Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism [Paperback]

Robert L. Plummer (Author), Wilbur Ellsworth (Author), Francis J. Beckwith (Author), Chris A. Castaldo (Author), Lyle W. Dorsett (Author), Craig A. Blaising (Author), Gregg Allison (Author), Brad S. Gregory (Author), Robert A. Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 6, 2012

Research indicates that on average, Americans change their religious affiliation at least once during their lives. Today, a number of evangelical Christians are converting to Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism. Longtime Evangelicals often fail to understand the attraction of these non-Evangelical Christian traditions. Journeys of Faith examines the movement between these traditions from various angles. Four prominent converts to Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Evangelicalism and Anglicanism describe their new faith traditions and their spiritual journeys into them. Response chapters offer respectful critiques. Contributors include Wilbur Ellsworth (Eastern Orthodoxy), with a response by Craig Blaising; Francis J. Beckwith (Roman Catholicism), with Gregg Allison responding; Chris Castaldo (Evangelicalism) and Brad S. Gregory's Catholic response; and Lyle W. Dorsett (Anglicanism), with a response by Robert A. Peterson. This book will provide readers with first-hand accounts of thoughtful Christians changing religious affiliation or remaining true to the traditions they have always known. Pastors, counselors and students of theology will gain a wealth of insight into current faith migration within the church today.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"If you ever wondered, 'Why in the world would someone become that type of Christian?' this book provides the answer."
-Bryan M. Litfin, Professor of Theology, Moody Bible Institute

"This is ecumenism at its best!"
-Timothy George, Dean and Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School

"For a subject that regularly generates considerable heat, this is a book full of the best kind of light."
-Mark A. Noll, author of Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction

"This book has reawakened for me the reality of how many are responding to stories of migration from Evangelicalism."
-from the foreword by Scot McKnight, author of The King Jesus Gospel

About the Author

Robert L. Plummer is Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.  Dr. Plummer is the author of 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible (Kregel, 2010), Paul's Understanding of the Church's Mission (Paternoster, 2006), and numerous scholarly articles. Dr. Plummer serves as an elder at Sojourn Community Church.  He and his wife live with their three young daughters in Louisville, Ky.

Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies, and Resident Scholar in the Institute for Studies of Religion, at Baylor University.  He is a former president of the Evangelical Theological Society,  resigning his post in May 2007 a week after returning to the Catholic Church of his youth. He has published in the areas of political philosophy, jurisprudence, applied ethics, philosophy of religion, and Christian apologetics.

Chris Castaldo is Director of the Ministry for Gospel Renewal at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College. His forthcoming doctoral dissertation addresses John Henry Newman's via media on Justification. Chris is a prominent convert to the evangelical faith and author of Holy Ground: Walking with Jesus as a Former Catholic (Zondervan, 2009).

Lyle W. Dorsett has been the Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism at Beeson Divinity School since 2005, and teaches courses in evangelism and church history. He also serves as senior pastor of Christ the King Anglican Church in Birmingham (AMiA). His most recent book is A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer (Moody, 2008)
 
Wilbur Ellsworth is pastor of Holy Transfiguration Antiochian Orthodox Church in Warrenville, Illinois, speaker on Ancient Faith Radio's "Let My Prayer Arise: Meditations on the Psalms," author of The Power of Speaking God's Word (Christian Focus, 2000) and president of The Society for the Study of Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism.

Gregg Allison is Professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is a recognized expert on Catholicism and historical theology. Gregg is author of Zondervan’s Historical Theology (2011).

Craig Blaising is Executive Vice President & Provost and Professor of Theology at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  He is author of numerous books and a contributor to Zondervan’s Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond (1999) and Three Views on the Rapture (2010).

Brad S. Gregory is Dorothy G. Griffin Associate Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Notre Dame. Brad is the author of many scholarly articles and the award-winning book, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Harvard University Press, 2001).

 Robert A. Peterson is Professor of Systematic Theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He is author or editor of twenty books, including Salvation Accomplished by the Son: The Work of Christ (Crossway, 2012), Our Secure Salvation: Preservation and Apostasy (P&R Publishing, 2009), and co-edited with Christopher Morgan, Hell Under Fire (Zondervan, 2004).

