A Comprehensive Faith

The inconsistency currently present in the American Orthodox Church makes the pursuit and application of a comprehensive faith difficult.  We must be aware of and address any presuppositions foreign to Orthodoxy.  This would be those beliefs held prior to our baptism into the Church or those things taught to us by those who are inconsistent in their beliefs, holding to things incompatible with Orthodoxy.  This is especially a problem in America, as America began and has progressed and grown as a predominantly Protestant and Evangelical nation.  The introduction of the Orthodox Church into this culture has found a serious amount of work to transform the thinking of her converts into a truly biblical mindset.  Unfortunately, no one is tabula rasa.  All men have some sort of belief system, which in most cases is contrary to biblical belief, which must be overcome.  It is bad enough that men hold to false beliefs, men also have corrupted and darkened hearts that must be sanctified as well.  Really, the work that all men have before them is that of changing their beliefs (to be consistent with the Christian faith), to sanctify their hearts (to love God and neighbor and hate evil) and to change their practices (acting in love and not in selfishness).  This is three fold: minds, hearts and hands.

This is one reason the Orthodox Church appeals to tradition.  Any one man will be influenced and distracted by his prior beliefs, by those things falsely taught to him by others and by the culture around him.  The concept of tradition is that of those things held, taught and practiced by the Church since its apostolic beginnings.  We can appeal to tradition, which includes Scripture), because we believe that God has been leading his Church from the very beginning. 

So instead of appealing to common sense, logic or philosophy, we realize that all of these are influenced and controlled by the culture in which they are conceived, so we must trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit on the Church as a whole.

Returning to the opening statement in this post, inconsistency comes from the influence upon us from outside of the apostolic faith.  We must work to overcome these falsities and strive towards truth and love.  Our work is that much more difficult when the inconsistencies are not recognized as false but are instead identified as Christian faith.  The problem comes from being American, not from being Orthodox.  Let us seek to understand and live out the apostolic faith, regardless of how foreign it may seem to us and to those around us.  The Christian faith is present before us in the life of the Church.  Let us strive toward this example.