Paleo-orthodoxy

Paleo-orthodoxy

Paleo-orthodoxy is a Protestant Christian movement that began in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The name "paleo-orthodoxy" comes from two ancient Greek words: παλαιός, meaning "ancient," and ὀρθοδοξία, meaning "correct belief."

This movement focuses on understanding faith by looking at the ideas of early church leaders and decisions from important church meetings called ecumenical councils. These early leaders and councils are known as the Church Fathers and are seen as having the true understanding of Christian beliefs.

Paleo-orthodoxy uses the word "paleo" to distinguish itself from another movement called neo-orthodoxy. Neo-orthodoxy was very influential in Protestant churches during the middle of the 20th century, but paleo-orthodoxy believes that returning to the older ideas of the Church Fathers is more important.

Background

Paleo-orthodoxy is a way of thinking about Christian beliefs. It looks at what many early Christian leaders agreed on. It focuses on ideas shared before big splits happened in the church, like the separation between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in 1054, and before Protestantism began in 1517. People who support paleo-orthodoxy often join a group called the Convergence Movement, but not all of them do. They may understand the early church's teachings in different ways.

Paleo-orthodox theologians

The main person behind this movement was Thomas C. Oden, a United Methodist teacher at Drew University. He wrote books asking people to return to "classical Christianity" and gave tools to help them do this.

Many other teachers joined this idea, including Robert Jenson, Christopher Hall, Amy Oden, Bradley Nassif, David Mills, Robert Webber, Geoffrey Wainwright, Carl Braaten, Stanley Grenz, John Franke, Alan Padget, Wolfhart Pannenberg, Richard John Neuhaus, and more. Others who supported this way of thinking were Marva Dawn, a Lutheran; Alister McGrath from the Church of England; Andrew Purves, a Presbyterian; Timothy George, a Baptist; and Christopher Hall, an Episcopalian. The movement also included J. Davila-Ashcraft and Emilio Alvarez.