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Volume 16, No.3

CORRECTIONS

In the previous issue, 16 (Spring 2008), p. 10, in the biographical note following the article by Irina Limonova, “Russian Sunday School Curricula,” zhizni was misspelled. In 15 (Fall 2007), p. 14, following the article by Jeff Thompson, “An Open Door to Russian Prisons,” the last line in the biographical note was inadvertently omitted. The complete biographical note follows: Jeff Thompson is executive director of Eastern European Outreach, Murrieta, California (www.eeo.org). Edited excerpt reprinted with permission from Jeff Thompson, Leaving the American Sector (Hemet, CA: Theatron Books, www.theatronbooks.com, 2007).

We apologize for these errors.

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Volume 16, No.3

Book Review

Rials, Kirby. The Protestant’s Guide to Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy: How To Answer the Tough Questions. Greenville, MI: Delta Mills Books, 2006. Reviewed by Edmund Rybarczyk.

This book’s strengths are two-fold: A rapid-fire overview of the many doctrinal issues that separate Catholicism and Orthodoxy from conservative Protestantism. Second, it is succinct and therefore quite readable, and for a non-academic study it has wonderful portions of historical research interspersed throughout. The sections denoting the diversity of positions among the church fathers are especially helpful. That said, this book is overly ambitious. It addresses far too many intricate issues at a cursory level.

One would expect that a long-time missionary to Russia would produce a careful study that takes seriously the foreign contexts of Catholicism and Protestantism. Instead, Rials seems to assume that the apostles both read the Scriptures and thought like 21st century Western Evangelicals. With that assumption, Rials scrutinizes the teachings, traditions, and biblical hermeneutics of Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In this examination, neither Catholicism nor Orthodoxy fare very well.

This is not to say that a harsh polemic is wrought against these two oldest Christian traditions. Indeed, Rials says at the outset that his goal is to love “our brothers in the midst of doctrinal disagreements (p. 9).” But the lack of a contextual treatment of multi-layered issues including ecclesiology, the mystery of the Godhead, biblical hermeneutics, sacraments, the doctrine of saints, hesychasm, theosis, liturgical aesthetics, and iconography, will leave the thoughtful but uninitiated reader with more doctrinal questions than answers. For example, Rials finishes a very brief assessment of the filioque controversy by quoting II Timothy 2:23: “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” On the one hand, this is an attempt to be pastorally disarming. On the other hand, it assumes that the doctrine of the Trinity is not worthy of deep thought. This is neither the way to help Protestants carefully understand ancient trajectories of Christian history nor the way to teach them how to persuade others of their own perspective.

Throughout the book the goal clearly is to show that Evangelical Protestantism is right while Catholicism and Orthodoxy are both wrong. But Rials’ contention that Evangelicals are more committed to Scripture than other confessions is not a sufficient method. In characterizing his non-Evangelical brothers, the author regularly cites the Catholic Councils of Trent and Vatican I, defensive councils convened amid tremendous historical shifts, pressures, and polemics. On the Orthodox front, Rials repeatedly quotes Sergius Bulgakov, an Orthodox theologian who is rather infamous among other Orthodox theologians for some of his speculative positions. Unfortunately, Rials’ reliance upon such sources promotes old and unhelpful stereotypes that recent ecumenism has worked hard to correct.

Moreover, there are too many “baby and bath water” arguments espoused. For example, “Insofar as the [apocryphal] books promote false doctrines, such as the possibility of praying for the dead or purchasing eternal life, they may be harmful” (pp. 103-4). The same type of critique could be made of several of Rials’ own (and my own) Assemblies of God Pentecostal historic practices (speaking in tongues, healing, prophesying, and exhibiting emotion in services). If post-modern philosophy has taught us anything, it is that there is no objective vantage point from which to view and interpret reality. We all are profoundly shaped by our own historical-cultural-philosophical milieu. And it follows that these contexts bear heavily upon us as we encounter the reality of the risen Christ. These facts do not mean that all is relative, or that Truth does not exist. It also does not mean that the Lord does not intend to place demands and obligations upon our knowing, our thinking, or what we value in life. But what it does mean is that God takes our context seriously. Indeed, He intended that the power and influence of His teaching (the Gospel) be taken to all the earth’s historical-cultural contexts where it is to penetrate like yeast (Luke 13:21) and salt (Matthew 5:13; Mark 9:50). Following that same impulse, 21st century believers absolutely must carefully consider the historical-cultural contexts of the Christian “other.” This book does not do that.

