The Rebirth of Orthodoxy: Signs of New Life in Christianity (Hardcover)

by Thomas C. Oden (Author) "A spiritual crisis has followed in the wake of the modern scientific era..." (more)
Key Phrases: Holy Spirit, New Testament, Jesus Christ (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Oden, a theologian at Drew University, explains at the end of this book that it is not simply a description of the rebirth of orthodoxy but instead a call to embrace orthodoxy. Such an explanation would have been more helpful at the outset. Instead, in the first chapter, Oden writes very little about his putative topic at all, preferring to make a series of remarkably harsh and unsupported statements claiming both the bankruptcy and demise of modern ideas. When Oden finally does begin to discuss Christian orthodoxy in earnest, he takes great pains to define orthodox ecumenism, but still fails to document its supposed rebirth. At the midpoint of the book, he discloses his own path from the radical left to orthodox belief, a personal narrative that explains his strong aversion to modern thought and his belief that any openness to modern ideas necessarily leads to apostasy. This story is another example of something readers need to see earlier. It is only in the second half of the book that Oden truly addresses the new orthodox ecumenism, and it is in just one strong, illuminating chapter that he provides any real evidence of its existence. Roger Olson's The Mosaic of Christian Belief, Huston Smith's Why Religion Matters and Colleen Carroll's The New Faithful are three better books that explore respectively orthodox ecumenism, the failures of secular modernism and the current resurgence of orthodox belief.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
What he presents here is serious stuff and will certainly attract discussion....Highly recommended. -- Library Journal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (December 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006009785X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060097851
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #618,369 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book, January 30, 2003

By	Eric N. Landstrom (Bloomington, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Oden argues in the beginning pages of this book that the theological quest for orthodoxy is well underway within the Christian and Jewish traditions who both are seeking their founding roots through the reading and contextualizing of their most ancient and authoritative writings and commentators into this century. This search, Oden argues, is a sign of new life within Christianity as it earnestly desires to recover its theological, liturgical, and pastoral roots. In taking up this quest is to also relearn the skill once possessed and then discarded that was once able to distinguish faithful witnesses from heresy and to learn how each heresy overcome has strengthened orthodoxy and taught the body of Christ enabling it to take on greater challenges.

Oden builds a case for orthodoxy throughout this latest effort that seeks to show orthodoxy's patience, strength and flexibility within clearly distinguished boundaries. In so doing, Oden shows orthodoxy doesn't lead to oppression; but rather, freedom. Oden's presentation in distinguishing the authority invested in the written word of God from that of oral traditions and why the written Word of God is normative and authoritative over all other voices is noteworthy. Of greater interest is his unpacking of the Vincentian rule of faith that says orthodoxy is that which has been believed by everyone, everywhere, and at all times. Thus to be trustworthy, Oden writes, Christian truth claims must: (1) Be the same faith that the church confesses the world over. (2) Be the same faith confessed by the apostles. (3) Survive testing by cross-cultural generations of lay consent through a trustworthy process of conciliar agreement. (Conciliar agreement: Has the teaching been confirmed by an ecumenical council or by the broad consensus of the ancient Christian writers?) What this means in practice: (1) If some isolated contemporary members abandon the historical, universally received worldwide faith, you prefer the universal to the particular. (2) Even if the whole community of believers for a certain period of time seems to go astray in a new culture with a new idea unfamiliar to the apostles, you appeal to antiquity above innovation. (3) If the reliability to apostolic testimony itself is questioned, you appeal to ecumenical conciliar precedent by looking at conciliar decisions and canons, where almost everything important has been already debated. Hence, there are four filters--or strata of references, if you will--through which to sift Christian truth claims: (1) The universal truth prevails over the particular (the whole is preferred to the part). (2) The older apostolic witness prevails over newer alleged general consent. (3) Conciliar actions and decisions prevail over faith-claims as yet untested by conciliar acts. (4) Where no conciliar rule avails, the most reliable consensual ancient authorities prevail over those less consensual over the generations. (As a general rule eight great doctors of the church are most referenced to chart ancient ecumenical consensual Christianity. From the east: Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom. From the west: Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great.)

