Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today [Paperback]

John Meyendorff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1981

A newly revised and updated edition of the indispensable classic. Meyendorff reviews the great events and principle stages in the history of the Church, including the development of its theology and institutions, an authoritative presentation of its cultural and spiritual traditions, its connection to other Christian churches, and its position n post-Communist Eastern Europe.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Fr John Meyendorff (1926-1992) was a Professor of Church History and Patristics at St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, and a professor of History at Fordham University, NY. He was a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1976-77), and a Guggenheim Fellow. He held honorary doctorates from the University of Notre Dame and General Theological Seminary, was a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a Senior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks. In 1990 The Diploma of Honorary Member of the Leningrad Theological Academy was bestowed upon him.

Product Details

• Paperback: 199 pages
• Publisher: St Vladimirs Seminary Pr; 3 Rev Sub edition (December 31, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0913836818
• ISBN-13: 978-0913836811
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,368,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing the past, knowing the present..., April 25, 2003

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today (Paperback)

Fr. John Meyendorff is generally known as one of the greatest scholars on Orthodoxy of the twentieth century. A professor and dean of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, he was also author of many texts dealing with Orthodox history and spirituality. This book, `The Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today' is perhaps the foundation for understanding his writing.

Originally published in 1960, it was reissued in an American edition in 1981, and is currently available in the revised fourth edition, produced in 1996, four years after Meyendorff's death. This latest edition includes revisions and corrections by Professor Nicholas Lossky.

In our presentation, we will follow the historical development of the Orthodox Church from the apostolic time to our own. It is the interpretation we will give to the stages of this history which will permit the reader to understand the essential dogmatic positions of Orthodoxy. The basic dogmas about Scripture and Tradition, about the Church and about ecclesiastical authority will thus be defined in the opening chapters. At the conclusion of the book, we will return to certain other doctrinal aspects in the forms in which they are expressed today.

This book serves largely as introduction. The purpose is largely to introduce concepts and history of the Orthodox church to a western audience; while it is a common assumption that the first half of Christian history is a shared history between East and West, in fact that history is viewed very differently in the perspective of the continuing Orthodox from the 'traditional' history taught viewed by Roman Catholics or western Protestants.

The Orthodox view is held up in contrast to prevailing Western senses of meaning in Church and Scripture:

`The Orthodox Christian East has always succeeded in avoiding the tragic pitfall of considering any human institution, or even any human formulation of Christian dogma, as being absolute and infallible as such. Indeed, even Scripture is God's word, but spoken by human beings, so that the living Truth which it contains must be understood not only in its literal meaning but also through the power of the Spirit, which inspired the authors and continues to inspire the faithful in the body of the Church.'`

Meyendorff is certainly not writing from an objective view. His view is thoroughly Orthodox. Despite the hoped-for unity of Church among the Orthodox, however, Meyendorff presents the reality of different and separate institutions and hierarchies in the past and in the present.

One key theme that is developed early in the book is that the schism between East and West was not due to one event or even one issue -- while the issue over the filoque clause might have been the last straw, in fact the dogmatic and hierarchical issues between Rome and Constantinople were growing in intensity and conflict for centuries before. Like many in the Western churches, Meyendorff speaking from an Orthodox perspective concedes that the final schism need not have happened and probably owed more to misunderstanding rather than deliberate attempts at disunion.

Meyendorff includes brief chapters on the structure of the Orthodox church, Orthodox monasticism, Orthodox relations with Islam, and Orthodox relations with Communist states, particularly in Russia, the largest remaining unified Orthodox church after the fall of the Eastern Empire. Chapters of general principles of faith and spirituality, as well as ecclesiology, round out the discussion of general Orthodox history.

The chapter which has undergone the greatest revision is chapter 8, `The Orthodox Church Today.' Included in this chapter are subsections on each of the major branches of Orthodoxy, which gives a good sense for the breadth and complexity of the subject. Included are sections on each of the major geographic divisions, which are in communion but independent in administration.

`The Orthodox Church is at present a decentralised organisation, based partly on centuries-old traditions and partly on more modern conditions. It consists of a number of local or national churches, all enjoying an 'autocephalous' status, that is to say, possessing the right to choose their own heads, the bishops (Greek auto-, 'self', kephale, 'head'.)'

