Scottish Journal of Theology

http://journals.cambridge.org/SJT

Additional services for Scottish Journal

of Theology:

Email alerts: Click here

Subscriptions: Click here
Commercial reprints: Click here
Terms of use : Click here

The Orthodox Church. By Timothy Ware.

Penguin Books, Middlesex, 1963. Pp. 352.
6s.

John B. Logan

Scottish Journal of Theology / Volume 17 / Issue 01 / March 1964, pp 117 - 119

DOI: 10.1017/S0036930600006256, Published online: 02 February 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/

abstract_S0036930600006256

How to cite this article:

John B. Logan (1964). Scottish Journal of Theology, 17, pp 117-119
doi:10.1017/S0036930600006256

Request Permissions : Click here

Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/SJT, IP address: 130.88.90.140 on 05 May 2015

 BOOK REVIEWS 117
his goal presenting a restricted panorama of the writings of the
Tractarians, classifying 58 pages of selections under the category,
'Faith', 26 pages under the category, 'Authority of the Church', and
the largest section, perhaps betraying prejudice, 85 pages under the
category, 'Sanctification'.
By way of criticism, it may be pointed out that he has presented
only 'one' and possibly not 'the' mind of the Oxford Movement.
How can he claim Newman as leader and representative but dis-
claim him as an essential contributor to the movement? No doubt
we must appreciate the poetic and romantic aspects of the Oxford
Movement with 'heart and head as true lovers', but we must give
due place here to 'the head'. May it not be the case that Chadwick
underrates the intellectual implications and consequences of the
romantic element in the Oxford Movement?
Chadwick himself is critical of the Oxford Movement and rightly
so, for emphasising only a part of its tradition and neglecting its
Reformed heritage; but perhaps he himself may be guilty of under-
emphasising the place of the heart in the churches of the Reformation.
Their great hymns alone will bear out the contention that the
aesthetic has a place in Reformation tradition.
Poetry, prose poetry, liturgy and even high liturgy, and also a
discipline of sanctification are all desirable and commendable (/"(and
this is the big if) they do not become ends in themselves, if they
correspond not to the desires of the natural man in us but to those
of our new man living in conformity to Jesus Christ Himself as the
Scriptures witness to Him. HAROLD NEBELSIGK

