Book Review
Healing East & West
The Orthodox Reality: Culture, Theology, and Ethics in the Modern World
by Vigen Guroian
Baker Academic, 2018
(240 pages, $35.00, hardcover)
reviewed by John G. Panagiotou
On The Orthodox Reality: Culture, Theology, and Ethics in the Modern World, Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church member and retired University of Virginia professor Vigen Guroian provides an interesting approach to the culture wars. Guroian challenges head-on the very real threats to the Judeo-Christian tradition, which imperil not only the West, but the East as well. He points to the eroding effects of secularism on society and how estrangement from the Creator leads ultimately to cultural destruction.
Early in the book Guroian asserts that in all Christendom, Eastern Orthodoxy has maintained a kind of wall of immunity from many of the theological ills that have afflicted Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Yet he acknowledges that Eastern Orthodoxy has suffered many of the same maladies as the Western Churches, due to a desire in many of its circles not only to accept, but also to promote secular ideas that are at odds with Orthodox Christian theology. This is especially true with respect to contemporary attitudes towards abortion, same-sex "marriage," and various bioethical issues.
Guroian contends that true healing for both East and West can be found in a rediscovery of the essence of liturgical worship as expressed in each of the faith traditions. He sees this as the bedrock for unity of East and West, drawing on various writers, such as John Chrysostom, Georges Florovsky, Alexander Schmemann, and John Meyendorff, to support his thesis. He focuses especially on For the Life of the World by the late Orthodox liturgist Alexander Schmemann, who viewed the celebration of the Eucharistic liturgy as the paradigmatic image of the Transcendent communing with humanity through the broken body and shed blood of Christ. According to Schmemann, this image is to shape all that Christians think, do, and say. With this understanding, liturgy is both instructive and transformative.
Guroian's solution to the disconnection of the sacred from the mundane in the modern world is presented in two parts. The first emphasizes that liturgical renewal must take place in the churches. The second suggests that an ecumenical rapprochement with the intent of reunion should take place between the Eastern and Western Churches.
Some Concerns
Although Guroian answers the pressing need to analyze the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of the culture wars from a Christian perspective, his work falls short in some important ways.
First, while he aptly describes the malaise of the culture due to forces of secularism, the book would have been even better if he had further explored both key biblical and patristic source references and used them as a basis for challenging the values presented by the culture.
Second, Guroian writes of a liturgical renaissance, but doesn't adequately address the question of which liturgical traditions are to be consulted. Would they include the Western Rite, the Byzantine Rite, the Armenian Apostolic Rite, the Coptic or Ethiopian Rite, or other liturgical rites still used in Christendom today? The author leaves the reader to ponder this matter of liturgical renewal without practical direction.
Third, as a way to influence the culture, Guroian proposes, ideally, a reunion between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism or, failing that, at least greater cooperation between East and West in common witness. He does not suggest how this is to be effected, however. Currently, Eastern Orthodoxy, in its more conservative manifestations, doesn't desire communion with its fellow Orthodox Churches, let alone with the Church of Rome. Guroian's own Armenian Church, an Oriental Orthodox body, is not officially in communion with Eastern Orthodoxy. Indeed, the twenty-first century has shown that the Eastern Orthodox Churches, with their fractious tendencies, still suffer from the sins of phyletism (ethnocentrism) and schism. Apart from the Second Coming of Christ, I don't see how the necessary reconciliations could come about.
John G. Panagiotou is an Orthodox Christian theologian, scholar, and writer. He is a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University and St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and holds a doctorate from Erskine Theological Seminary. He is Professor of New Testament, Greek, and Patristics at Cummins Theological Seminary.
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