Helpful Introduction

Fr Josiah Trenham provides an Orthodox perspective on the history and doctrine of Protestantism. Most of the book focuses on the historical development from Roman Catholicism in the lives of the early reformers but shifts to doctrine around two thirds of the way through, the latter part of this being narration of various Orthodox documents.

The historical section was interesting and charitable. The Orthodox church being the church of history makes this focus understandable and necessary. However, it did seem to receive more emphasis than the doctrinal section which I think could have been expanded with more engagement on areas of disagreement. Perhaps in a later edition this part of Fr Josiah’s apologetic could receive equal treatment to the historical case for Orthodoxy.

Overall an enjoyable book that makes a good case for Orthodoxy against Protestantism. A great place to start for anyone, like myself, who is at the beginning of their journey to Orthodoxy or any Protestants who have heard of Orthodoxy but don’t know anything about it.

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1 person found this helpful

Perspective

Well read by the Author himself. Veey easy to listen to.

I find this a very good and concise appraisal of Protestantism from an Orthodox vantage point on the major historical events and tenets of the movement as well as its most influential reformers. He boils it down to the most pivotal issues well, resulting in a book though not exhaustive and relatively short, still being very useful.
Easy to follow, interesting information, as objective as one could want as written with a very gracious attitude towards those he critiques.

highly recommend.

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1 person found this helpful

Back to the Apostolic church..

Rock and Sand...Sadly, the Reformation has led to so many different types of churches it really has become shifting sand in terms of doctrine.

The book is fair and accurate in its appraisal of Protestantism. The great strength of the Protestant churches has been in evangelism - something the Orthodox Church needs to improve on. However, with divisions within divisions and being largely cut off from over a millennium of church teaching you can never be sure what your local church will be teaching tomorrow.

The strength of the Orthodox Church is in it being rooted by Apostolic succession to the original church. It refuse to follow the culture and has survived domination by Islam and Communism. Living in an age where ethics, morality and belief change by the day the Orthodox Church appears the only refuge for Christians who want to keep the faith handed down by the Apostles.

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3 people found this helpful

A tremendous detailed look at protestantism

Awesome read! The author himself reass it all. He is an ex protestant scholar and now orthodox priest. He digs deep and fairly into protestantism in its many manifestations. A treasure to fully understand this movement: its power and its fallacies. He also explores the lives of the various founders of the movement and their central beliefs. The study of the orthodox response: historical and actual is excellent.

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3 people found this helpful

Factually accurate, but overly political

The information provided on the Protestant reformers and their ideas is accurate and detailed; and the ideas are considered, however uncharitably, from an Orthodox perspective. I was left with the impression that, yes, Orthodox teachings are probably closer to the teachings of the early church than Protestantism; but that these teachings aren't embodied by it's representative. i.e. the author of this work. The tone was just a little too polemical for my tastes; this led me to feel more ambivalent toward this audiobook than I would have liked.

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Strong argument but too much padding

I felt like I agreed with Father Josiah in many moments and felt like he offered many powerful points.

However the actual contents of the book have too much padding in my estimation. Chapters are devoted to the lives of various reformers with minimal reference to how that is linked to their theology.

The last section, the appendix, is entirely just reading out a confession and two letters. The content of them is edifying and good, but they are also available for free elsewhere to read.

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