For Seekers and Roman Catholics, we offer this book, written by Fr. Theodore Pulcini --former Roman Catholic and now an Orthodox Priest. He writes the story of his conversion and the reasons for it.


To order this free book:
Call 607-732-3980 or Email: Bookstore@HolyTrinityOrthodoxChurch.org


"Orthodoxy and Catholicism: What Are the Differences?" is published by Conciliar Press.

Excerpts from "Orthodoxy and Catholicism: What Are the Differences" (Part 8)

A DIFFERENT "FEEL"

Even apart from all the particular differences between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, I detected a different orientation in the two faiths. The Orthodox experience of Christianity, while having many elements in common with Catholicism, has a distinctive "feel," a way of thinking and of doing things.

Perhaps most significantly, it became readily apparent to me that Orthodoxy viewed theology less as an exercise in reason than as an attempt to express an ineffable mystery. Theology in the Catholic West seemed to be largely a matter of precise definition and syllogistic deduction, highly philosophical and rationalistic in nature. In the Orthodox East, theology seemed to be largely a matter of doxology, of bowing in reverent wonder before the ineffable; it was less concerned with philosophical precision than with experiencing the incomprehensible. This attitude finds expression in the unparalleled beauty and majesty of Orthodox worship.

It occurred to me that, if Christianity may be likened to a pool, the Catholic West spent a great deal of time describing that pool and analyzing its waters. The Orthodox East preferred just to dive in! I did not detect the sort of "dryness" in Orthodox theology that I had in the Scholasticism of the Catholic tradition. The more experiential emphasis that Catholicism was attempting to restore to its theology in the aftermath of Vatican II was already present in the theological tradition of the Orthodox East.

Moreover, although I respected and stood in awe before the magnificent organization of the Roman Church, I was growing tired of the legalism that seemed to pervade the Catholic experience, even in the days of aggiornamento ("updating") following Vatican II. To be sure, I saw that things were not so clear-cut, so black and white, in the Orthodox system. Instead there was a tantalizing sort of freedom to be found there, a freedom which encouraged one to be responsible, not just obedient.

To be continued....

More from this book in future weeks.


To order this free book:
Call 607-732-3980 or Email: Bookstore@HolyTrinityOrthodoxChurch.org