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The National Herald - April 10-16, 2010

“Thinking Through Faith” Bids
to Inspire Christians & Inform Public Policy

By Alexandros K. Kyrou

ARISTOTLE PAPANIKOLAOU and ELIZABETH H. PRODORMOU, eds. Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives From Orthodox Christian Scholars. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2008. Pp. 376. $20.00 (paperback).

BOSTON – Uncommon is the book whose very title both challenges conventional thinking and posits a daring understanding of a seemingly contradictory notion. Inasmuch as religion and reason are portrayed in modern Western society as incompatible, the appellation, “Thinking Through Faith,” may appear to many as incongruous for a volume on Orthodox Christianity in American society.

After all, modernity’s prejudice against religion has produced the uncritical and popular fallacy that faith is inimical to reason and thought. This view has contributed to the fragmentation of American society into polarized camps, which champion either an atomistic, heartless materialism or, conversely, a crude, witless fundamentalism. In this current cultural climate, religion has become increasingly viewed as a personal civil right but one devoid of any intellectual worth or actual relevance to society and the physical world.

Given this dominant attitudinal environment, it would appear daunting for credible scholars to produce serious work that reflects not only a positive view of religion, in general, but one that specifically links Orthodoxy’s relevance to the present. Nonetheless, in “Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives From Orthodox Christian Scholars,” the book’s editors, Aristotle Papanikolaou and Elizabeth H. Prodromou, and its many contributors are equal to the challenge.

Underscoring the significance of this publication, the book’s “Forward” is written by one of the most respected and influential scholars of religion in the United States, Albert J. Raboteau, of Princeton University. In identifying the book’s objectives, Professor Raboteau writes that the twelve studies which make up the core of this volume constitute “self-reflective essays written by scholars who are engaged in critical reflection upon the meaning of their faith as participants in a living Orthodox tradition. They seek to translate that tradition anew for both Orthodox and non-Orthodox in the context of the contemporary world. Within these pages a younger generation of American Orthodox scholars takes up the perennial task of transmitting the meaning of Christianity to a particular time and culture” (p. 9).

Raboteau concisely recapitulates the editors’ contextual placement of their volume in a decidedly American setting. First, he reminds us that the task taken up by “Thinking Through Faith” is indeed perennial precisely because groups have historically tended to conflate religion with their respective culture and ethnicity, thus often merging religion with national identity to produce a cultural religion typically lacking the ability to be genuinely reflective and self-critical. Second, he argues that the nature and scope of American pluralism challenges a faith’s communicants to experience religion as more than a cultural identity.

Indeed, American pluralism commodifies religion because it forces all religions into a competitive public arena, where one’s active, vigorous engagement with their faith is crucial to its survival and perpetuation. Despite its apparent coarseness, this idiomatic American conditioning of religion to a veritable marketplace is not, however, entirely negative. To some extent, this dynamic of “market” pluralism has the potential to be constructive because it promotes, by competitive necessity, discussion, critical reflection, and intellectual maturation within religious communities.

In “Thinking Through Faith,” the writings and meditations of the book’s editors and contributors demonstrate the fruition of this process of intellectual maturation for Orthodoxy in the United States. Indeed, according to Raboteau, “The publication of this volume represents a significant historical moment in the coming of age of Orthodoxy in America, a moment when Orthodoxy is entering the pluralistic intellectual agora with a new self-consciousness and self-critical confidence, emerging publicly, as it were, from behind immigrant ‘walls’” (p. 10).

FROM VISION TO PRAXIS
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Like most important books, “Thinking Through Faith” has its own unique and interesting history. Well before this publication was planned, the eventual contributors to the future volume first gathered for a symposium at the Divinity School of Harvard University in the fall of 2002. Their purpose was to discuss what it means to be an Orthodox Christian committed to professional excellence in the academic world and to uncompromising service in the Church.

The Harvard symposium’s new generation of scholars, who represented many academic institutions and bridged several ecclesiastical jurisdictions, concluded that they acted from the shared conviction that their life’s work as academics was both informed and enriched by their faith, and, likewise, that their scholarship might enliven their faith and public witness as Orthodox Christians. In order to sustain the intellectual excitement and dialogue engendered by their first meeting, the participants have continued to assemble every six months, examining different questions and charting new directions for future volumes on Orthodoxy and its relationship to important issues.

