The Rebirth of Orthodoxy: Signs of New Life in Christianity

For a good summary read Landstrom's review down below. He covers all the bases very nicely. This is the first book that sees the picture of the "new" criticism for what it is. It is high time we had a scholar express these views. And to be urging all scholars back to the early theological classics with an open mind. There are no new arguments, only old ones in new bottles! Thankyou professor Oden.

This is a great book, the product of Tom Oden's own journey in faith. That journey of nearly three decades has taken him a long way from the east coast to the west coast of the Christian landscape of our times. If you are from a liberal, mainline denomination - you're going to hate this book. All the more reason to read it with a mind open to be challenged. If you are a conservative Christian, you may like what he says - but chances are you'll be very mistrustful of the source. Read it. Its high time for God's-eye view on the world. The book is as fresh and as timely as this week's TIME.

"Everything old is new again" reflects the realities explored by this noted theologian in an outstanding work that will challenge and inspire the serious seeker. As one who has traveled through the vast seas of quest for the corpus of faith, I continue to find Oden a clear beacon in what is often stormy waters.This is a wonderful and inspiring book giving hope to those who feel something is missing.

The Rebirth Of Orthodoxy: Signs Of New Life in Christianity by theologian and post-denominational ecumenical scholar Thomas C. Oden (Chairman of The Institute on Religion and Democracy) is an informed and informative examination of the new trend of revitalized traditional faith, a close study of scripture and daily prayer, a treatise on moral accountability, and a combining of hopes and dreams across doctrinal lines. Individual chapters address the renewal of orthodoxy within the Christian community, observe why orthodoxy survives in the modern era, how the multicultural aspect of orthodoxy can be strengthened, classical ecumenical methods, and a great deal more. A worthy, persuasive, and scholarly study of a noteworthy trend in contemporary religious thought, The Rebirth Of Orthodoxy is a welcome and highly recommended contribution to Religious Studies reading lists and library collections.

Oden argues in the beginning pages of this book that the theological quest for orthodoxy is well underway within the Christian and Jewish traditions who both are seeking their founding roots through the reading and contextualizing of their most ancient and authoritative writings and commentators into this century. This search, Oden argues, is a sign of new life within Christianity as it earnestly desires to recover its theological, liturgical, and pastoral roots. In taking up this quest is to also relearn the skill once possessed and then discarded that was once able to distinguish faithful witnesses from heresy and to learn how each heresy overcome has strengthened orthodoxy and taught the body of Christ enabling it to take on greater challenges. Oden builds a case for orthodoxy throughout this latest effort that seeks to show orthodoxy's patience, strength and flexibility within clearly distinguished boundaries. In so doing, Oden shows orthodoxy doesn't lead to oppression; but rather, freedom. Oden's presentation in distinguishing the authority invested in the written word of God from that of oral traditions and why the written Word of God is normative and authoritative over all other voices is noteworthy. Of greater interest is his unpacking of the Vincentian rule of faith that says orthodoxy is that which has been believed by everyone, everywhere, and at all times. Thus to be trustworthy, Oden writes, Christian truth claims must: (1) Be the same faith that the church confesses the world over. (2) Be the same faith confessed by the apostles. (3) Survive testing by cross-cultural generations of lay consent through a trustworthy process of conciliar agreement. (Conciliar agreement: Has the teaching been confirmed by an ecumenical council or by the broad consensus of the ancient Christian writers?) What this means in practice: (1) If some isolated contemporary members abandon the historical, universally received worldwide faith, you prefer the universal to the particular. (2) Even if the whole community of believers for a certain period of time seems to go astray in a new culture with a new idea unfamiliar to the apostles, you appeal to antiquity above innovation. (3) If the reliability to apostolic testimony itself is questioned, you appeal to ecumenical conciliar precedent by looking at conciliar decisions and canons, where almost everything important has been already debated. Hence, there are four filters--or strata of references, if you will--through which to sift Christian truth claims: (1) The universal truth prevails over the particular (the whole is preferred to the part). (2) The older apostolic witness prevails over newer alleged general consent. (3) Conciliar actions and decisions prevail over faith-claims as yet untested by conciliar acts. (4) Where no conciliar rule avails, the most reliable consensual ancient authorities prevail over those less consensual over the generations. (As a general rule eight great doctors of the church a