A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Tibbs combines her considerable professional engagement with Western Christian thought and theology with her personal background and experience to present a fresh approach to Orthodox Christianity. Tibbs does not limit herself to simply explaining differences in doctrine and practice between Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism. She provides effective examples and real-life stories that illustrate how Orthodoxy has maintained an entirely distinct character and history, which cannot be understood within the framework of the typical Catholic-Protestant dichotomy and debates. She presents Orthodoxy and its most important claim—of a direct and unbroken continuity with the ancient, historical Church—not as a relic of the past but as a vibrant faith community with its own beliefs, practices, mode of thought, and way of life.”

Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou

“Because this book was ‘born’ in classes attended mainly by evangelical Protestant theological students at Fuller Theological Seminary, Tibbs’s A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology wonderfully shifts from being an introduction to and apologetic for Eastern Orthodoxy to being a comparative study in dialogue with Western Christianity. Her engaging text reveals a fluency with both Orthodox theological sources—the extensive footnotes will lead readers deeper into many topics—and Protestant and Roman Catholic sources.”

Anton C. Vrame

“Tibbs’s years of teaching evangelical students have enabled her to write a basic but effective introduction to the beliefs and practices of the Eastern Orthodox Church and its relationship with the Protestant and Catholic traditions.”

Bradley Nassif