Customer Reviews

Orthodox Christians in America (Religion in America Life)

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Just finished Erickson's book and was impressed at how well he handled the subject in what was obviously intended for the general audience. Being a convert to Orthodoxy myself, I was curious how the book would present Orthodoxy to an "outside audience."

One must commend Erickson for not sweeping under the rug some of the difficulties Orthodoxy has experienced (and caused for itself) in America. That makes his pronouncement of its great achievements not seem self-congratulatory, but as honest assessments.

One thing I was glad to see highlighted was Orthodoxy's "missionary mind." Moreso than any other mission church in the Americas (or the entire world for that matter), Orthodoxy has been responsive to the indigenous culture and has intended for the leadership of the church to become indigenous and local as quickly as possible. They want to incorporate local culture (as far as is compatible with the Bible and the Church) as much as possible so the Church truly belongs to each culture. There's no reason to put a church in a "cultural straightjacket" and try to make one culture submit to another culture when the message is essential, not the language of the service or the sound of the music. Orthodox missionaries have made many societies literate (the Aleuts for example in this book) as well as others like Russians, Serbs, Bulgarians, etc.

One area I must disagree with the previous reviewer is his assessment that Orthodoxy is just as fractured as Protestantism. This simply isn't true. While different "brands" of Orthodoxy (and I use the word "brands" very loosely) may have disagreements with each other over certain things, it could be compared to brothers bickering. They might have some disagreements, but they are still one big family. As an Orthodox Christian, I can commune in any Orthodox Church, no matter if it is preceded by "Greek," "Russian," "Antiochian," "Serbian," "Romanian," etc. We still share one belief, one Faith, one Eucharist. Our disagreements are largely administrative and cultural, not theological. This is not true of Protestant churches that have massive doctrinal differences with each other.

"Orthodox Christians in America," by John H. Erickson, is part of the "Religion in American Life" series published by Oxford University Press. What I appreciate about this series, as opposed to similar ones by other publishers, is that they have asked a uniquely qualified Orthodox Christian scholar to tell the story of his people. Other series have often been written "by committee," or by an outside observer, which cause them to lack the author's enthusiasm for his or her subject.

The Orthodox Christian faith has often been described as "the best kept secret in America." This text goes a long way to explain why that is the case, and also why it should not be the case.

The opening chapter, "An Ancient Faith in the New World," is perhaps the best summary of the history of the Orthodox faith (all 2,000 years) that I have ever read. The next chapter, "Entrepreneurs and Missionaries," provides an excellent introduction to the first Orthodox activity in the New World, namely in Alaska, and California.

The chapter that follows, "A Church of Immigrants," discusses the influx of immigrants that began in the 19th century, from Greece, Russia and Arab Christian communities. The succeeding chapter, "The Ethnic Churches," describes how a precarious Orthodox Christian unity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries gave way to ethnic jurisdictions with new ties to the Mother Churches, largely because of the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution on the Russian Orthodox Church.

The final chapter, "The Quest for Unity," describes the development of various cooperative efforts of new agencies since the 1950s which give a glimpse of hope for a unified Orthodox body one day in America.

I've been a member of the Orthodox Church since 1999, the year this book was published, and I'm surprised that it's taken me this long to read it. I now think it should be essential reading for both converts like myself, and "cradle Orthodox," who would like a clearer understanding of how we got where we are today in North America. But be forewarned, this book covers, however briefly, the good, the bad and the ugly, of our history in the New World.

I also think this volume would be of interest to those investigating the Orthodox faith, or for those who are interested in the history of Christianity in North America. But I would not recommend this be the first book someone reads on Orthodoxy, which is covered more completely in "The Orthodox Church," by Timothy (Bishop Kallistos) Ware, and similar volumes.

This is a great survey of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in America for Orthodox Christians. It lays out in a glossy format the wild and woolly tale of multiple missions to America: first with a Greek slave colony in Florida, then with a Russian commercial trading post to Alaskan natives, finally with Eastern European immigrants to the Great Lakes of America. The triumph of Eastern Orthodoxy is shown to be a providential mix of commerce and Christ-like love, of indigenous mission and ethnic parochialism, of revelations and revolutions. Despite the focus on the history of mixed motivations, it shows how faith and hope and love win out in the lives of real people seeking God in their local parish.

After reading Frank Schaeffer's book, "Dancing Alone--The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion," in which he makes a forceful case stating that the Orthodox Church is THE true Christian church, I wanted to learn more about the Orthodox Church. My main question was, if the Orthodox Church is THE true church, then why is it virtually invisible? Schaeffer also forcefully spoke of the unity expected of Christendom, since it is the one body of Christ, and pointed to the way the Orthodox Church traces its roots to the Apostles, therefore "proving" its legitimacy. But I wondered, how unified is the Orthodox Church? It seems that Orthodox Church names are always preceded by "Greek" or "Russian" or some other ethnic marker.

I found the answers to both questions in this book. The first chapter gives a brief and easy-to-follow history of the Orthodox Church, from the early Christian era, beginning more specifically with the councils in the first four centuries with decisions that first caused the division between East and West. It carries the reader all the way through the 20th century from there, and follows with some characteristics of Orthodoxy.

The second chapter was most interesting, as it told the story of missionaries from Russia to Alaska back in the days when Russia owned Alaska. I was very impressed with the way the missionaries were culturally sensitive and encouraged the natives to become leaders in the churches. When the USA bought Alaska, though, the story becomes very sad.

Much of the rest of the book describes how Orthodoxy grew in America--mainly through various immigrant groups coming to the USA and wanting some place to practice their familiar life--language, religion, and social customs. This is the primary reason why Orthodox churches tend to be preceded by some ethnic moniker.

Schaffer admits in his book "Dancing Alone" that this history of the development of the Orthodox church in America has caused too many of the churches to be more like ethnic social centers than centers of the Christian faith. But he still speaks as if the Orthodox Church were basically unified.

This book by Erickson, which simply covers the history of the development of the Orthodox Church in America, with no axe to grind like Schaeffer has, made it clear to me that the Orthodox Church is just as fractured as the Protestant churches. Schaeffer time after time criticizes the Protestant churches for having their own little kingdoms, so to speak, but the so-called unified Orthodox Church suffers the same problem. But in a way it's worse: Protestant divisions are caused by differences in Biblical interpretations and doctrines. It seems that most Orthodox divisions in America have been caused by political and ethnic divisions. For example, when the Soviets took over Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church in America split into the factions of those who supported the church under the Soviets and those who said it could not be trusted. A similar division developed in the Greek Orthodox Church in the USA in relation to a political leader in Greece. Story after story like this reported by Erickson made it clear to me that the Orthodox Church in America is anything but unified.

By the way, that issue is addressed in the final chapter, as Erickson describes all the attempts made to unify the Orthodox Church in America, and how much progress still remains...largely because of the Orthodox Church in Europe and Asia not being able to agree to how to organize the Orthodox churches in America.

This book was interesting and informative, and I would recommend it as a way to familiarize yourself with a section of Christianity found in America that few people know about.