Editor’s note: Contact Kerby Rials (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) to request a free copy of the Russian-language e-book or to purchase the English-language e-book for $3.99, payable via PayPal, credit card, or check. The English print version may also be ordered via Amazon.com.

Edmund Rybarczyk is assistant professor of systematic theology, Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, California.

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Volume 16, No.3

Pentecostal and Orthodox in Common Cause Christian Confessions Co-laboring

In June 2007 members of my Family of God Pentecostal Church had an opportunity to work on the restoration of the Orthodox Church of the Nativity together with American Christians led by Mark Elliott. They came to help Father Georgi in his restoration efforts and, oh, what a thrill it was to be part of an international team of Christians of different churches and denominations working to restore an Orthodox Church!*

One favorite question that Father Georgi asks almost everyone is this: “Well, many Protestant Christians have helped me in restoring Orthodox temples. But have you ever heard of Orthodox believers doing the same for Protestants?” Every time the answer has been negative. It is his dream. Does it take too much for all Christians to build (restore) the one temple of God, that is, His Church, His Body? What constitutes this Body? It is all of us who are believers in Jesus Christ. Let this be our dream.

* Editor’s note: Participants in the 2007 church restoration project included Orthodox, Pentecostals, Baptists, Wesleyans, United Methodists, and members of non-denominational Protestant churches. In June 2008 a second mission team continued work on the Church of the Nativity, Priskokovo village, and helped with the reconstruction of the Church of St. John the Baptist, Ivanskoe village, both near Krasnoe-na-Volgy, Kostroma Region. The 2008 work team of 40 included United Methodist and Wesleyan church members from the United States, plus Russian Orthodox and Russian Pentecostal believers, Russian orphan graduates, and reforming ex-offenders. For earlier East-West Church & Ministry Report articles by and about Father Georgi Edelstein, see 10 (Fall 2002): “On Orphans, Spiritual Restoration, Repentance, and Religious Legislation,” 13-15; “Thoughts on the Current Situation in the Moscow Patriarchate: Hypocrisy, Servility, or Complete Indifference to the Fate of Religion?,” 9, 12-13; and “. . . Of Such is the Kingdom,” 16.

Andrei Danilov is pastor of the Family of God Pentecostal Church, Kostroma, Russia.

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Volume 16, No.3

Book Reviews

Wanner, Catherine. Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evangelism. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2007. 305 pp. $24.95. Reviewed by Paul D. Steeves.

Ukraine was the tenth-century cradle of Russian Christianity. Ukraine also was the launching point for modern Western evangelization of eastern Slavs in the nineteenth century. Evangelicalism emerged and grew rapidly in Ukraine in the post-1855 reforms of Emperor Alexander II. Throughout the twentieth century Ukraine was home to the majority of evangelicals under Soviet rule, known variously as Baptists, Evangelical Christians, or Pentecostals. Since 1991 Ukraine has been the focus of the most vigorous evangelical activity in post-Soviet space. This book by Catherine Wanner contains a cornucopia of information that documents the product of evangelicalism in Ukraine.

The book’s title conveys no cogent message about its content. Lacking a coordinating theme, the book, which cannot be called a monograph, comprises a collection of six worthy essays loosely united by reference to Ukraine. Wanner deserves credit that she is the author of each of these rich, disparate essays collected here.

Wanner describes Ukrainian evangelicalism from her perspective of a secular sociologist. This is both a great virtue of the book and a drawback. She confesses that she is not herself evangelical, so even though she is always sympathetic, she lacks a certain empathy with her subjects. She has no training in theology, so she does not portray the important doctrinal aspect of her subjects. She is not an historian of Russia and the Soviet Union, so her generally accurate account of the past 150 years lacks essential nuance.

Chapter one narrates succinctly the history of evangelicalism in Ukraine up to the Stalin years. This story has been told in several other books and Wanner adds nothing new. The supposed focus on Ukraine becomes blurred in chapters two and three. Chapter two leaves the subject of Ukraine to deal with the entirety of the U.S.S.R. in the post-Stalin years. Wanner skillfully portrays the great ambiguities evangelicals faced in surviving amidst Soviet atheism. Some evangelicals accommodated while others resisted. Here one confronts the greatest difficulty in the book. Wanner tells the story of an accommodationist named Karl Jablonsky. Supposedly Jablonsky was elected “bishop” of the Moldovan department of the legalized All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (AUCECB) and in this role was privileged to travel abroad, allegedly giving evidence that religious freedom was respected in USSR. Wanner offers no documentary corroboration of the account. A close examination of Baptist sources turns up no evidence to support this story and much substantial evidence to the contrary. No Jablonsky occupied a responsible position among AUCECB churches or traveled with AUCECB delegations. In the absence of better documentation, for the time being one must conclude either that Wanner was deceived or failed to present her information in a comprehensible and accurate fashion.

