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Joe, thank you for creating a rich and interesting foundation for our studies and discussions.
I've only started reading "The Road to Nicea," but am finding Fr. Behr's writing to be pithy, clear, and containing an undercurrent of excitement, too. I'm looking forward to following the author as he delves into the writings of early Christian thinkers/writers to understand how they answered the question, "Who do you say that I am?" in the context of the Paschal Mystery, not within an emphasis on the Incarnation, as Louth implies that other writers have had the latter emphasis. (I am not qualified to make that broad of a statement; I'll have to see what I learn. It may be illuminating.)
However, I was taken aback by Andrew Louth's comment in the Foreward, "Biblical scholarship has not, on the whole, attracted the best Orthodox minds in the twentieth century, and there has been a tendency in such scholarship (especially perhaps in the case of the New Testament) to look to conservative Protestant and Catholic scholarship, with the consequent danger of confusing conservatism and Orthodoxy." (pages ix and x). He certainly is qualified to make such an assessment, but doing so both publicly and within his copious praise for Fr. Behr's scholarship, made his comment stand out in an odd way. There were other ways to express his disapproval or even internecine disagreement.
Plus, if I'm reading Louth's comments accurately, the American scholars he criticized were doing their work during a time when even I was aware that critical theology methods seemingly exploded on the national scene (at least it seemed that way to me) and were even exhibited on the cover of at least one major magazine (The Jesus Project). Meanwhile, the other Orthodox scholars in America had been and continued to be focused on liturgical renewal and spirituality. The New Testament Orthodox scholars were "breaking new ground" in writing for American Orthodox while in the midst of significant methodological criticism. The way I see it, they were working in what was akin to a war zone and their work should be valued for laying a foundation. To paraphrase a wise saying, one doesn't have to damn the other in order to praise the one.
Your thoughts?
Liz