Sadly, not by grace alone
All the Fullness has a truly unfortunate post, in which the author attempts to make the case that the Eastern Orthodox teach that God saves us by grace alone.
Unfortunately, he fails to recognize that this teaching has been rejected, in so many words, by Eastern Orthodoxy ever since the correspondence between the theological faculty of the University of Tubingen and Patriarch Jeremias II in the late Sixteenth Century.
The paper linked to above, by Dr. Don Stuckwisch, is long and involved, but it's an excellent summary of exactly where the Lutheran Reformation and the Eastern Orthodox tradition stand in theological relation to one another.
There is a great deal that the two traditions have in common. Not the least of these things is the simliarities between Luther's doctrine of the unity of the believer with Christ and, properly understood, the Eastern Orthodox notion of theosis, or "divinization." I can well understand the attraction of many Lutherans to the church of so many of the early heroes of Christendom. And it should be admitted that there are times when both Jeremias and modern Eastern theologians make statements which come tantalizingly close to agreement with what Lutherans mean by the the sola gratia and even the sola fides.
But I don't think even the most superficial study of the consistent Orthodox rejection of justification by grace alone over the centuries and still today will leave the slightest doubt that the premise of that post in All the Fullness simply cannot be sustained. Eastern Orthodoxy, at the end of the day, anathamatizes the sola gratia, and has ever since the time of Jeremias- and no amount of romantic wishful thinking will change that fact.
Unfortunately, he fails to recognize that this teaching has been rejected, in so many words, by Eastern Orthodoxy ever since the correspondence between the theological faculty of the University of Tubingen and Patriarch Jeremias II in the late Sixteenth Century.
The paper linked to above, by Dr. Don Stuckwisch, is long and involved, but it's an excellent summary of exactly where the Lutheran Reformation and the Eastern Orthodox tradition stand in theological relation to one another.
There is a great deal that the two traditions have in common. Not the least of these things is the simliarities between Luther's doctrine of the unity of the believer with Christ and, properly understood, the Eastern Orthodox notion of theosis, or "divinization." I can well understand the attraction of many Lutherans to the church of so many of the early heroes of Christendom. And it should be admitted that there are times when both Jeremias and modern Eastern theologians make statements which come tantalizingly close to agreement with what Lutherans mean by the the sola gratia and even the sola fides.
But I don't think even the most superficial study of the consistent Orthodox rejection of justification by grace alone over the centuries and still today will leave the slightest doubt that the premise of that post in All the Fullness simply cannot be sustained. Eastern Orthodoxy, at the end of the day, anathamatizes the sola gratia, and has ever since the time of Jeremias- and no amount of romantic wishful thinking will change that fact.
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