Why Orthodox?

As part of the process of entering the Orthodox Church, I have tried to write an account of what won, convinced, changed me. To some degree, I have been successful in capturing "snippets" of the journey--this thought or that attitude or one event or another, these things I can capture. But I cannot weave them together into a story. Some of that is because I am not talented enough. Some of it is that I can't see clearly enough myself to write it clearly. Much of the reason is that the snippets are so inter-related and buttressed by many unrecorded events or insights that they don't make sense in stand-alone form.

To those who ask me to write about why I became Orthodox, I say this: Read these three books, not because they were what convinced me (although I can't say that they didn't have a part in it), but because they express what was the essence of much of my own journey.

The Orthodox Church, by (then) Father Timothy Ware (now Metropolitan Kallistos Ware). This is a humbly written story of the Eastern Church. The first part is the history, most of which Western readers will take as brand new information. This history is not taught in "Western Civ" classes. The second part explains the beliefs of the Orthodox Church. This book is worth reading if all you want is history and a look at "comparitive Christianity".

Becoming Orthodox, by Father Peter Gilquist. He and a number of other men were converts from Campus Crusade for Christ who converted in the 70s. They were part of a mass conversion of 2000 people. His book is not what convinced me, but his steps along the way are very similar to the ones I had to take. This remarkable group of men ask very hard and central questions about their faith and are somewhat astonished at what they find.

Facing East, by Frederica Mathewes-Green. Frederica is a charming, humorous writer. This book is the story of a year in her life of Orthodox practice. My favorite of all the chapters is the one entitled "Crabby in Church". This is the book that takes the history and doctrine of Ware's book, the doctrine and decision of the Gilquist book and puts flesh and blood on it and shows what an Orthodox life of loving Christ looks like. Frederica has a website (www.frederica.com) where she posts essays--she is a movie reviewer for many magazines and writes for BeliefNet. There are so many good ones here, but I particularly recommend for those who are interested in understanding the practices of Orthodoxy one called "Twelve Things I Wish I Had Known"--these are things she wishes she had known before attending her first Orthodox church service. The second recommendation is "Men and Church". She surveyed 100 Orthodox men and asked why they liked being Orthodox. It is an interesting essay and certainly resonates with my experience in our family.

These three books contain, by and large, every single reason that I would write, but they are coherent (unlike what I am able to produce at this time). My next post about my journey will focus on central issue in my own walk...the one that no matter what else I was thinking about, all decisions came back to this one key.

God bless you and have mercy on us all.