Understanding the movement of evangelical Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy

Nick E Protos

Etd

Understanding the movement of evangelical Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy

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MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Nick E Protos. Understanding the Movement of Evangelical Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy. Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MO). rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/7fccd138-4238-4bbe-8c5c-2adead8cc9b4.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

N. E. Protos. Understanding the movement of evangelical Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy. https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/7fccd138-4238-4bbe-8c5c-2adead8cc9b4

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Nick E Protos. Understanding the Movement of Evangelical Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy. Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MO). https://rim.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/7fccd138-4238-4bbe-8c5c-2adead8cc9b4.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

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Nick E Protos

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In Copyright

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the large movement of evangelical Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy over the last thirty years. The study involved semi-structured interviews with twelve evangelical Protestant converts to Eastern Orthodoxy who reside in Pennsylvania and Georgia. The interviews and literature review focused on personal, theological, and sociological reasons for the movement. Among personal reasons, crises, life changing decisions and a desire for spiritual growth played an important part in the convert's decision to move. Among theological reasons, converts had unanswered questions regarding hermeneutics, ecclesiology, evangelism, worship, authority and the sacraments. Perceived weaknesses in the evangelical Protestant church included the lack of a basis for the interpretation of the Bible, the lack of authority, the lack of unity, the emphasis on individual decisions in conversion, the man centeredeness of worship, being cut off from church history, and the emptiness of the sacraments. Sociological reasons focused on postmodernism. Eastern Orthodoxy provided many things postmoderns need and desire: appeal to the senses, meaningful worship, tradition, love and acceptance, and experience and mystery. The study concluded that the movement of evangelical Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy was not an evangelistic movement. Converts were believers before their move to Eastern Orthodoxy. Many reasons given for conversion point to legitimate deficiencies in the evangelical Protestant church. A concern was raised for the children of the new converts and for long-time members of the ethnic Eastern Orthodox churches because of the obscurity of the gospel. Evangelical Protestants need to learn more about their own faith and about Eastern Orthodoxy so they can articulate the gospel more clearly with as little offense as possible to unbelieving Eastern Orthodox members. There also needs to be serious introspection in areas the converts identified as deficiencies in evangelical Protestantism.

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