This highly original discussion circle was created by Dr. Thomas C. Lelon, former President of Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. The symposium and its work continue to be sustained by Dr. Lelon and his son, Charles T. Lelon, venture entrepreneur and benefactor. “As an active lay leader in the Greek Orthodox Church in America, Dr. Lelon envisioned a forum where new Orthodox Christian voices would convene to explore the interaction of their faith and profession with the various challenges presented by being an Orthodox Christian in the United States” (pp. 16-17).

By their inspiration and support, as well their respect for the academic freedom of the participating scholars, Thomas and Charles Lelon have made possible this regular symposium, and both Lelons’ efforts were indispensable to the realization of “Thinking Through Faith.” Through the venue of their regular six-month meetings, contributors presented ongoing research for discussion and critical peer evaluation. This methodical and rigorous process of research, writing, presentation, group discussion, revision, and reassessment of work within a supportive intellectual and spiritual community produced extraordinary outcomes in scholarship, the results of which comprise the contents of “Thinking Through Faith.”

SYNTHESISZING THE MISSION

Compiled, organized, and edited by Aristotle Papanikolaou and Elizabeth H. Prodromou, “Thinking Through Faith” is a pioneering book, the first publication of its kind in the United States. In their “Introduction” to the edited volume, Prodromou and Papanikolaou identify their book’s guiding purpose in relation to the mission of constructive, self-critical discourse envisioned and cultivated by Thomas Lelon. Indeed, the editors note, “above all, our conversation was inspired by our desire to develop a nuanced understanding of, and especially, a spiritually mature response to, the pressing challenges of our condition as Orthodox Christians in twenty-first-century America. In this respect, we offer this volume as a humble exhortation to all Orthodox Christians to engage in the kind of reflection, critique, and action that constitutes a life in faith” (p. 13).

Prodromou and Papanikolaou plumb their records of prolific and important scholarship to produce a penetrating overture which sets the tone for the book. Both Papanikolaou and Prodromou are exceedingly skilled and well matched for their critical roles as the volume’s editors.

Aristotle Papanikolaou is Associate Professor of Theology and the co-director of the Orthodox Studies Program at Fordham University. His widely published work specializes in contemporary systematic theology with a focus on Orthodox and trinitarian theology, as well the relationship between religion and culture. He also serves on the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) Social and Moral Issues Commission.

A political scientist, Elizabeth H. Prodromou is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at Boston University. Her research on religion and world affairs, with significant focus on Orthodox Christianity, has appeared widely in scholarly publications. In October 2004, Professor Prodromou was appointed Commissioner to the United States Commission on International Reli­gious Freedom. She is thus far the only Orthodox Christian to serve on this federal commission, a body which underscores the significance of religion for American diplomacy.

With precise language, the editors present clear and sophisticated insight into the ethos underlying the contributions to the book. Prodromou and Papanikolaou write “The notion of ‘Thinking Through Faith’ reflects our view that intellectual creativity, originality, and robustness are not the product of the scholastic approach. Instead our conception of intellectual growth and scholarly excellence—the disciplined mastery of specialized subject material, systematic and careful analysis, clarity and precision of expression, and above all, fearless self-criticism—is inspired by the ascetic mindset (Greek = ‘fronima’), which is the bedrock of the Orthodox way of life” (pp. 13-14).

One of the most valuable attributes of this book is its interdisciplinary rigor and diversity. The editors have successfully balanced contributions representing several different academic areas of training and expertise. Indeed, the rich disciplinary scope of the essays encompasses works from the fields of church history, ethics, philosophy, political science, psychology, public policy, and theology.

Moreover, Prodromou and Papanikolaou are not subservient to the field of theology’s traditional domination of Orthodoxy’s intellectual space, nor of its practice of excluding non-theologians from inquiry into Orthodox thought. The editors write “The contributions suggest the intellectual and practical benefits of a significant rethinking of the methods of study in America of Orthodox Christianity: an inter-disciplinary move beyond the narrow boundaries of theology conventionally understood, a concomitant expansion of inquiry outside the confines of the theological seminary, and a rejection of the study of theology by and for theologians” (p. 15).

