The “Generic Orthodox Christian” Faith Icon

I would be concerned that if I used that, people would think I meant one of the Orthodox denominations, rather than what I think of as small-o orthodoxy.

I had felt for quite a while simply ‘Christian’ is preferable to me as a faith identifier IRL but for posting purposes here at CF I thought ‘Generic Orthodox Christian’ was the best choice available from the CF faith icon list to represent my Christian faith perspective. When reading posts I personally appreciate it when a CF member uses the most accurate faith icon on their profile to help me understand the perspective the member is coming from when sharing their views. I regularly visit Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran & Eastern Orthodox parishes and this is the group I most identify with. If ‘Traditional Christian’ was available on the CF faith icon list it would of been equally accurate.

The Liturgist said:

@DarylFawcett recently helped me a great deal by implementing a faith icon that from what I understand was theoretically supposed to exist, but in fact had not been implemented.

I see the label of Generic Orthodox Christian as an ideal alternative for members who like to post in Traditional Theology to the Christian tag I was using, because it brings to mind a few ideas:

• Adherence to one of the traditional denominations that have an internal sense of orthodoxologia, for example, Lutheran Orthodoxy, Presbyterian Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Orthodoxy, and so on.
• It calls to mind, by virtue of being generic, the very excellent introduction to Christian dogmatics authored by CS Lewis, the celebrated classic Mere Christianity.
• I have also seen an Anglican blog entitled Mere Orthodoxy, and another one entitled A Generous Orthodoxy, both of which espoused ideas that could be encapsulated by this faith icon.
• The faith icon is ecumenical and unitive, in that it could potentially be used by Protestants, and by Orthodox and Catholic members. It can also be used by members such as myself, who, in the interests of ecumenical reconciliation, want to move past the whole idea of artificial silos such as, in my case, “Protestant”, in favor of an expression of Generic Orthodoxy, which is to say, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church defined in the Nicene Creed.
• Additionally, this icon represents very strongly a creedal, confessional and conciliar Christianity. For example, I myself accept as creeds the Nicene Creed, sans the filioque (the Nicene Creed is the core of the ChristianForums.com statement of faith, and the filioque is an optional part), as well as the rest of the Statement of Faith, which seems pretty common sense (I mean, if you deny the apostolate of Paul, that seriously calls into question your Christianity. I also accept the canticle Quincunque Vult , sometimes erroneously called the Athanasian Creed, particularly the translation of the Russian version of it included in A Psalter for Prayer, and I accept the Apostle’s Creed, provided the original version is used, the version which states that Christ did indeed descend into Hell (because I believe in the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell), and then I regard two hymns as being of creedal importance, the Latin divine office hymn Te Deum Laudamus, the Greek Christological hymn Ho Monogenes (both of which are widely translated into other languages), and the Syriac communion hymn Haw Nurone, and I accept the faith of six of the seven ecumenical councils (excluding Chalcedon). Other people who might use this faith icon as a substitute for something more generic are likely to similiarly embrace creedal, confessional and conciliar Christianity.
• One particularly useful application of Generic Orthodox Christian is for referring to orthodox denominations that lack their own faith icon. For example, traditional Congregationalists such as myself, and Moravians, and members of the Assyrian Church of the East or the Ancient Church of the East, and Russian Old Believers, and Waldensians, and the fragment of the Evangelical United Brethren which did not merge with the United Methodist Church, just to name a few of the smaller traditional denominations.

So in conclusion, the Generic Orthodox faith icon may be of benefit to a large number of Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Christians, including those who are ecumenically minded and those who lack a faith icon of their own.

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Are these identifications really so important? While there is jealousy, strife and divisions among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? (1 Corinthians 3:3-11)

Whether Christian, or Generic Orthodox, or Catholic, or Protestant,
or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your's and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's.(1 Corinthians 3:22-23)

If I understand you correctly, OP, you are asking for some sort of designator for traditional Nicene (or Niceno-Constantinopolitan or whatever you'd call it) Christians that would lump us all together by virtue of what we agree on. (Though I note you make an exception of Chalcedon...you sure that's 'generically' Orthodox, and not some kind of Other Orthodox? )

Why not 'Nicene Christian', then? 'Orthodox' here on CF would be confusing for the reason that Paidiske already mentioned. But also why is this necessary either way when non-Nicene pseudo-Christians (e.g., Mormons et al.) are not even allowed to post on most of CF in the first place? (I assume including TT.)

Tigger45 said:

I had felt for quite a while simply ‘Christian’ is preferable to me as a faith identifier IRL but for posting purposes here at CF I thought ‘Generic Orthodox Christian’ was the best choice available from the CF faith icon list to represent my Christian faith perspective. When reading posts I personally appreciate it when a CF member uses the most accurate faith icon on their profile to help me understand the perspective the member is coming from when sharing their views. I regularly visit Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran & Eastern Orthodox parishes and this is the group I most identify with. If ‘Traditional Christian’ was available on the CF faith icon list it would of been equally accurate.

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Traditional Christian seems like a good faith icon for the purposes described.

One concern I have, although I appreciate where this is coming from, is in regards to the Orthodox bodies in communion with Eastern Orthodox bodies. What differentiates traditional Christians using that Generic Orthodox label from, for example, Western Orthodox are in Communion with Eastern Orthodox? In reality, we are just Orthodox Christians. Eastern is commonly applied to all to distinguish from the other Orthodox groups, when Eastern Orthodox really is just a portion of our communion.

