From Evangelical to Orthodox: My Story (original) (raw)
Related papers
Becoming Orthodox: the mystery and mastery of a Christian tradition (preprint)
Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice, 2017
Naumescu, Vlad. 2017. "Becoming Orthodox: the mystery and mastery of a Christian tradition." In Praying with the Senses: Contemporary Orthodox Christian Spirituality in Practice, edited by Sonja Luehrmann, 29-53. Indiana University Press.
Review of Religious Research, 2013
Amy Slagle's The Eastern Church in the Spiritual Marketplace is an excellent study of the process of conversion to Orthodoxy by mainly middle-class Euro-Americans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Jackson, Mississippi. It is informed by a sociological interpretive framework that emerges from the author's inductive approach that allows the data to guide the analysis. Conversion is viewed not as a passive process that happens to converts, but as an act or series of actions that these conscious adults choose to engage in, both spiritually and physically. Slagle wishes to show the way that converts, clergy, and lifelong church members draw on the competing repertoires of the American spiritual marketplace and Orthodox belief and practice to understand and enact conversion, and to engage in the ongoing process of constructing post-conversion identities within the church (13). The marketplace metaphor proves effective, not only for thinking about the range of possible groups available for contemporary Euro-American religious seekers, but also the ways in which converts conceive of and articulate their conversion to Orthodox Christianity. Slagle conducted ethnographic research at several churches by means of participant observation and in-depth interviewing over the course of 7 months in 2005 and 2006. Chapter 1 provides a historical overview of the beliefs and practices of the Orthodox Church and a ''thick description'' of the churches in Pittsburgh and Jackson. In chapter 2, the author discusses the ways that different social actors, seeker converts and intermarriage converts, manipulate the spiritual marketplace by making choices of various kinds. Slagle emphasizes the book-driven, intellectual nature of conversion particularly among seekers (49) which sets up a dichotomy too often observed in Orthodox churches: that of the bespectacled Anglo convert, confident in his/her knowledge of theological and liturgical minutiae and the
Autobiographical reflections on becoming Orthodox. Draft of an essay that appeared in *Turning East: Orthodox Philosophers and the Ancient Christian Faith*
Liminality & Belonging: the Politics of Conversion in an Eastern Orthodox Church
2013
St. John’s Orthodox Church waited fi fteen years before converting to Orthodoxy from its charismatic evangelical past. Part of the reason for the wait was discomfort with the cultural traditions of neighboring Orthodox churches--Serbian, Romanian and Greek, to name a few. St. John’s own cultural traditions are related to its American, charismatic roots, and the community feared having to give up its own traditions if it chose to convert. Now that the community has converted, St. John’s struggles to separate its cultural values and its spiritual dynamics in an effort to forge an expression of faith which is at once authentic to its own local traditions and simultaneously authentic to a longer historical tradition.
This paper deals with the conversions of Latins in the Orthodox Church in the 14th century. Their confessions of faith have been saved in the Register of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. After a short presentation of the structure of these documents, the paper concentrates on the persons and their motives.
The "Evangelising" Orthodoxy Revisited. An Eastern Orthodox Perspective
The purpose of this study is to show, by providing appropriate arguments, that evangelism is the core of the Orthodox Liturgy. The Eastern Eucharist has about 80 percent of its content biblical and evangelical text, while living in a context where being an "evangelist" equals being a member of a sectarian type of Christianity. However,
Religions, 2021
When considering the relationship between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church, can we both celebrate progress towards unity, while acknowledging where growth must still occur? Dr. George Hancock-Stefan, who fled the oppressive communist regime of Yugoslavia with the rest of his Baptist family, now frequently returns to Eastern Europe to explore topics of modern theology. During these travels, he has recognized a concerning trend: the religious unity and interfaith fellowship celebrated in Western academia does not reach the Eastern European local level. This is primarily due to the fact that Orthodoxy is a top to bottom institution, and nothing happens at the local level unless approved by the top. This lack of religious unity and cooperation at the local level is also due to the fact that the Eastern Orthodox Church claims a national Christian monopoly and the presence of Evangelicals is considered an invasion. In this article, Dr. Hancock-Stefan unpacks the hist...