High Points of the Eastern Orthodox Faith

[Seeker10]

Hi, I have a friend who self-identifies as Eastern Orthodox. What are some of the accomplishments or high points of the Eastern Orthodox faith?

 

[Chesterton]

Umm...the Christian religion?

 

[truefiction1]

Theosis.

 

[Knee V]

The high point that mattered to me when I converted to Orthodoxy is its historical continuity throughout the past 2000 years, demonstrating that it is the church and faith of the Apostles.

 

[ArmyMatt]

no matter what the persecution, only Orthodoxy has maintained the faith that was given "once for all the saints." the Orthodox Church has not added to, subtracted from, or altered the message of Christ in 2000 years.

 

[katherine2001]

Writing the New Testament and canonizing which books belonged in both the Old and New Testaments.

 

[seashale76]

The body and blood of Christ. It's the fountain of immortality.

 

[prodromos]

Complete consistency between theology and practise. It is an organic whole, everything interconnects.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Hi, I have a friend who self-identifies as Eastern Orthodox. What are some of the accomplishments or high points of the Eastern Orthodox faith?

Welome to CF!

I can speak from more of an "outsider's" viewpoint since I've just recently been going to an Orthodox church.

The worship is very different from anything I have been used to (as a protestant). It took some time to appreciate, but now I don't really need the book (except when I want a translation - many of the parts are in Greek). Much of the service is prayers, which now that I'm used to I can participate in a more meaningful way. Much is also hymns, which teach a lot of the theology. The Eucharist is a focus of those services that include it (which is only for those baptized Orthodox, so I don't participate).

Icons are very prominent, which give a sense (to me) of being joined to the saints of the past and are a reminder of the martyrs of the faith and many events from the Bible, and teach theology in their own way.

Those are the big ones, to me. That and the history of the church, which led to my interest. Theologically I find the Orthodox church to be very interesting. I saw a book title that claimed Orthodoxy to be "Catholic without the additions, and Protestant without the subtractions" - and I find that very apt in some ways. It appears to me that the Catholic church does add certain doctrines on top of the Orthodox ones (Orthodoxy is similar to Protestantism in certain ways wrt theology, similar to Catholicism wrt forms and traditions). And protestantism in its zeal to erase what they perceived to be Catholic additions seems to have swept away much of what I am finding valuable and leaving a certain barrenness.

I also find a great emphasis on the church body, church life, how people treat one another, and so on. This is not unique only to Orthodoxy as I have seen wonderful examples in other churches as well. But it does seem to be a particular concern across the board, where I don't always see it to be a high priority in other churches. (And it's also NOT to say that they are perfect, as there are certainly problems ... but they seem to be kept from getting out of hand by the focus on the body as a whole as primary.)

I'm not in a position to explain much, but from an uninitiated point of view, those are what I see as the "high points".