To @dzheremi ’s point, there still is the confusion with the other Orthodox groups if we don’t have the Eastern on the label. The faith icons are absolutely useful, but there are some limitations.

The Liturgist said:

The goal isn’t to capture merely Nicene Christians, but rather the sacramental, liturgical and traditional Christians who make use of Traditional Christianity.

I myself agree with Laura that the name “traditional Christian” for the faith icon would be better, but I have no idea if they would change it for us, and I am just glad we got something... I guess I am a glass half full kind of guy...

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Glass half full is a good practice to follow

The Liturgist said:

I agree, but I was just barely able to get myself this icon (and thus it was enabled for other people), because Generic Orthodox Christian appeared on the List of Faith Groups Considered Christian on CF.com but had not actually been implemented as a user-selectable faith icon.

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Understood.

I think we pushed to get Generic Orthodox before for the reasons I mentioned earlier (Western Orthodox, etc.) but didn’t realize that they never made it selectable. I’m glad you got that changed!

No matter what identifier, you will always be painted with the same brush as others, even when your beliefs and practices might be at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. Many years ago I joined a group on Google called "Catholic Universal", it was made up of theological broken miss-fits from various Liturgical groups, and clergy from a number of independent orthodox and catholic "churches that consisted of the Priest and their better half (spouse or not) of non defined gender, and no other members. One was a "Bishop" and was offering a 3 month home study program followed by "apostolic ordination". The short time I was there, when I posted traditional orthodox positions, I was vilified. So I left.

Not kidding. True story.

Identifiers mean nothing; words, actions continue to be the only identifiers. You know the tree by the fruit (no pun intended) that it bears.

Paidiske said:

I would be concerned that if I used that, people would think I meant one of the Orthodox denominations, rather than what I think of as small-o orthodoxy.

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That's what I thought when I saw the title of this thread.

How do I change my icon to this one?

The Liturgist said:

@DarylFawcett recently helped me a great deal by implementing a faith icon that from what I understand was theoretically supposed to exist, but in fact had not been implemented.

I see the label of Generic Orthodox Christian as an ideal alternative for members who like to post in Traditional Theology to the Christian tag I was using, because it brings to mind a few ideas:

• Adherence to one of the traditional denominations that have an internal sense of orthodoxologia, for example, Lutheran Orthodoxy, Presbyterian Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Orthodoxy, and so on.
• It calls to mind, by virtue of being generic, the very excellent introduction to Christian dogmatics authored by CS Lewis, the celebrated classic Mere Christianity.
• I have also seen an Anglican blog entitled Mere Orthodoxy, and another one entitled A Generous Orthodoxy, both of which espoused ideas that could be encapsulated by this faith icon.
• The faith icon is ecumenical and unitive, in that it could potentially be used by Protestants, and by Orthodox and Catholic members. It can also be used by members such as myself, who, in the interests of ecumenical reconciliation, want to move past the whole idea of artificial silos such as, in my case, “Protestant”, in favor of an expression of Generic Orthodoxy, which is to say, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church defined in the Nicene Creed.
• Additionally, this icon represents very strongly a creedal, confessional and conciliar Christianity. For example, I myself accept as creeds the Nicene Creed, sans the filioque (the Nicene Creed is the core of the ChristianForums.com statement of faith, and the filioque is an optional part), as well as the rest of the Statement of Faith, which seems pretty common sense (I mean, if you deny the apostolate of Paul, that seriously calls into question your Christianity. I also accept the canticle Quincunque Vult , sometimes erroneously called the Athanasian Creed, particularly the translation of the Russian version of it included in A Psalter for Prayer, and I accept the Apostle’s Creed, provided the original version is used, the version which states that Christ did indeed descend into Hell (because I believe in the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell), and then I regard two hymns as being of creedal importance, the Latin divine office hymn Te Deum Laudamus, the Greek Christological hymn Ho Monogenes (both of which are widely translated into other languages), and the Syriac communion hymn Haw Nurone, and I accept the faith of six of the seven ecumenical councils (excluding Chalcedon). Other people who might use this faith icon as a substitute for something more generic are likely to similiarly embrace creedal, confessional and conciliar Christianity.
• One particularly useful application of Generic Orthodox Christian is for referring to orthodox denominations that lack their own faith icon. For example, traditional Congregationalists such as myself, and Moravians, and members of the Assyrian Church of the East or the Ancient Church of the East, and Russian Old Believers, and Waldensians, and the fragment of the Evangelical United Brethren which did not merge with the United Methodist Church, just to name a few of the smaller traditional denominations.

So in conclusion, the Generic Orthodox faith icon may be of benefit to a large number of Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Christians, including those who are ecumenically minded and those who lack a faith icon of their own.

Click to expand...

Thatgirloncfforums said:

How do I change my icon to this one?

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At the bottom of this page click on 'contact us'. Then click on "open ticket' and in the message box ask for the faith icon of your choice.

Tigger45 said:

At the bottom of this page click on 'contact us'. Then click on "open ticket' and in the message box ask for the faith icon of your choice.

Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks. Now to just have a real life 'Mere Orthodoxy' church to attend!

Paidiske said:

I would be concerned that if I used that, people would think I meant one of the Orthodox denominations, rather than what I think of as small-o orthodoxy.

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True story. They should change it to a lowercase o.