The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware
"The Orthodox Church," as described by Timothy Ware, provides an insightful exploration of Eastern Orthodoxy, highlighting its historical and theological foundations. The Church traces its roots back to the time of Jesus and the Apostles, maintaining a commitment to a living Tradition that connects contemporary believers with ancient practices and beliefs. Throughout history, the Orthodox Church has experienced significant transformations, particularly during the reign of Constantine, which marked its transition from persecution to prominence. The formal schism between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism in the 11th century was influenced by cultural, linguistic, and theological differences, which were further exacerbated by historical events like the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Orthodoxy is characterized by its adherence to a rich liturgical life, sacramental theology, and a belief system that emphasizes the mystery of the Trinity and the potential for human deification through God's grace. The Orthodox Church also values the communion of saints and holds a special reverence for Mary as Theotokos, or Mother of God. While it shares core beliefs with Roman Catholicism, such as the nature of Christ and the Eucharist, it maintains distinct theological positions, notably rejecting certain Western doctrines. Today, the Orthodox Church exists in diverse contexts around the world, navigating its identity amid modern challenges while fostering a hopeful vision for unity among all Christians.
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The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware
First published: 1963
Edition(s) used:The Orthodox Church. 2d ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1997
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Church history; theology
Core issue(s): Bishops; cause universal; church; devotional life; faith; religion
Overview
From the first Pentecost the Gospel was preached to Jews in Palestine and then to Gentiles throughout the world. For three centuries under constant threat of persecution, the Church’s status in the world changed in the first quarter of the fourth century from persecuted to tolerated to preferred. During Constantine’s reign, the Church marked the beginning of its coming of age. Although already living in its Tradition, the Church used its freedom from persecution to organize its governing structures and articulate its beliefs. By the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787), the Church had established its principal lines of doctrine, worship, and organization. By the eleventh century, the gradual estrangement between Christians in the eastern and western regions of the Roman Empire resulted in a formal schism, or splitting, of the Church into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. The loss of a common language, theological disputes, and different conceptions of the visible organization of the Church, with Rome’s alignment with the Frankish Empire, contributed to this splitting. The separation was exacerbated after the Eastern Empire fell to the Ottomans in the mid-fifteenth century. As a result of Constantinople’s fall (1453), Moscow became the new Christian capital in the East, the “Third Rome.” The Church in Russia had survived the Mongol occupation but was to suffer persecution under Communist governments. In modern times the Eastern Orthodox Church exists in five situations: a minority community in the eastern Mediterranean corresponding to the four ancient patriarchates; the churches of Greece and Cyprus; the churches in Eastern Europe; the Orthodox living in the West; and the Orthodox living in Africa, the Far East, and elsewhere.
Orthodoxy is characterized by a commitment to preserving the faith and practice “which Jesus imparted to the Apostles” and which since that time has been handed down from ancestors to posterity, forming a living continuity with the Church of ancient times. The main outward signs of Orthodox Tradition are the Bible, which is the living “verbal icon” of Christ, the Creed, the decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the teachings of the church fathers, Orthodox doctrinal statements since 787, the Liturgy and Sacraments, Canon Law, and the Holy Icons. These signs express in various ways the timeless true mysteries of the Orthodox faith: one God in three persons, the Son eternally begotten of the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, and the human person made body and soul in the image and likeness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “Image” includes those powers of reason and virtue that each person has as a child of God; “likeness” is the goal that requires effort to be attained.
The sin of disobedience of the first humans affected their descendants with mortality and corruption and an environment that inclines them to sin; however, the fact of their sin and guilt is the result of each individual. Sin sets up a barrier between humankind and God that humans cannot overcome on their own. Thus, as an act of love, God sent his Son into the world as the man Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection resulted in God’s sending of his Holy Spirit to humankind. Humanity’s goal is nothing less than achieving the divine likeness human beings were meant to possess. This is achieved by living, through the grace of God, a life of humility, repentance, and charity in fulfillment of the great commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor.
