The Rebirth of Orthodoxy is a personalized and popularized distillation of Thomas Oden's core theses and scholarly insights in a realm in which he has but few equals. In short, the book is an introduction to the study of what Oden calls "paleo-othodoxy," i.e. the 'orthodoxy' that "holds steadfast to classic consensual teaching, in order to make it clear that the ancient consensus of faith is starkly distinguishable from neo-orthodoxy." This book is also something of Oden's spiritual autobiography, and indeed it even contains an explicit and frank account of his own "return to orthodoxy" in part two.
"A spiritual crisis has followed in the wake of the modern scientific era," declares Oden's opening line. The author's assessment of the intellectual, moral, and societal damage inflicted by Freudian, Marxist, and Nietzschean ideologies is hotly critical but wonderfully wordsmithed. And although some will charge that Oden does not substantiate his charge that "modern chauvinism" (i.e. post-Enlightenment rationalism) is responsible for the breach through which heterodoxy, heresy, and narcissistic attitudes pour into sacred and secular societies, much of what he does say about the failure of modernity and the collapse of Enlightenment ideologies has been so well documented elsewhere that to reiterate such things would only be gratuitous given his present proposal.
In the chapters that follow his eulogy for "modern chauvinism" Oden does a superb job recounting the value of history: the history of Israel, the real history of Jesus of Nazareth, and the history of the early Christian Church. This is a means to introduce the topic of remembering orthodoxy as that integrated biblical teaching as interpreted in its most consensual classic period, namely, the immediate post-apostolic period and the time leading up to and through the formulation of the great creeds of Christianity. Here tradition has a profound and substantial role not merely in the faithful recollection of Scripture but also the composition and canonization of Holy Writ. Evangelicals must take note: the Bible did not descend out of heaven in some Qur'anic fashion. The reality of Scripture is bound up with the reality of the Christian community. Tradition has a sacred and indispensable place in Christianity, like it or not.
Oden provides ample discussion to explain "Why Orthodoxy Persists," arguing (among other things) that it is cross-culturally agile, that God's sovereign grace is covenantally secure, and, significantly, because the Holy Spirit works to enable consent from generation to generation. He then compares the ecumenical success of Classic Christian orthodoxy with the failures of modern liberal ecumenism, which he believes can be attributed to its neglect of classic Christianity. A driving theme concerns ecumenical progression toward greater creedal unity. It is in the ancient ecumenism that contemporary efforts at ecumenism must find its model, its wisdom, and its substance. Here Oden is thoroughly convincing, especially when he speaks out of the depths of his ecumenical experiences on both sides of the centrist's fence.
Part two begins with a pithy summary of evidences for the rebirth of orthodoxy, which is immediately followed by Oden's intriguing personal odyssey. The remaining chapters provide avenues of introduction to "Rediscovering the Earliest Biblical Interpreters," "Strengthening the Multicultural Nature of Orthodoxy," marking and defending orthodoxy boundaries of doctrine and praxis, reshaping mainline denominations through the recovery of orthodox beliefs, and, finally, "Rediscovering the Classic Ecumenical Method."
Unfortunately, this book does suffer from some organizational problems that detract from its overall effectiveness. For example, Oden waits until nearly halfway through the book to provide his own born-again experience from the left-wing of Methodism into orthodox belief. Later still is his documentation of orthodox ecumenism's rebirth. Both items should have come earlier so as to provide the reader a horizon for interpreting the movement of the first three chapters and to telegraph the direction and purpose of succeeding chapters. Notwithstanding the book's structural curiosities, The Rebirth of Orthodoxy's several accommodating tables, efficient endnotes, and a good index round out an invaluable text that must make its way into every thinking Christian's hands and even a good number of ones who need to start thinking.
