The Rediscovery of Orthodoxy (II)

This article constitutes the second part of a series of lectures in which Peter Hammond, an Anglican theologian, examines the reasons for and the scope of the renewed interest in Eastern Orthodoxy in the West. The author adopts a comparative and critical approach, bringing Eastern and Western theological and ecclesiological traditions into confrontation. His central thesis is that Western Christianity has suffered since the Middle Ages from excessive clericalism and a conceptual theology that have marginalized the laity and impoverished ecclesial life. By contrast, Orthodoxy is said to have preserved a living apophatic theology and an active role for the layperson in the liturgy and the apostolate. The contribution of the article lies in its historical contextualization of the break between East and West, presented not as a cultural divide but as a fundamental theological divergence, the rediscovery of Orthodoxy potentially contributing to the healing of the Western Church.