The Church and the Sacraments are the means whereby Christians receive the necessary gift of God’s Holy Spirit to receive deification. To preserve that heritage without succumbing to an indiscriminate antiquarianism requires a “creative fidelity.” The Orthodox Church humbly believes that it is “the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” It reflects the Triune divine nature by its unity in diversity. It is Christological both in its members and in the Eucharist; as the body of Christ, the Church is also the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. While giving worship only to God in Trinity, the Church honors its saints.
While special honor is bestowed on Mary as Theotokos, Mother of God, and as Panagia, All-Holy, the Church is the communion of all saints and those called to be saints, to whom God has granted salvation. Through its Sacraments, liturgy, and cycle of worship, the Church already begins to bestow God’s blessings on the living. It is legitimate to hope and pray that all will be saved, but hell exists because free will exists, “for hell is nothing else than the rejection of God.” As the visible Church, it does not deny the possibility that others are part of the whole Church whose membership God alone knows. The reunification of all Christians, based on the necessary foundation of unity in the faith, is what the Orthodox pray for and expect.
Christian Themes
The Orthodox Church traces the line of continuity from Jesus Christ and the Apostles to the Eastern Orthodox Church today. Adherence to the ancient Christian Tradition is what both distinguishes and joins Orthodoxy to other Christian communities. As a hierarchical and sacramental Church, it is in closest agreement on critical points of dogma with the Roman Catholic Church: the Trinitarian God, Jesus Christ as true God and true man, and the Eucharist as the true body and blood of Christ. The Tradition also, however, points up departures that have arisen.
The Orthodox Church has kept its creed intact. It has not experienced a scholastic revolution and it has not undergone a Reformation and Counter-Reformation. It has not added the Filioque and doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and Purgatory to the Apostolic teaching. Its organization is based not on a doctrine of papal supremacy but on a collegial assembly of bishops. The Orthodox accord the pope a primacy, but one that would act always in cooperation with the other bishops.
The Orthodox Church and Christians in the West are only recently rediscovering each other. At first Christianity in the West may have seemed to the Orthodox too rationalistic and monarchical; to the West, Orthodoxy has seemed too mystical, too amorphous, expressing its doctrine more in the context of worship than systematically and academically, as the West has done. Both communities of Christians are learning from each other. The Orthodox Church has preserved the patristic and monastic heritage that many Christians seek to rediscover. Similarly, the beauty of its liturgies and the doctrinal fidelity of its icons have become sources of renewed inspiration in the West. Christians in the West have made great application of scholarship, particularly in the cooperative efforts of philosophy and science and the interaction with an increasingly secularized society. From these developments Orthodoxy can learn. Timothy Ware considers the Orthodox Church as the elder brother preserving the family’s legacy but grateful to its younger brothers for helping it understand that legacy. To a “divided and bewildered Christendom” it offers a faith preserved intact and also living.
Sources for Further Study
Behr, John, et al. Abba: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, 2003. A festschrift in honor of Ware’s retirement. Contains twenty essays on various aspects of Orthodoxy in the world today.
Florovsky, Georges. Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View. Belmont, Mass.: Nordland, 1972. A collection of essays by a principal Orthodox theologian of the twentieth century. Offers insight into the patristic interpretation of the Bible and the patristic mind.
L’Huillier, Peter. The Church of the Ancient Councils. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1996. A detailed examination of the canons of the first four ecumenical councils of the Church, pointing to their importance for today’s Christians.
Patrinacos, Nicon D. A Dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy. New York: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, 1984. Alphabetically arranged articles on topics of Orthodox faith, doctrine, and history.
Spidlík, Tomás. Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook. Vol. 2. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian, 2005. Written by a Catholic priest, this volume joins the first volume (published in 1986) as a scholarly but accessible introduction to elements of Eastern Christian spirituality and religion.
Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Way. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1979. A collection of sayings from the fathers of the Church, the liturgy, and prayers to illustrate the doctrines of the Orthodox Church and its spirituality.