This book is important if you wish to travel with Oden on his theological and pastoral quest for orthodoxy. Oden presents the hallmarks of this quest so that the reader may greater appreciate where forces within Christianity are heading in this new century. In addition Oden reveals much of his own theological method so that the reader may avoid pitfalls and theological dead ends long settled as well as gain a firmer understanding of the goals of orthodoxy.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy, persuasive, and scholarly study, February 7, 2003

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

The Rebirth Of Orthodoxy: Signs Of New Life in Christianity by theologian and post-denominational ecumenical scholar Thomas C. Oden (Chairman of The Institute on Religion and Democracy) is an informed and informative examination of the new trend of revitalized traditional faith, a close study of scripture and daily prayer, a treatise on moral accountability, and a combining of hopes and dreams across doctrinal lines. Individual chapters address the renewal of orthodoxy within the Christian community, observe why orthodoxy survives in the modern era, how the multicultural aspect of orthodoxy can be strengthened, classical ecumenical methods, and a great deal more. A worthy, persuasive, and scholarly study of a noteworthy trend in contemporary religious thought, The Rebirth Of Orthodoxy is a welcome and highly recommended contribution to Religious Studies reading lists and library collections.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Birdseye View of the Landscape, April 15, 2006

By	T. B. Vick "Learn 2 Discern" (The Lone Star State) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In this work, I think Thomas Oden is onto something that has been happening within the larger realm of Christianity (and Judaism) in the last 20 or more years. Protestants and Catholics (the Orthodox have, for the most part always been there) have turned their attention to what Oden calls "Classic Christianity." A rebirth of orthodoxy is what Oden calls it (thus the title of this book).

Oden describes certain trends that have taken place within Catholicism and Protestantism and how these changes have affected the overall landscape of Christianity. Oden believes that many are moving away from their liberal and modern mindset into a more classic mindset; classic meaning the early Church Fathers, theirs views and theology, and their way of ecumenical dialogue. This is what Oden calls the "New Ecumenism." In all reality, this new ecumenism is merely going back to the Early Church Fathers and using their methods, so to speak (this of course is a simplistic way of putting it). The problem with the "Old Ecumenism" (not old as in Early Church old, but old as in prior to this new shift towards classic Christianity) is that it is steeped in modernism and its liberalism has become heretical; Oden gives John Shelby Spong, Jacques Gaillot, Raymond Hunthausen, Walter Sullivan, and others as examples of those who have gone far too liberal for their own good and ended in heresy.

This text provides a good overview of the current landscape, and makes certain predictions of how things might continue to move. At times Oden is a bit ambitious, I think this is best seen in his chapter titled "Rediscovering the Classic Ecumenical Method, where Oden describes St. Vincent's rule. The problems inherent in this "rule" (of Vincent) are how it is interpreted, and I don't think Oden has taken this into account in delineating it. However, one of the best chapters is titled "Transforming Character" where Oden details his own background. He details his movement into liberal thinking and parallel's his thought with that of Hillary Clinton. He also details how he progressively moved away from this type of thinking, which he actually calls "demonic" into a more classic form of Christianity.

Another brilliant chapter is titled "Recentering the Mainline." I think this is the strongest chapter in the book and it probably is since Oden himself comes from this background. In this chapter Oden details how modernism and liberalism has severely hurt the Mainline Churches. Moreover, Oden details how this modernist and liberal trend is now turning full face and marching in the other direction, more toward a classic form of Christianity.

Overall this is a good book. If you enjoy reading ecclesiological history (especially current events and trends within this history) hen you will enjoy this book. It is a bit ambitious at times, and at other points it seems obvious that Oden is not as familiar with certain groups (i.e. the more conservative groups within Protestantism), but the book is certainly worth the read.