Orthodox Christianity: A Very Short Introduction

Written by A. Edward Siecienski

Narrated by David Cochran Heath

To many in the West, Orthodoxy remains shrouded in mystery, an exotic and foreign religion that survived in the East following the Great Schism of 1054 that split the Christian world into two camps—Catholic and Orthodox. However, as the second largest Christian denomination, Orthodox Christianity is anything but foreign to the nearly 300 million worshipers who practice it. For them, Orthodoxy is a living, breathing reality; a way of being Christian ultimately rooted in the person of Jesus and the experience of the early Church.



Whether they are Greek, Russian, or American, Orthodox Christians are united by a common tradition and faith that binds them together despite differences in culture. True, the road has not always been smooth—Orthodox history is littered with tales of schisms and divisions, of persecutions and martyrdom, from the Sack of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire and seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch, to the experience of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Soviet Union. Still, today Orthodoxy remains a vibrant part of the religious landscape, not only in those lands where it has made its historic home (Greece, Russia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe), but also increasingly in the West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Apr 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781705203729

Reviews for Orthodox Christianity

[AnnieB Mimi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very helpful and clear description of what orthodoxy is. Just what I was looking for.

[Robert Corzine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Siecienski does an excellent job of presenting modern Orthodoxy in its own terms. However, this includes Orthodoxy’s apparent inward focus and ignorance of the Other. Thus, the author does a relatively poorer job in presenting the contrasts of Orthodoxy with Catholicism. For example, he repeatedly distorts the very clear Catholic doctrine of original sin, defining it in a way that no informed Catholic would recognize as their own belief, and clean contrary to the Church’s explicit teaching. The caricature he puts in its place resembles nothing so much as the ingloriously defeated straw men skewered by the spears of online Ortho-bro apologists. Five minutes referencing of any decent theology or even the Catechism could have prevented this.

[Edgar Manik · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A brief introduction to Orthodox Christian. I would truly recommend anybody who wants to learn a bit of Orthodox and the difference with other Christian.

[Monachus Ignotus · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I’m surprised. The author has written some significant books about the Filioque and the Papacy. Yet this book features not a few cliches worthy of the sorts of little tracts one finds in the narthexes of American Orthodox convert parishes.