The Orthodox Way Book

I've now read Ware's The Orthodox Way three times over the last decade or so. (Something going on there?) Anyway, this time around a few things jumped out at me, or at least struck me as fresh and new with this reading. First, the title, which is sneaky smart. In the early days of the Church, Christianity was called "The Way." (I actually think there's an older Bible from the Jesus Freak days of the late 60s and 70s called the The Way.) That title itself harkens to John 14:6 ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"). One could almost see the title as a gentle back handed slap at other Christian "Ways." But Ware is an elegant writer, and his book is not a polemic, but a positive, often beautiful one, that weaves snippets of poetry (he has very good taste there), profound sayings from various holy men and women (usually Orthodox), with what is in essence, when you look at the progression of the chapters, a kind of informal Orthodox catechism.

The largely unnamed elephant in the room is of course the Roman Catholic Church. If you know anything about the Roman Catholic Church (I do), you see the (effective) distinctions Ware makes along the way. In particular, I thought the Orthodox view of the Fall to be far more humane than the grim Augustinian view (which has also colored much of Protestantism). Ware at one point comments that the approach to the sacraments has also been impacted by this view, with over definition on the part of West, reducing them (particularly Confession) to "mechanical" exercises.

I probably am placing too much emphasis on these distinctions (though that bit about the Orthodox view of Augustine blew me away), since this book is all about the beauty and truth of Orthodoxy, and not really about tearing down other Christian groups. Ware has written another book, The Orthodox Church, which is something of a companion piece (that should probably be read first), that goes into the history of Orthodoxy. It's a good book, a bit dry, but essential. But if you want to get more to the heart of Orthodoxy, at least as I understand it as a non-Orthodox, The Orthodox Way is a wonderful place to start.