With Christianity, Less Is More

I love the Eastern Orthodox Church. Really, I do. There are a lot of reasons for this – one of which I would like to explain in this post. In Western forms of Christianity, we have the tendency to explore and systematize every single aspect of our faith…so much so that we find more disagreement than unity trans-denominationally. This is the exact reason I pointed out in my last post that we attack others so quickly with the term “heresy” when “heterodoxy” is a much better fit. In other words we are so restrictive and nit-picky with our doctrine that there’s no “wiggle room” for exploration and “out-of-the-box” thinking. We’re afraid to question and explore other biblical options for fear of crossing some invisible line that was created while we weren’t looking. Not so with the Orthodox.

Eastern Orthodoxy’s approach to doctrine could be stated as “less is more.” As Gregory of Nazianzus said, “To be only slightly in error [is] to be orthodox.” Now, that, my friends, is an amazing quote. While Western theologians dissected every theological detail focusing mainly on the intellect, Eastern theologians, like Gregory, did the exact opposite concentrating on “heart issues” like personal devotion and prayer. The Orthodox believe a Christian must experience the doctrines of theology, not just understand them. So, their theologians have rigorously maintained a small, essential list of beliefs, but have also allowed an openness to govern other doctrines that fell outside a few core essentials.

Yet, this “liberal” approach to interpretation where every “i” is not dotted and every “t” is not crossed has not produced the chaotic results Western Protestants would expect. Most Westerners would assume that such an approach would allow scriptural misinterpretation, self-seeking excess, and a blatant disregard for the traditions of the church. However, within Eastern Orthodoxy, the opposite has been the case. It has actually produced a theological conservatism among its adherents. Amazingly, their flexiblility, not their rigidity, has created this conservatism. The Orthodox, unlike Western Christians, have remained conservative and unified in their beliefs because of their limited dogma.

This illustration may help. Imagine you are stranded at sea with a single raft with no land in sight. Though you may occasionally take a leisurely swim, chances are good that you won’t stray to far from that raft. Why? Because that raft, though small, is your safety. It also represents your known point of reference in a sea of unknowns. For the Orthodox, their theology acts like a raft. The Orthodox never stray too far from their “raft” in order to get back to it. So, by maintaining a small, but exact set of beliefs, believers never stray too far from the essentials into a sea of philosophies and theological error. By allowing some individual creative freedom, they minimize doctrinal excess. Unfortunately, the opposite has been true in the West. Many Christians have reacted strongly against the church’s tendency to control theology by over-explaining doctrine to the point where it has stifled creative expression.

Fortunately, things are beginning to change in Western Protestantism. The postconservative evangelical movement is attempting exactly what the Orthodox have already done. Stanley Grenz, Roger Olson, Clark Pinnock, Kevin Vanhoozer, John Franke, and Nancey Murphy represent this tradition and have often drawn from the works of Bernard Ramm, Lesslie Newbigin, Alasdair Macintyre, and Nicholas Wolterstorff. They believe that much of the restrictive doctrinal trends in conservative evangelical circles should be relaxed. A core set of essentials should be rigorously upheld while at the same time a level of theological exploration and creativity should be embraced. This – if the Orthodox are “correct” – will produce an evangelical “raft” for the next generation. The funny thing about that is that in order to create conservatism, one must relax his grip on the non-essentials. You have to go “left” before you can go “right.” That’s difficult to do if you believe you already have reached the pinnacle of theology – which many conservative evangelicals believe they have.

So what are the essential themes that postconservative scholars uphold? There are only five: 1) the value and authority of Scripture, 2) the importance of conversion, 3) centrality of the cross, 4) the importance of sharing your faith, and 5) social transformation. Other than that, theology should be done with the heart, concentrating on the transformation of the individual rather than on the insistence of structured information. It may be that the Orthodox have had it right all along. Personally, as an evangelical, I welcome the change.