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (March 6, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031033120X
• ISBN-13: 978-0310331209
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Other Denominations & Sects

More About the Author

Robert L. Plummer, Ph.D., is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. Dr. Plummer is the author of several books, including '40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible' (Kregel, 2010). Dr. Plummer is an elder at Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, Ky. He has served on mission assignments in China, India, Malaysia, Ghana, Israel, Turkey, and Trinidad. He and his wife Chandi have three daughters. During his spare time, Dr. Plummer enjoys running mini-marathons and drinking hot tea.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories of Conversion - a bit too much controversy, but still quite good February 28, 2012

By Adam VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

I am a big proponent of story. I think the personal stories are often more valuable than discussion based purely on rationalism. I believe this in part because we are not purely rational creatures. There is something else that is important to us and story often communicates in a more complete way that pure rational discussion.

The structure of this book is that an author discusses their move from one branch of Christianity to another. Then there is a response by a third party and then a response to the response by the original author.

In general, this allows for the story to be the main subject of the first section. Then the response can bring up rational/theological issues and then the original author can deal with theological objections.

I think the best overall section is the one on the journey from Roman Catholicism to Evangelicalism by Chris Castaldo and a response by Brad Gregory. Castaldo does not have a lot of his personal story in this chapter but he has written a whole book derived from stories and interviews of people that converted from RC to Evangelicalism. So he has a good handle on the topic. And if there was ever an essay that would convince me to become Roman Catholic, it would be Brad Gregory's response.

I also really like Lyle Dorsett's article about moving to Anglicanism and Robert Peterson's response, although there was really very little disagreement there.

The two sections that I had most issue with were the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox chapters. I really liked Wilbur Ellsworth opening chapter on Orthodoxy. But the response was very weak. I would consider my knowledge of Orthodoxy the weakest of the four, but all I saw were straw men arguments against Orthodoxy. I also appreciate and agree with Ellsworth's comment at the end; the biggest issues with conversion to Orthodoxy in the US right now is that Orthodoxy is very oriented around the cultures that have brought Orthodoxy to the US and there needs to be a real indigenous Orthodox church in the US before large scale conversions will occur.

Beckwith's conversion to Catholicism probably has the most controversy, since he was the President of the Evangelical Theological Society when he converted. I can appreciate his reasons, and really all of the reasons for conversion seem quite appropriate and sound to me. The issue is that Beckwith's issues do not appeal to me. In fact, many of Beckwith's issues for conversion would be issues that would prevent me from converting. Allison's response was very good, but probably the discussion between Allison and Beckwick was the most heated. Maybe that is inevitable given the prior history of Evangelicalism and Catholicism.

In some ways, the structure of the book makes it seem overly confrontational. So the Orthodox chapter asked almost silly questions that would be easily answered. The to RC chapter was quite confrontational because it seemed like it was the last 500 years all over again. The from RC chapter showed how much RC and Evangelicals tend to speak past one another. And the Anglican chapter seemed like it was searching for areas to disagree to fulfill the requirements of the book.

On the whole, I think this is a useful book that brings up many of the issues of conversion within Christianity. I was a bit disappointed that there was so much focus on the issues of disagreement, but that seems to be the point of the book from Scot McKnight's introduction. If there has to be so much disagreement, I was glad that the book ended with Dorsett/Peterson. The two of them really seemed to refocus the discussion on areas of agreement and minimized the areas of disagreement.

I am an Evangelical and I think most readers will be Evangelical. I will not be converting any time soon, but I do have friends that are seriously considering it and I think this book can be useful in bridging areas of disagreement.
_______

A digital copy of this book was provided by the publisher through Netgalley for purposes of review.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a very helpful conversation between brothers March 23, 2012

By John Umland

Format:Paperback

I happen to follow Francis Beckwith's blog, Return to Rome, at Patheos, and he posted that a new book he contributed to was coming out, Journeys of Faith, an irenic dialog between those who switched from Baptistic, non-liturgical American Evangelicalism to a liturgical branch of Christianity and those who are firmly in the evangelistic quarter by personal conversion or transfer. I immediately asked Zondervan for a review copy, and they were kind enough to send me one.

The first story is Wilbur Ellsworth's journey to Eastern Orthodoxy. The second story is Beckwith's journey back to Roman Catholicism. The third story is Chris Castaldo's journey from Catholicism to evangelicalism. And the last story is Lyle Dorsett's into Anglicanism. Each writer tells their story, explaining and sometimes defending why they left their former group and entered their current place, then a response is made pointing to the complicated parts, typically not mentioned in the original story, that make acceptance of all that the tradition under discussion difficult, which the original author has an opportunity to respond in a rejoinder. It's unfortunate that such a great discussion like this has to be limited to 200+ pages. It would be so much fun to read the converts interact with each other as well as their evangelical foils.

