How an Icon Brought a Calvinist to Orthodoxy: A Journey to Orthodoxy

christianity.com ^ | Robert K. Arakaki

[Destro]

[Destro]

please bump around

[MarMema]

This completely blows me away to read.

[MarMema]

Calvin assumed that for the first five hundred years of Christianity, the churches were devoid of images

I suppose he was thinking of the Hagia Sophia, built in 537 I believe. But my Godmother has visited Georgia and seen icons there older than this date.

[drstevej]

So icons are the barrier between Calvinism and Orthodox? No need, I guess, to deal with issues like the doctrine of salvation or Scripture when you feel the "power of an icon."

This account rings hollow. I doubt whether he understood Calvinism. If he did this article is missing some giant steps in his journey!

Ping to the swarm for comments.

[drstevej]

Me too, see previous post. Sounds like a PR puff piece.

Gerry Matatics becoming Catholic is a story, this is not.

[CARepubGal]

I am lost for words. What part of Sola Scriptura did this fellow miss?

[ahadams2]

slightly OT trivia question: any idea where one could get a decent sized (i.e. bigger than 4x6 inches) Christos Pantocrator icon with the Scripture *in English*? To the folks I'm teaching Greek is all, well, greek to them.

[MarMema]

Me too, see previous post. Sounds like a PR puff piece.

I think it is more properly considered a story of conversion, of which there are thousands from any church to the next, available on the internet and in books.

Gerry Matatics becoming Catholic is a story, this is not.

If you care about Catholics, perhaps. I have never heard of this Gerry Matatics so it means nothing to me.

I didn't read any place where Destro said this was supposed to be media-worthy news or anything, it's just a personal story.

You can choose to be offended by it, but methinks your protesting is overly loud.
I never take personal offense when people choose to not convert to the Orthodox church, rather I am surprised when they do, as I was in this case.

[Destro]

Luther Had His Chance: The story of the first contacts between Protestants and the Orthodox Church

[MarMema]

So icons are the barrier between Calvinism and Orthodox? No need, I guess, to deal with issues like the doctrine of salvation or Scripture when you feel the "power of an icon."

I would say the larger barriers are western "Augustinian" issues which we Orthodox reject.

The particular icon you find offense with was in place at the dome of the Hagia Sophia in 537 AD. Still a favorite of mine, I think it has probably been around long enough to influence more people than simple humans such as you and I.

[drstevej]

I'm not offended, just underwhelmed.

FYI, Gerry Matatics was an ABD doctoral student at Westminster Theological Seminary who became a Catholic and is a leading Catholic apologist. As a graduate of the program Gerry was in at WTS I can tell you it is decidedly Calvinistic and grouds it's students well in the issues of the Reformation. Matatics switch was a dramatic 180 degree turn.

I question the legitimacy of the title of this article. The guy doesn't evidence a previous commitment to Calvinism.

[drstevej]

That icon does not offend me at all.

Agreed that Augustinianism is a watershed between Calvinism and Orthodoxy and it is not the only major one.

[Destro]

SOLA SCRIPTURA In the Vanity of Their Minds by John Whiteford

Editor’s Note: John Whiteford is a former Nazarene Associate Pastor who converted to the Orthodox Faith soon after completing his B.A. in Religion at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. He first encountered Orthodoxy as a result of his involvement in the local Pro-Life (Rescue) movement together with Diaspora Ministry International, which also included Father Anthony Nelson and several of his parishioners. After over a year of searching the Scriptures and the writings of the early Church; and through the love, prayers and patience of Father Anthony and the Parishioners of St. Benedict’s, John Whiteford was received into the Holy Orthodox Church.When he wrote this article he was serving as a Reader at St. Vladimir’s in Houston, Texas and is continuing his studies. He has since been ordained a Deacon.

[Destro]

Author Frank Schaeffer to speak on his conversion to the Orthodox faith

Frank Schaeffer, son of the late renowned Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer, holds a photo of his son, John, a Marine.

An island of Orthodoxy in an ocean of Protestantism

[MarMema]

Deacon Whiteford has some good points in this writing about what the Orthodox believe, but I have always found the one line of his in this piece - "There is hope for protestants" or nearly that, to be offensive and arrogant. I hope that I am reading it incorrectly.....

[MarMema]

Thanks for the explanation. What you say, of course, is in perfect agreement with our view from the east. Precisely because both the RC and Calvinists are so happy with Augustine, the two of you have more in common with each other, than either of you have in common with us.

[MarMema]

I do, however, like the words of Frank Schaeffer in the link you posted of his writing.

"Although Schaeffer uses "converted" to describe the experience, he said he only does so for lack of a better word.
"(Converted) has some judgmental qualities," Schaeffer said in a recent interview from his home near Boston. "'Born-again,' 'I'm saved; you're lost,' but it's nothing like that. (Orthodoxy is) where I find the fullness of experience in Christianity to be for myself. That doesn't mean I feel other people outside that are lost."

[drstevej]

Rome is happy with Augustine?

What 'chu talkin' about, Willis?

[Hermann the Cherusker]

I would say the larger barriers are western "Augustinian" issues which we Orthodox reject.

What is amusing is that you impute this to Catholicism also, even though the Catholic Church does not follow St. Augustine on some of the very points you adamantly think we do, such as original sin and free will and the necessity of faith to perform good works.

Even more amusing, is that the Church's failure to follow St. Augustine on these issues is one of the major causes of the Reformation, in that men like Luther and Calvin returned to St. Augustine to purify the Church of what they viewed as the detritus of the Scholastics, especially St. Thomas Aquinas.