Reflecting the broad intellectual representation of the book’s contributors, “Thinking Through Faith” testifies to the remarkable unity through diversity that is characteristic of Orthodox Christianity in the United States. Prodromou and Papanikolaou derive encouragement from the fact that the religious and social pluralism that defines contemporary America is replicated in the pluralism particular to the more than century-old Orthodox experience in the United States. Indeed, the collective quality and originality of the book’s twelve essays, coupled with the editors’ extraordinary ability to synthesize and adduce what is distinctive about Orthodox scholarship and thought, make “Thinking Through Faith” an important and welcome book.

CONTENT AND LOGOS

Ultimately, the value of this book is only as good as the whole of its parts, its individual essays. Consistent with most diverse and expansive edited volumes, some contributions to this book are superior in their presentation and sophistication than others. Remarkably, however, all twelve essays merit praise for their respective expertise and extraordinary insight. In the end, the inevitable imbalances associated with any such composite volume are overcome in this book by the exceptional scholarship and erudition of each of the individual contributors.

The book’s first essay, “‘The Kingdom of God’: Paul the Apostle’s Perilous Proclamation,” is authored by John Fotopoulos, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s College, in Notre Dame, Indiana. Establishing a rigorous standard for the subsequent essays, Fotopoulos methodically analyzes the first-century historical context of Paul’s proclamation of the Kingdom of God and the King, Christ, before identifying and assessing the practical and spiritual benefits of such understanding for twenty-first-century Orthodox Christians. Fotopoulos rightly points out that applied to an active, lived Orthodoxy in America, Paul’s gospel message challenges Orthodox Christians to move away from fragmenting parochialisms to embrace unity and inclusion not only in the final Kingdom, but at the local and intimate level of the everyday parish and community.

Another historically-rooted discussion, “The Foundations of Noetic Prayer,” is presented by Demetrios Katos, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Hellenic College. Focusing on the fourth-century ascetic Evagrius of Pontus, Katos contemplates this mode of prayer as a direct communion with God, one transcending the boundaries and limitations of cognition and imagery. Writing in a fashion that remarkably mirrors some of the principles of noetic prayer, Katos compellingly blends a sense of thoughtful, reflective humanity into a superlative intellectual analysis, producing a quintessentially Orthodox dialectic with relevance for life in contemporary society.

The essay, “What Are We Doing, Talking about God? The Discipline of Theology,” is written by clergyman scholar, Fr. John Behr, Dean and Professor of Patristics at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York. Fr. Behr effectively argues that Christian theology is confessional and exegetical—critically explanatory—because it does not merely affirm a historical proposition, namely, “Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate,” but because it asserts that the Son of God was crucified by Pontius Pilate. Fr. Behr links this awareness of theology’s nature to its living pastoral dimensions.

An informative essay which suggests both essentialist continuity and functionalist reconstruction of patterns of pastoral care between Christian modes in antiquity and their counterparts in modern Orthodoxy in America is presented by George E. Demacopoulos, Associate Professor of Historical Theology at Fordham University. Solidly grounded in church history, Demacopoulos’ contribution, “Understanding Pastoral Care in the Early Church,” draws from the past to assert that a diversity of pastoral forms and strategies are both in keeping with Orthodox tradition and necessary to grapple with the questions posed by pluralism and secularism in the United States.

One of the volume’s most rigorously researched and well-documented essays, “Orthodox Theologies of Women and Ordained Ministry,” is written by Valerie A. Karras, Assistant Professor of Church History at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. In this probing work, Karras integrates and then deconstructs the liturgical, historical, and theological currents that have informed understanding and practices associated with the ecclesial roles and life of women in the Orthodox Church. Through this complex landscape, Karras seemingly effortlessly succeeds in linking eschatology and the Orthodox anthropology of personhood to the current question of the ordination of women to the priesthood.

“The Reading of Lives of the Saints,” authored by James C. Skedros, Professor of Byzantine Studies and Professor of Early Christianity at Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, is valuable both for what it addresses explicitly and for what it alludes implicitly. Skedros presents a concise review of the knowledge and hermeneutics of Orthodox hagiography. He juxtaposes the scholarly and critical approach to the study of saints’ lives associated with legalistic and rationalist Western Christianity, with their original literary and religious function emphasized in Eastern Christianity. Although it is not suggested by Skedros, some readers may infer this East-West distinction implicitly identifies a poetic of faith inherent in Orthodoxy that reflects a unique capacity for spiritual freedom and intellectual litheness. These qualities constitute a remarkable, if relatively unrecognized and untapped, resource for Orthodoxy’s interaction with modern society.

