A response to a friend blogging their journey into / back into Eastern Orthodoxy.
https://thefaithofmygrandmother.co.uk/
Hey,
I have wondered whether I should respond. On one level I don't care where one finds depth in their relationship with Jesus, just that they find it.
I also know that if you find solace, purpose, relationship, and peace in a different community of followers of Jesus after some difficult years I am relaxed about that.
However, I am not particularly relaxed about some justifications I think are either simply off base, not well informed, or graceless to anything not of your newly chosen ‘tribe’ or your past.
In your post, I see a couple of issues related but different topics
- Inclusion of Children in the Church
- ‘Infant Baptism’
- The place of tradition in securing both our thinking and practice.
and through a quick browse of comment interactions
- Reasonable expectation on believers following Christ in community.
As you have blogged on this matter and I think my response will hopefully honour yours in being reasoned and considered I have decided to blog rather than make long-winded Facebook responses. I do feel your blog is both defensive and offensive in tone so I will
These are worthy discussions to delve into deeply.
QUICK COMMENT ON TRADITION BEFORE MOVING AHEAD
Having come from a movement that is historically often considered a newer Christian movement, Pentecostalism, and having taken the accusation seriously that our beliefs in a number of areas are ‘recent innovations’ many years ago I started reading deeper historic thinkers and Church fathers in particular around numerous topics.
Naturally, these include Roman, Eastern, and more ‘unaligned’ thinkers or those who would be considered to have left the acceptable domain of the mainstream Church (like Tertullian)
I have done so to answer the question for myself whether my theological and practical orientations are largely just recent innovation, as is often accused by those in more defined cultural traditions or whether, as Protestants and Pentecostals actually claim, the goal has been ‘restorationist’ in posture, restoring biblical and early Church beliefs and practices.
Ironically, it has been my reading of Eastern sources in particular that re-anchored me in a more ‘mystical’ and ‘experience-oriented' faith without throwing out the ‘mastery’ of words and ideas.
I actually think the average charismatic-leaning individual (if one removes the prosperity people) on a spectrum of East and West sits far closer to the East than they know and possibly why we have always agitated the reformed protestant tradition in particular.
The short answer is I most certainly include tradition in my thoughts in hermeneutics and I blog specifically about tradition having its place among the lenses we need to use to best interpret our understanding of God’s word.
The framing of whether that is Sola Scriptura, Prima Scriptura, or not is of little interest to me. Often these terms are ill-defined and used pejoratively without any consistent understanding of how their own proponents understand them.
The authority rests with God himself, the word is our ultimate written authority, and other factors including tradition, reason, experience, and illumination aid us in being as accurate as possible.
It is my primary reading of scripture, my understanding of ancient Jewish practice and history with Mikveh, and my early Church understanding that leads me to say in quick passing, before going into depth later that there is not a single early Church reference before 200AD that explicitly references Infant Baptism.
The first mention of Infant Baptism is by Tertullian in about 200 AD and he overtly discourages the practice.
Nearly every reference to Baptism outside of the New Testament itself in the first couple hundred years of Christian writing sets up rigorous pre-baptism catechistic requirements of learning, confession, repentance, fasting, renunciation of sin, and even the casting out of demons. It was not actually until the 4th and 5th centuries that Infant Baptism had largely replaced the high expectation of pre-baptism requirements for catechumens.
Next blog - Topic: Children in the Church. A response.
