualized and rationalized faith right out of their own Christian lives.

For some reason, it never occured to me that this book would be about Eastern Orthodoxy (so far removed have I been from any exposure to this branch of Christianity.)

Late one evening, I started reading Father Gillquist's open-hearted search for Ancient Christianity. It touched my heart and mind, and I could not put the book down.

If you long for spiritual wholeness and deep-down peace, read Father Gillquist's account of his journey from Evangelical Protestantism to the Ancient path. I believe you will find nothing offensive to your own beliefs, and will gain some real insight into this branch of Christianity that has changed little since the Apostolic days.

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.

As interest in the history of Christianity and ancient forms of worship and practice continues to grow, books like this will become more popular. This book tells the story of Fr. Peter Gilquist and some of his close friends as they struggled to find their way into the historic and apostolic Church, and eventually became Orthodox Christians. Although the book is quite polemical at times and doesn't state things as politely or cordially as it should, I believe it's strong points far outweigh it's weak points. First, the author gives his life story and his journey of faith. From growing up Lutheran, to eventually becoming a Baptist, and then starting his own unique orthodox church, Fr. Gilquist has definitely been around the denominational block and speaks from experience. Then the author describes the unique journey he and his friends embarked on as they sought to find the Apostles Church and researched the issue from many possible angles.

The other sections of this book then deal with the struggles of these men to find their way into the Orthodox Church. From their rejection by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the subsequent dismay, to their acceptance by the Patriarchate of Antioch and their entrance into the Church, the entire journey is discussed. Also, the book contains a few chapters that deal with particular points of doctrine and practice that these individuals struggled with such as veneration of the Theotokos and the idea of referring to priest's as Father. Both issues are discussed and dealt with from Scripture and I believe the author does a decent job of answering objections.

The reason I gave this book 4 stars was because it was polemical at times. There were a few instances where the author was a bit tougher on Protestantism than he should have been. Also, Gilquist seems to say many negative things about the Catholic Church and not very many positive things. I know he and his friends reached the conclusion that the Bishop of Rome was wrong, but he should realize that many individuals in his shoes have reached the opposite conclusion and he could have been more ecumenical in his tone. Overall, these deficencies do not detract from the overall quality of the book and I think this a book that anyone interested in Orthodoxy or ancient Christianity should read.