Customer Reviews

Through Western Eyes: Eastern Orthodoxy A Reformed Perspective

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I never expected an elder from an ultra-conservative, ultra-protestant denomination to write such a critique. Letham's book was so fair and sympathetic that he almost convinced me of icons when he was critiquing icons!

Letham's point is that Protestants have more in common with the East than they realize. Both are committed to Scripture, the Supernatural, Christ, etc. While that is true, one must also keep in mind Jaroslav Pelikan's essay in *The Legacy of St Vladimir* where Pelikan argues for key differences between EOx and Protestantism. Liberalism and the Enlightenment, so often the bane of Protestants, never touched the East. And like Protestants, the East has serious issues with Roman Catholicism. Below are the highlights of Letham's book:

Historical Survey:
Letham surveys the early church until this century. He gives particular attention to Church councils and Patristic fathers. If you have read his book on the Holy Trinity, you can skip this part since he (admittedly) borrows chapters. The excellent part of this was the church's heroic stands against Islam and communism.

Icons:
This is the sticky part of the book. Letham gives a fair analysis of icons. He notes that many people who oppose icons employ blatant Christological heresies to do so. But on the other hand, he points out how Scripture never warrants praying to departed saints and icons. He admits there is no way to solve the conundrum at the moment. This is the most intereting part of the book becase we see how opposed to manicheanism, dualism, and gnosticism the East is. If we learn nothing else, we must appreciate these points.

Other topics:
He notes that even when the East employs a synergistic view of salvation, they never deny (at least logically) justification by faith alone. He is very appreciative of how the East saturates an entire service with Scripture. Also, I've never been impressed with Letham's critique of Essence/energies. I know Letham knows the issues involved--I know he has read the current works; I just don't think he is understanding exactly what Palamas is saying.

LATER EDIT:
I must retract some of my praise. In the final chapter where he is demarcating the differences between the Reformed and the Orthodox, Letham makes several revealing statements. He acknowledges that Calvinism's commitment to monergism seems to entail mono-energism, which is a form of the monothelite heresy. Letham shows himself very aware of the deep Christological issues. However, he says that it doesn't entail mono-energism/monotheletism because Calvinism believes man does have a will and that God simply woos it (or overrides it). Unfortunately, though, this is not different from what the monothelites actually believed. As the leading scholar on monotheletism makes clear (Demetrios Bathrellos, The Byzantine Christ), monotheletism acknowledges a human will, but qualifies it by saying it is overridden by the divine will.

Further, Letham's criticism of Palamas depends on Rowan Williams' essay on Palamas. (This is how Letham gets himself out of the difficulty of denying, for all practical purposes, the Filioque yet not having to commit to Orthodox theology). Letham should have consulted David Bradshaw's *Aristotle East and West* where Bradshaw refutes Williams.

Finally, the end of the book isn't much by way of critique and analysis. He simply notes where Orthodox and Reformed differ with each other and shows the Orthodox wrong by quoting the Westminster Confession and Warfield. That may be true, but the Confession is not actually an argument, but a list of conclusions.

My book had abou 15 pages missing, so I will leave the review of this. The book is good in its analysis but it does leave you hanging at times.

I bought this book because my knowledge of the Eastern Orthodox Church was spotty and cobbled together from a variety of sources of varying trustworthiness. Also, as a Reformed Christian, I have very mixed feelings about Eastern Orthodoxy, and I wanted to know what an esteemed Reformed theologian like Letham had to say about it.

I was in no way disappointed. If anything I got more than I bargained for. The book is replete with in-depth information on church history (east and west), the ecumenical councils, and especially EO teaching. The critiques Letham makes of EO are careful, thoughtful, and charitable. The critiques he makes of his own tradition's ignorance of EO is far more scathing.

After reading this book, I find myself feeling much more informed, disagreeing with Letham on a few things, and overall feeling equipped and energized to pursue the issue further. The extensive citations and references alone are worth the cost of the book (because they have suggested for me what to read next).

I recommend this book to any Reformed Christian, especially those curious about Eastern Orthodoxy (yes, you read that right, ANY Reformed Christian; a little church history is helpful to anyone).

Some of my family members have left the Reformed faith for various reasons, none of those reasons were Eastern Orthodoxy. However, they have landed in the Eastern Orthodox faith for reasons I cannot understand. This book has really helped me to understand their new ideas and the terms they are trying to throw around. Sadly, it also informs me of the true reality of where they are headed, and the things they will renounce.

The book, also helped me unravel their accusations against the Reformed Faith. I know this wasn't the intent of the author. But, I'm getting called all sorts of names, Nestorian, Manichaen, etc. Unfortunately it takes something like that in order for me to study the trinity and the history of the "Eastern" churches in depth.

I would like to thank the author for writing this book. I wouldn't know where to start without it.

( Oh, and as a former graphic designer, I can also appreciate the strong graphic and the use of a spot varnish on the cover. It's a nice looking book. That matters to me. )

My review isn't helpful or witty. I know.

This book was a good introduction to Orthodox views and contains a lot of relevant history to show where they came from. It gets a little technical theologically at points, but isn't too bad.