Christian History Home > Issue 54 > Eastern Orthodoxy: From the Editor - Exotic Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy: From the Editor - Exotic Orthodoxy
Exotic Orthodoxy
Mark Galli | posted 4/01/1997 12:00AM
Reading history is like being a tourist through time. You get to visit all manner of exotic people and places. Well, welcome to one of the most exotic journeys Christian History has taken.
Orthodoxy is a complete unknown to some, a great mystery to others. Orthodox priests wear long beards and glittering robes; believers cross themselves and bow incessantly during worship, and their churches are packed with somber religious pictures. No mistaking these folks for Baptists.
Yet the very strangeness of Orthodoxy is what attracts us. When we look closer, we see that these believers have been Christian in this way for some 1,900 years. It's a way of being Christian that has created and sustained great cultures (Byzantine, Russian), and one that has endured some of the fiercest persecution (from Muslims and Marxists) in church history. Today, it's a way of being Christian that makes sense to some 215 million people.
A quick glance suggests, then, that this church may not be merely unusual but a ...
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