I am very interested in the other traditions of my faith as I've only been a low church evangelical my entire life and when I've changed churches, it hasn't been that dramatic. I grew up in a Plymouth Brethren Bible Chapel, then joined a Vineyard which became a Calvary Chapel several years later. The only thing that really changed for me was the perspective on charismatic gifts. But I'm very interested in how other churches live out the faith, so I read their blogs and try to keep my mind out of my ghetto. Last year I finsished Jaroslav Pelikan's 2nd volume in his series The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) and learned so much about the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It took me months to finish it, and I hope to read volume 3 on the Roman Catholicism someday.

Everyone's stories were fascinating and really put their new found or rediscovered tradition in such a great light, so I appreciate General Editor Robert Plummer's inclusion of another perspective. Both Ellsworth and Beckwith share a big tent perspective on Team Jesus, but their responders point out that their perspective, even if official is not always lived out in those countries where their ancient churches are the dominant faith. Not enough time is spent on the barnacles of each other's faith, except for evangelicalism's, but we do that pretty good on our own as it is. Avoiding American evangelical criticism is like trying to not breathe. It's the evangelical genuflection of the modern age. Half of the book is an evangelical-Catholic dialog though. I learned so much about Roman Catholicism from the Catholics Beckwith and Brad Gregory and evangelicals Castaldo and Gregg Allison. I really miss Catholic self-criticism though. Castaldo and Allison came back to a couple examples extreme in the evangelical perspective which the Catholic writers did not address, specifically Mariology, purgatory, indulgences and papal infallibility. Perhaps this a corner the church has boxed itself into, official doctrine inaccessible to questioning. Castaldo brought up an interesting story of meat that was accidentally served as a Bishop's dinner on a Friday during Lent. This was a mortal sin, which means that a faithful Catholic believes their ticket to heaven was in jeopardy. But all was not lost because the Bishop had the authority to declare a special dispensation, which he did. I appreciate the Bishop's grace in that action, but, as an evangelical, think "how is that a serious sin anywhere in the New Testament?" On the other hand, Castaldo's explanation of the Catholic mass was very helpful to me. Anti-Catholic literature is easy to find in evangelical bookstores, but irenic discussions, like this one are much more helpful. None of the authors portray the other church as demonic constructs to be feared, but as different expressions.

The section on Anglicanism at first seems like an awkward fit in this book's discussion. It is not as ancient as Orthodoxy or Catholicism, but it is a high liturgical tradition, which is still intriguing to a low church guy like myself. In fact, I have a friend and a friend of a friend of a friend who has moved from the Vineyard to Anglicanism. Until I read Dorsett's story, I thought these moves were bizarre. But I didn't know that Anglicanism was open to charismatic gifts, nor that there are conservative as well as the liberal branches that get more attention here in the United States.

This book is perfect for low church guys like me who love hearing about the other parts of Christ's body. My attitude of late has been seeing our divisions over time as a fulfillment of Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16. Each branch has been on the job for different lengths of time, but Jesus will reward us all equally, which I am looking forward to, not just for myself, but with all these brothers and sisters around the world.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Journeys of Faith: Illuminating, Instructive, Timely March 2, 2012

By Matt Smethurst

Format:Kindle Edition

Journeys of Faith (ed. Robert Plummer) provides an insider's glimpse into what often motivates migrations from one Christian tradition to another. Why, for example, has it become increasingly voguish for disaffected Evangelicals to pack their confessional bags and head to Rome? Or what about theological treks from Evangelicalism to Anglicanism or Eastern Orthodoxy? The vital question facing followers of King Jesus, of course, is whether such journeys are in the direction of greater faithfulness to Scripture. And that's precisely what Plummer's volume seeks to explore.

The format of the book consists of dialogues between prominent representatives from Evangelical, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholic traditions. Indeed, the autobiographical accounts of the various journeys are fascinating. Contributers include Evangelical-turned-Anglican Lyle Dorsett, Evangelical-turned-Greek Orthodox Wilbur Ellsworth, Evangelical-turned-Catholic Francis Beckwith, and Catholic-turned-Evangelical Chris Castaldo. Irenic responses are then offered by Robert Peterson (to Dorsett), Craig Blaising (to Ellsworth), Gregg Allison (to Beckwith), and Brad Gregory (to Castaldo).

On the whole, Journeys of Faith is an illuminating and instructive read. Learning about other traditions from within is an uncommon yet useful experience, as it enables one to step inside another's shoes and experience the journey "on the ground." For me, the book strengthened my understanding--and, at points, my appreciation--of other traditions while solidifying my Evangelical convictions.

I am grateful to Robert Plummer and all the contributers for providing such a timely resource. I warmly commend it to you.

Note: A helpful interview with Plummer on the book can be accessed here: [...]