Perry Hamalis, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, contributes an intricate essay “The Meaning and Place of Death in an Orthodox Ethical Framework,” to the book. Hamalis’ meticulously documented study situates the rejection of a purely physicalist death and the theological centrality of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection in the underlying totality of Orthodox Christianity. Hamalis’ precision of language and striking understanding of Orthodox thought produces a corrective to the recent tendency to sidestep the logos of death and resurrection, which represents the core of the gospel, in favor of attention to the idea of theosis, the process of becoming united with God. According to the author, the reality borne of Orthodoxy’s understanding of physical death and of spiritual death, and its belief in the resurrection of both dimensions of life, is relevant to contemporary society because it must shape Orthodox Christians’ ethical decision making.

The volume’s co-editor, Aristotle Papanikolaou has also contributed an essay, “Honest to God: Confession and Desire,” to this collection. In this study, Papanikolaou examines the reasons behind the decline of the sacrament of confession in the Orthodox Church and offers a corrective to stem the diminishment of the practice. Papanikolaou effectively balances the emotive and personal dimensions of confession with an insightful theological understanding of the sacrament to produce a nuanced interpretation of its spiritual and psychological importance.

Elizabeth H. Prodromou, the volume’s other co-editor, has contributed an essay informed by both her academic research and her diplomatic work as a member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. In “International Religious Freedom and the Challenge of Proselytism,” Prodromou casts her attention on three chief concerns: “the current historical moment regarding the religious dimensions of human rights, focusing on the human rights paradoxes that have emerged with the concomitant resurgence of democracy and religion in world affairs…possible responses by the religious actors who are trying to remedy these paradoxes…and the Orthodox within the context of the phenomenon of proselytism” (p. 252).

The intriguing essay, “Four Types of ‘Orthopraxy’ among Orthodox Christians in America,” is the work of Antone C. Vrame, Director of the Department of Religious Education for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Vrame challenges the tendency to view Orthodoxy in the United States in monolithic terms. He presents a model for assessing differences in observable behaviors related to faith and traditional religious practices, or “orthopraxy,” among Orthodox Christians. The author’s research and findings are mapped onto an operational nomenclature drawn from Judaism, which proposes four categories of orthopraxy: ultra-conservative or fundamentalist; traditional; reform; and reconstructionist.

The essay “Byzantine Liturgy as God’s Family at Prayer,” is built around an interpretive dyad. John Klentos, Associate Professor of Eastern Orthodox Christian Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, integrates an operational theory of family as it relates to Christianity with a review of the history of the Orthodox liturgy in Byzantium to develop a semiotic for grasping factionalism within Orthodox communities. Although the divergent points of this analytic construct may appear tenuous, its author effectively developments this approach to propose methods for addressing the resolution of conflicts in Orthodox parishes in the American setting.

This book’s final contribution is an empirically-driven study written by Eleni Makris, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Development at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. The extensive data presented in the essay, “Learning about Ourselves: A Snapshot of the Orthodox Church in the Twenty-first Century,” are based on a ground-breaking national study. This revolutionary study, completed in concert with the United States government’s 2000 census, attempted to document religiosity and its practices throughout American society. This public study was the largest and most inclusive survey of religious communities ever conducted in the United States. Makris’ analysis of the public study’s findings relevant to the Orthodox Church in the United States furnishes Orthodox Christians with a wealth of absolute and comparative information.

Aristotle Papanikolaou and Elizabeth Prodromou, along with their fellow contributors, have prepared an imaginative publication that is unprecedented in its approach, scope, and potential. “Thinking Through Faith: New Perspectives From Orthodox Christian Scholars” is sufficiently intriguing and accessible in its orientation to be compelling for interested Orthodox and non-Orthodox laity. Its rigor and originality make it a useful resource for scholars and researchers. Finally, this remarkable book’s philosophical undercurrents, as well as its practical public policy implications, offer weighty ideas for clergy and hierarchy to consider as they move forward Orthodox Christianity’s engagement with American society.

Dr. Kyrou is Associate Professor of History at Salem State College in Salem, Mass., where he teaches on the Balkans, Byzantium, and the Ottoman Empire. In the interests of full disclosure, the author of this review notes that he is married to Professor Elizabeth H. Prodromou.

[ Orthodox Truth - www.orthodox-truth.bugs3.com/art_2010_hchc.html - April 10, 2010 ]