Paleo-Orthodoxy

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Paleo-Orthodoxy ( ancient Greek παλαιός palaiós 'old' and ὀρθοδοξία orthodoxía ' orthodoxy ') is a theological movement within US Protestantism .

Name and delimitation

The name Paleo-Orthodoxy distinguishes itself from other theological directions. On the one hand, the prefix Paleo indicates a demarcation from the theology of the Orthodox Churches , which are colloquially referred to as Orthodoxy. In contrast to this, Paleo-Orthodoxy goes back further in time to beliefs and sources that were already common to all Christian churches before the schism of 1054 , namely the writings of the Old and New Testaments and the theological writings before and after the Nicene Creed.

On the other hand, there is a demarcation from the so-called Old Protestant Orthodoxy , a theological movement of the 16th and 17th centuries, and from Dialectical Theology , which is also known as Neo-Orthodoxy, especially in the USA. The beliefs of the latter are much more recent and irrelevant to the theological views of paleo-orthodoxy because they are younger and therefore further removed from biblical events and scriptures.

Theological basis

Paleo-Orthodoxy derives its theological views from the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils and the early Church Fathers . It is aimed at understanding the greatest possible consensus of these views as the consistent doctrinal basis of all Christian churches. This is based on a statement by Vincent von Lérins :

quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est.

"What everywhere, what always, what was believed by everyone."

- Vincent von Lérins : Commonitorium II, 5

In the true sense of the word, paleo-orthodoxy is a radical approach to ecumenical theology in which it attempts to view the doctrinal decisions that divide the churches later as irrelevant through earlier doctrinal decisions.

The most influential and outstanding representative of Paleo-Orthodoxy was the theologian Thomas C. Oden (1931–2016), member of the United Methodist Church and 1970–2003 professor at Drew University in Madison (New Jersey) , on the east coast of the USA.

literature

  • Thomas C. Oden: Agenda for Theology. Later reprint under: After Modernity ... What? Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1992, ISBN 0-310-75391-0 .
  • Thomas C. Oden: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois 1998 ff.
  • Thomas C. Oden: The Rebirth of Orthodoxy. Signs of New Life in Christianity. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco 2003, ISBN 0-06-009785-X .
  • Thomas C. Oden: Systematic Theology. (3 volumes: The Living God , The Word of Life and Life in the Spirit ). Released in one volume as Classic Christianity. HarperOne, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-06-144971-0 .
  • Thomas C. Oden: A change of heart - A personal and theological memoir , Intervarsity Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-8308-4035-9
  • Christopher Hall & Kenneth Tanner (Eds.): Ancient & Postmodern Christianity: Paleo-Orthodoxy in the 21st Century (Essays In Honor of Thomas C. Oden). InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois 2002, ISBN 0-8308-2654-8 .
  • Christopher A. Hall: Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois 1998, ISBN 978-0-8308-1500-5 .
  • Colleen Carroll: The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy. Loyola Press, Chicago, Illinois 2002, ISBN 0-8294-1645-5 .
  • Richard J. Foster : Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco 1998, ISBN 0-06-062822-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Landstrom: Thomas Oden's Paleo-Orthodoxy , website ovrlnd.com
  2. ^ Carl R. Trueman: Paleo-Orthodoxy - A review of a change of heart , on website firstthings.com, February 2015
  3. ↑ Thomas C. Oden and His Key Teachings, on reunioncommunity.org