Orthodox Christians in America (Religion in American Life)

Rating:
Summary: Informative history of Orthodox Church in America
Review: 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.