Geist und Leben der Ostkirche
Spirit and Life of the Eastern Church

Author(s): Ernst Wilhelm Benz
Subject(s): Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Keywords: Orthodox Churches;
Summary/Abstract: Understanding the Eastern Orthodox Church is particularly difficult for non-Orthodox people in Western Europe because there is little knowledge of Orthodox life and teaching, and this sparse knowledge is itself overshadowed by a cloud of prejudices and misunderstandings, some of a confessional and some of a political nature. Above all, the fact that the ideas and customs of Orthodox Churchhood have been identified with a certain ease with the more closely related ideas and customs of Roman Catholic Churchhood has contributed to a clouding of understanding of Orthodoxy. To avoid these traditional misunderstandings and prejudices, it is advisable not to take the traditional route of handbooks and to begin with a presentation of the teachings of the Orthodox Church, since the temptation to prematurely equate them with Western forms of Christianity is particularly likely here. (READERS MIGHT PERMANENTLY KEEP IN MIND READING A BOOK OF GERMAN THEOLGIST WHO, ALREADY IN 1933, HAD JOINED THE SA NAZI-ORGANISATION AND WORKED DURING WW II AS PROTESTANT PRIEST FOR WEHRMACHT-SOLDIERS IN THE UKRAINE. IN 1942, HE PUBLISHED A BOOK » DIE RELIGIÖSE LAGE IN DER UKRAINE«. HOWEVER, IN 1965, HE BECAME MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES)

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