These groups cooperate with each other and hold to a common history and sense of liturgy and doctrine, and have participated in councils well past the medieval period. Meyendorff tends to see a new age of Orthodoxy occurring in the shift between nationalism, modernism, and a re-examination of those things which are fundamental and crucial for Orthodox faith.

Professor Lossky provides an extensive postscript beyond the 1981 edition updating the particulars of the autocephalous churches. Among many interesting facts presented is the idea of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople's consideration of relocating outside of Turkey -- an astonishing idea, still denied by the local Orthodox church despite its difficulty in dealing with the local, non-Christian government in Turkey that tries to keep the patriarchate from exercising an international role.

In 240 page, an amazing amount of history and general Orthodox principle is contained, distilled, interpreted, and presented in accessible and interesting fashion for general readers, religion students, and theologians.

`With the fall of Communism and the newfound freedom of Eastern Europe, the Orthodox Church is met with new challenges and opportunities. It has become apparent that its history and its current reality are either unknown, extremely unfamiliar, or laden with cliches.'

As it becomes important to understand the culture and history of those countries that are striving in their newly-won liberty to make a mark on the world stage, this book will provide unique insights into how to understand the 100 million + people in the world who hold the Orthodox faith, and how to relate to those people as people of history, faith, and integrity.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Disjointed, March 9, 2006

By 

Adam Gonnerman (North America) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today (Paperback)

This very informative history of Orthodoxy is definitely not for novices to church history. Though some early debates are explained, references to many events and disputes that intersected with western religious history are made without further explanation. Prior knowledge of western church history or perhaps even eastern orthodoxy is necessary, therefore, to decode this book. Also, it jumps around in places, repeating information that has already been provided and bouncing back and forth between periods hundreds of years apart.

A good book, but I believe there must be better histories of the Orthodox Church out there.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting, open minded, but a bit dated, October 12, 2011

By 

Alberto Vargas (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Orthodox Church: Its Past and Its Role in the World Today (Paperback)

I read the 1960s edition of this book. From other reviews, it looks like it has only received minor updates over the years so my version is representative of what you can buy today.

First of all, this book probably should not be your first and only introduction to the Orthodox Church. It help if you are already somewhat familiar with it as well as with Catholicism and Protestant Christianity. For example, given that the "filioque" phrase of the Nicene Creed is discussed, it helps if you know what the Nicene Creed is in the first place :)

The books is chock full of little insights, some of which were new to me. For example, how, when, and why did Christian monasticism appear? How and why did the Pope centralize his authority while Eastern churches remained de-centralized? How Charlemagne played a key role in the schism between Rome and Constantinople, much like Henry VIII did in the Reformation. Why are Catholic priests and Orthodox bishops (but not priests) celibate? And so on :)

The author touches upon the roots of Orthodox mysticism. He also discusses the governance of the Church and the different national and regional churches.

The overall story of the Orthodox Church -- well described by the author over the centuries -- comes across as a millennium-long tragedy. The Turkish and Mongol invasions, 19-th century nationalism, and then Communism and the Iron Curtain were all tragic events in this long history, which arrested the development of the Church while its counterparts in the West continued developing and growing.

The main shortcoming of this book is that it was written during the early days of the Cold War, before the Second Vatican Council and the papacy of John Paul II. At that time the largest Orthodox community, Russia, was heavily suppressed along with others in Communist Eastern Europe. Roman Catholicism was about to be transformed. Lastly, the ecumenical movement was not as strong.

To his credit, the author points out that while the Orthodox Church preserves a lot of patristic theology, it also hangs onto a lot of less important traditional baggage and needs to reform itself - something which Catholicism did. He is rightly critical in that the O.C. is often seen as a somewhat backward, ethnic, nationalist institution. He is also optimistic about the growth of the Orthodox Church in America which uses English as its language and has the potential to unite the traditional ethnic diaspora as well as attract new mainstream followers.

Overall I was delighted by this book. I only wish that it had spent a little more time on timeless theology and a bit less on the histories of the individual national churches, which look dated half a century after the book was written.