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This
book started out as a correspondence course on Eastern Orthodox Christianity,
the ancient faith that the popular Time-Life series on the great religions of
the world calls “Christendom's oldest
Church” [Christendom and Christianity,
vol. 3 of The World's Great Religions,
New York: Time, Inc., 1963, p. 266]. The author took the course many years ago
after a long and vain search for the fullness of truth along the highways and
byways of Western Christianity, all of which proved dead-end paths where one
encounters truth in varying degrees, plus falsehood
in one concentration or another.
In
the passage of time, it became obvious that there are many Roman Catholic
theologians who do not agree with the teachings of the first and second Vatican
Councils, and who are grappling with the problems of papal primacy, papal
infallibility, and Catholic ecclesiology. It also became apparent that there
are many Catholic and Protestant liturgical scholars, clergy and laity today
who are interested in learning about the Orthodox Church and its maintaining
the form of early Christian worship and its Divine Liturgy. Among these people
were friends and co-workers of the author.
Still later, it became increasingly
clear that this work could be turned into a book in question and answer format
for these individuals. In making this change, the author rewrote large sections
of it for the benefit of Western Christians so that they could ask themselves
what kind of historical connection does their particular Church have with the
Apostles when it was founded in schism in 1054 by a fallible man called the pope,
or founded a few centuries ago by someone named Joe Smith? For those with more
than an idle curiosity, the doctrines of the Western Churches are frequently
compared and contrasted with those of another much older Church, the Orthodox
Christian Church. This church is the original Church and the depository of
Apostolic Christian Truth, and a Church that until recently remained something
mysterious and inaccessible for Western people.
Although this study does not force
anyone to accept the Orthodox faith, still every truth-seeking person who read
it came to the ineluctable conclusion that alone among the Churches,
the Orthodox Church has retained the continuity and purity of ancient Christian
teaching and preserves the oldest, fullest and most accurate traditions of all.
The same readers also came to understand that the ancient Church founded by
Christ through the Apostles is still present in the world today, just as it has
been without interruption for two thousand years. They now understand that that
ancient Church is the Orthodox Church, the Church of the Apostles and martyrs,
and the only Church that has an unbroken line back to the Apostles. With this
insight, all went on with their lives with a new clarity of thought, like a
pure mountain spring.
As
the pages of this book show, the Orthodox Church has maintained a living
connection with the Apostles through Apostolic Succession. The Apostles chose
as their successors bishops for local congregations
(Phil 1:1). To these bishops, they imparted the Apostolic
grace they had received from Christ Himself, which is the process of Apostolic
Succession, something prominently discussed in the New Testament (cf. Titus and
1 and 2 Timothy).
There is a twofold nature to
Apostolic Succession. First, there is an unbroken historical consecration of
the bishops from the hands of the Apostles. A bishop must be able to trace his
lineage through a continuous, uninterrupted chain of ordinations through the
Apostles. Secondly, there is an uncompromising fidelity to the correct
doctrines and correct practices established by the Apostles. A bishop must be
able to demonstrate that the faith and practices of the Church have not
changed.
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