This book should do untold good towards improving Reformed/Orthodox relations. Hopefully, it will go a long way in clearing up misconceptions that both sides have towards each other.

Through Western Eyes—Eastern Orthodoxy: A Reformed Perspecive (Mentor, 2007) by Robert Letham is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant books on Orthodoxy written from a Reformed perspective in recent years, several things stand out. This examiner was especially surprised at how conciliatory this Reformed Theological Seminary professor was even when discussing controversial things such as icons, invocation to saints, and justification.

Coming across far softer than so many polemical Reformation-era confessions, Letham said that Orthodoxy, though in error about icons, is not on that account heretical. Unlike so many Reformed scholars, Letham said there is a difference between veneration of icons and idolatrous worship—a distinction many Protestants are unwilling to concede. Furthermore, Letham said that though praying to saints is unscriptural, it isn’t heretical, as the practice doesn’t concern any essential element of Christianity. Lastly, and most surprising, Letham said that justification should serve as no barrier between Orthodox and Reformed Christians.

To prove his point, Letham references (among other things) the constant use of the ancient Jesus Prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”—as evidence that Orthodox Christians are not unaware of their need for divine mercy and lack of any merit that would commend themselves to God. Orthodox synergism leads, not to a gospel destroying doctrine of merit, but rather to an Arminianism that is not all that unlike what one often sees among American evangelicals. Orthodoxy is strongly Arminian, Letham concedes, but that no more puts them outside the pale of Christian fellowship than it puts Methodists out.

Letham also argues that Sola Scriptura has been sorely misunderstood among evangelicals, too often serving as justification for dismissing all tradition outright. The point, Letham argues, is that Scripture is the highest authority that can be appealed to with no competing authority sources ranking as important.

Letham also draws attention to the sad and ironic fact that early church heretical sects were often treated better by Muslim conquerors than they were by the Christian empire. In fact, he credits the success of Islam in certain parts of the Middle East and Africa as being responsible for the fact that Oriental Orthodoxy (the Coptic Church of Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, for example) continues to this day. The early church, to be sure, endured a tremendous amount of persecution in the name of Christ. Tragically, when politically capable of doing so, Christians sometimes became the persecutors.

This book should do untold good towards improving Reformed/Orthodox relations. Hopefully, it will go a long way in clearing up misconceptions that both sides have towards each other. Let us at least pray that such will be the case.
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Daniel Townsend lives with his wife Michelle in Clinton, Mississippi. A 2005 graduate of Belhaven University, Daniel currently works as a writing tutor in Belhaven’s Aspire Program. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he has been a lay theology student for many years, and loves writing about the Christian faith. He regularly writes for Jackson Presbyterian Examiner at www.examiner.com/presbyterian-in-jackson/daniel-townsend

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