Chapter three moves to the United States to survey how Ukrainian émigrés have fared abroad, with some retaining concern to support evangelicalism back home. Chapters four and five present the heart of Wanner’s own field research in post-Soviet Ukraine among the evangelicals who are continuing the work of the movement descended from the 19th century. These chapters show the vigor of Ukrainian evangelicals, especially in Kharkiv.

The last chapter describes the phenomenon of the “Embassy of God,” a megachurch network started by a Nigerian evangelist. This topic, while very interesting, lacks any connection with the earlier parts of the book other than its location in Ukraine. One could at least hope for a discussion of the relations among the “Embassy” and more traditional Ukrainian evangelicals. One could dispute whether the “Embassy” really is evangelical, but there is little doubt that the “Embassy” has nothing to do with the history of evangelicals in Ukraine.

This book can be strongly recommended for anyone who wants an accessible summary of what has happened among evangelicals in Ukraine.

Paul D. Steeves is professor of history and chair of the history department at Stetson University, Deland, Florida.

 Witte, John Jr. and Frank S. Alexander, eds. The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Reviewed by Chris Bounds.

This book is part of a three-volume project arising from the work of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. The thesis of the project is that modern Western jurisprudence has become too narrow and insular as a result of the dominance of legal positivism which has ignored the contributions of recent Christian thought on law, politics, and society. The purpose of the project is to introduce the best of modern Christian reflection in these areas with the hope that it can provide a salutary influence in legal circles today. With this in mind, the editors have identified 20 seminal Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians from the 19th and 20th centuries and published in three volumes their most salient writings on issues relevant to jurisprudence.

This particular volume examines the potential resources for contemporary law from the Orthodox tradition. Specifically, five Orthodox theologians and philosophers are addressed: Vladimir Soloviev, the first modern Russian to develop an Orthodox philosophy of law and political order from the Christian understanding of salvation; Russian Nicolas Berdyaev, who articulated an anthropology grounded in an “ethic of creation, redemption, and law;” Russian Vladimir Lossky who related human dignity, freedom, and law to the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity; Romanian theologian Dumitru Stăniloae who argued for the natural and supernatural resources of law and authority in the midst of human freedom and sinfulness; and Mother Maria Skobtsova, a Russian nun and social reformer who developed a theology of incarnational living and sacramental care for the poor with implications for the role of law in addressing issues of injustice. In each case, a scholar has been chosen to provide a biographical sketch, a presentation of their thoughts on law, politics, society, and human nature, concluding with a selection of their primary source writings.

The work done in this volume is helpful in four ways. First, it recognizes that modern Eastern Christian thought can make significant contributions to Western theology and jurisprudence. Orthodoxy, recognized and respected in its own right, offers a perspective not found elsewhere in Christianity and therefore deserving a hearing. Second, while Orthodox thought is firmly rooted in the past, particularly in its adherence to the early Church Fathers, this volume helps readers see that Orthodoxy is not monolithic. Readers will note true doctrinal development taking place in modern Orthodoxy as this volume highlights original Orthodox reflection in the areas of law, politics, society, and human nature. Third, the volume faithfully presents the teaching of each Orthodox Christian, with minimal or no critique. The goal is to present Orthodox thought on issues related to jurisprudence and theology, allowing readers to then critique and appropriate accordingly. Finally, the selection of original sources is outstanding. They allow readers to cut to the heart of each Orthodox thinker’s key arguments and ideas in his or her own words. Their relevance to the purpose of the book is clearly seen.

Some minor weaknesses, however, are apparent. The most glaring is the section on Mother Maria Skobtsova. While the inclusion of a woman in this three-volume series is laudable, with women well represented in the Protestant and Roman Catholic texts, the presentation of Mother Skobtsova in this volume is weak and perhaps a stretch. While Michael Plekon gives an insightful presentation of Skobtsova, her contributions to an Orthodox understanding of human society, politics, and law lack the strength of the other chapters. This is substantiated even more in the choice of Skobtsova’s writings: They do not have the same relevance to the stated purpose of the book as the other Orthodox selections.

In conclusion, this book is a useful resource for two academic disciplines – jurisprudence and theology - giving a modern Orthodox perspective on law, politics, society, and human nature.

Chris Bounds is associate professor of theology, Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, Indiana.