James R. Payton Jr. - The Victory of the Cross: Salvation in Eastern Orthodoxy

AS WITH ALL OF EASTERN ORTHODOXYS TEACHING, its perspective on salvation is deeply rooted in Scripture, bears fruit in patristic teaching, and comes to flower in the Orthodox liturgical tradition. This book attempts to set forth the Orthodox understanding of salvation. It is written, though, by a Western Christian.

The historical path taken by Orthodoxy is different from the one traversed by Western Christianity. This has rendered any attempt to understand each other difficult on the part of Western Christians or Eastern Orthodox. It is easy to assume ones own doctrinal instincts or faith intuitions when turning to consider the views and practices of others. However, doing so assures misunderstanding and misrepresentation. Orthodoxy approaches the Christian faith in a different manner than Western Christianity does. If Western Christians are to learn about Orthodoxy responsibly, they must seek to get inside the instincts, intuitions, and perspectives of the Orthodox approach; the same applies for Orthodox who want to learn about Western Christianity.

I was trained as an intellectual historian, and throughout my scholarly career I have welcomed and resonated with the challenge to enter as fully as I can into the thought patterns and experiences of those whom I study. My predilections and practice in this regard have shaped and driven my study of Orthodoxy for over four decades. I have sought so to imbibe Orthodox perspectives that I can present Orthodoxy in a way that Orthodox themselves hear in what I write nothing that sounds foreign to them. In this book, I will be writing from an Orthodox perspectivenot play-acting as if I were myself Orthodox, but instead to present the richness and integrality of the Orthodox view on salvation effectively, relying on the abundant resources Orthodoxy draws on for its teaching and worship.

Even so, I am writing to an audience composed both of Eastern Orthodox and of Western Christianswhether Roman Catholic or Protestant (of one variety or another)who want to learn about Orthodoxy. As I have found in my own experience, that can be quite a challenge. Orthodox assumptions are different enough from those of Western Christians that a genuinely Orthodox presentation on a topic might well elude or befuddle a Western Christian, unless that hearer had already become familiar with Orthodoxys approach to the faith. Western Christians typically bring certain questions or concerns to their consideration of issues of faith and practice; unless those are acknowledged and addressed in the way material about Orthodoxy is presented, understanding will probably be limited at best. Since this is the case, periodically I incorporate Western Christian questions or attitudes into the discussion below, in the pursuit of understanding Orthodox views. So in the following chapters I focus on presenting Orthodox perspectives on the issues dealt with, but I have also tried to cast the treatment in ways that will facilitate Western Christians understanding and assimilation.

Further, I should point out that I will be regularly citing materials from Eastern Orthodoxys rich liturgical resources. This may seem odd to readers from Protestant strains of Western Christianity, which often lack a significant historical liturgical heritage. But even among those Western Christians who particularly value such a heritage (for example, Anglicans and Roman Catholics), it may be surprising to discover how readily Orthodox theologians and clergy cite excerpts from these liturgies, expecting their readers or congregants to recognize them and nod in acceptance. I hope, too, that this may stimulate Orthodox readers to be more attentive to a liturgical richness they may have taken for granted and learn to appreciate it anew.

With all this, Orthodox readers may occasionally find some of the following Orthodox speak coming across with a bit of a Western Christian accent. I have sought to be careful that the Western Christian intonations sometimes included have not distorted the Orthodox message. Even so, I am bold to hope that the following presentations will be of interest and help to Orthodox in appreciating anew their historical view on salvation, to Western Christians who want to learn Orthodoxys perspectives on it, and again to Orthodox in recognizing how to communicate their faith and practice better to interested Western Christians. Further, given the numerous converts who have moved from Western Christianity to Orthodoxy in the last fifty years or so, the approach taken may be helpful in situating the faith and practice to which they have turned within their prior experience and thus facilitate an even better grasp of what they have come to embrace.

I trust that this exploration of Eastern Orthodoxys view of salvation may be helpful and instructive for both Orthodox and Western Christians who will read it. If it also assists the efforts to help the two large traditions of Christianity appreciate, respect, and better understand each other in the contemporary world, I will be doubly grateful. It has been a labor of love, gratitude, and appreciation for me to produce this study.