The Orthodox Church. By TIMOTHY WARE. Penguin Books, Middlesex,

1963. Pp. 352. 6s.
FIVE years ago, with a distinguished record at Oxford, Timothy
Ware was received into the Orthodox Church at the age of 24. As
a result, we now have in comparatively small and reasonable
compass this excellent study, uniting the balanced enthusiasm of a
convert with the honesty of a Christian scholar, and providing a
most timely revelation of Orthodoxy through English eyes. Even
the theological statements are beautifully clear.
The author makes a point of ecumenical encounter. Roman
Catholic-Protestant relations cannot be understood unless both
sides have mutual contact with Orthodoxy: 'to an Orthodox they
appear as two sides of a coin'. For instance, he says, the basic
structure of Western worship is the same and is unlike that of the
East. Moreover, Christianity has tended to be connected with three
cultures—Hebrew, Greek, and Latin—and its divisions, in spite of
their interrelations, have roughly coincided with these three
u8 SCOTTISH JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
cultural areas, and in that order. The Orthodox Church also
exhibits a pattern of unity in belief and in the sacraments which
binds together a family of independent self-governing churches.
It 'is a federation of local, but not in every case national churches'.
Ignatius looked upon the local Christian community as the Church,
the gathering of the family round its bishop celebrating the Euchar-
ist. This Orthodox witness is indeed relevant today. The conciliar
form of Orthodox government is based on principles similar to our
own. God's chief organ of guidance is the Christian council where
'no single member arbitrarily imposes his will upon the rest, but
each consults with the others, and in this way they all freely achieved
a "common mind" '.
The historical section occupies nearly two-thirds of the book. An
Orthodox history of the Church, in 180 pages, written with clarity,
simplicity, and balance, and including a penetrating analysis of the
Church under Communism, is an important achievement. For us
this also illustrates the strength and the weakness of the Orthodox
position and Timothy Ware's attitude: the Church is indeed rooted
in the past, but too much attention is paid to the roots and too little
to the branches, especially the fresh young shoots. One might use a
gardening metaphor, and point out that in the case of certain
herbaceous plants, the best roots with most promise of life and
continuance are those furthest away from the old centre but in the
true succession. For instance, we have enthusiastic approval for the
return to the ancient Byzantine tradition in modern Greek icons
and frescoes, which seems to ignore both artistic possibilities and
modern needs. The ivory tower is a very vulnerable refuge in a
nuclear age.
The story of schism and widening separation makes sad reading.
We require to be reminded of the terrible wounds inflicted by the
Crusaders in their desecration of the Church of the Holy Wisdom
(St. Sophia) and sack of Constantinople, and the prolonged and
unworthy wrangles over thefilioqueclause and the Papal claims. It
is a salutory lesson in reunion methods to read that all the attempts
to prevent and to heal the schism between East and West foundered
because the negotiating leaders were far ahead of the main body.
The distinctive note of the Orthodox Church is changelessness:
it remains in 'living continuity' with the ancient Church. 'We keep
the Tradition just as we received it', said John of Damascus. This
means the Bible, the Creed, and the decrees of the Ecumenical
Councils. It also includes, on a lower level, the Fathers, the Canons,
the Service Books and Holy Icons. 'Tradition is a personal en-
counter with Christ in the Holy Spirit . . . it is the life of the Holy
Spirit in the Church.' These are indeed ideals from which we can
 BOOK REVIEWS 119
draw enlightenment; but they are being realised in too great
separation from the life of the rest of the Church. Timothy Ware
notes with approval the signs of development, though they are still
comparatively few and scattered: the emergence of 'Western
Orthodoxy' with a small group in France using the Western rite
and experimenting with various orders for the Mass; more frequent
communion; Father John of Kronstadt as a modern parish priest
with more modern worship, and so on.
Compared to the treatment of history, worship occupies a short
but significant space, but we have the essentials clearly described
and explained, and Orthodox worship is an experience. Orthodox
Encounter, by Nicolas Zernov, forms a fitting companion to this book
and should be read with it. Orthodox worship, for all its undeniable
beauty, seems to suit two extremes—the highly-developed mystic
aesthete, and the simple masses of the older Eastern tradition. It
presents great problems to typical moderns, especially in Communist
countries.
Orthodox believe that their Church is the 'one Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church'. 'There are divisions among Christians, but
the Church itself is not divided nor can it ever be.' 'If anyone is
saved, he must in some seme be a member of the Church; in what sense,
we cannot always say.' Individual Orthodox opinion varies greatly
on the status of non-Orthodox Christians. Conversion or reconcilia-
tion is desired, other churches becoming 'integrated into Orthodoxy
without forfeiting their autonomy'. The one insistence is 'unity in
matters of faith'. As this involves a form of transubstantiation, the
Bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and a fixed hierarchy, how-
ever different from Rome, the problem of reunion is very great.
Unprejudiced studies such as this book are part of the evidence of
the Holy Spirit's work in and through the Churches. Orthodoxy
in the U.S.A. and also in the Communist countries faces widely
different forces and conditions which, however challenging, are
revealing Christian witness of the highest order. Timothy Ware
does a great service by involving us in this new creation. There is a
good bibliography. JOHN B. LOGAN

One Great Ground of Hope—Christian Mission and Christian Unity. By

Henry P. Van Dusen. Lutterworth Press, London, 1961. Pp.205.
21s.
Is Christ Divided?—A Plea for Christian Unity in a Revolutionary Age.
By Lesslie Newbigin. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand
Rapids, Michigan, 1961. Pp.41. $1.25.
WITH the amalgamation of the World Council of Churches and the
International Missionary Council at New Delhi in November-