Reformed Baptist - Orthodox - Roman Catholic

So continuing on with my 'trying to understand what it's all about' pilgrimage I have a couple of more questions.

Is there a systematic theology for the Orthodox faith and Roman Catholicism?

I've got tons of Reformed stuff, so don't need any more.

Are there any resources that compare ALL three of these to each other?

mm.

Add on: So essentially I'm asking if there is an "orthodox" breakdown of Orthodox theology and R.C. theology. What I want to do is to compare for myself a specific doctrine/teaching such as salvation in all three traditions and come to some kind of resolution. I want to do that for each doctrine in each faith tradition.

Some may say, 'just read the Bible!' and I get that, but I'm just not that smart to read it (Bible) and not be curious about other traditions that I have come across. And I'm just not that simple/childlike to think, all I need are the Scriptures and nothing else and everything else is fodder.

I just really need to come to grips about the Faith before it's all said and done with before this milkman has delivered his last bottle of milk.

So if there is any direction out there I'm all ears.

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Comments

Alexxy Olu

I too will be interested in any response.

Thanks

P A

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/808233#Comment_808233

Perhaps this?

https://www.logos.com/product/26708/systematic-theology-roman-catholic-perspectives-2nd-ed

I do not own the resource, but it looks interesting.

P A

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/808239#Comment_808239

Maybe this?

https://www.logos.com/product/16871/systematic-theology-vol-1

P A

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/808240#Comment_808240

This looks promising!

https://www.logos.com/product/3683/systematic-theology

P A

George Simopoulos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/808241#Comment_808241

I found this monograph to be the most succinct and systematic treatment of Orthodox theology, which is rare because the Orthodox church tends to avoid systematic formulations of theology.

https://www.logos.com/product/37623/a-summary-of-christian-divinity

Doc B

Is there a systematic theology for the Orthodox faith and Roman Catholicism?

Are there any resources that compare ALL three of these to each other?

If you have Grudem's Systematic Theology, he goes into some detail on the different views, and lists systematic theologies from each tradition in his chapter bibliographies. While this won't give you the full content from each, it will at least point you to important RC/Orthodox/Protestant works on each systematic topic.

Ken McGuire

I think that what you are asking for doesn't exist. Not Eastern myself, but if I may quote the Foreword of a recent work by an Eastern Orthodox writer (a work I would recommend)....

Foreword

Orthodoxy has a problem with theology. The reasons for this problem are mainly historical. The science of theology developed in the medieval universities, and then passed through the waves of cultural history that swept through the West: Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Romanticism. But by the time the universities began to develop, in the twelfth century, Christendom had divided, and these developments all took place in a world from which Orthodoxy was estranged. In the twentieth century Orthodoxy encountered the West, and also theology as it had developed in that period of estrangement (earlier encounters, through the discussions connected with the union councils in the Middle Ages, and the establishment of theological academies and later theological faculties in universities in Orthodox countries, only compounded the problem by subjecting Orthodox theology to the “pseudomorphosis” so deplored by Fr Georges Florovsky). Most Orthodox are critical of the development of theology in the West, in particular the way theology had developed as an academic discipline, remote from the life of prayer (a complaint already heard in the West from the fourteenth century onwards), and yet the fruits of critical scholarship, which have led, among other things, to a rediscovery of the riches of the theology of the Fathers, can hardly be ignored. This has led to an uneasy coexistence between traditional theology and the critical spirit, one result of which has been Orthodox seeking refuge in historical scholarship focused on the period (from the fourth century onwards) when the dogmatic tradition had established itself (in this way shadowing the phenomenon in the Roman Catholic Church between the condemnation of Modernism in the papal decree Lamentabili in 1907 and the Second Vatican Council). 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.

Louth, A. (2001). Foreword. In The Way to Nicaea (Vol. I, pp. ix–x). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

What this Lutheran is hearing from especially the Eastern Orthodox and to some extent Rome is that they are not defined so much by academic theology, but more by mutual conversation about the faith. There is certainly overlap between these concepts, but they are not identical. Yes, of course, some ways of talking are condemned as heresy, and some ways of talking are lifted up as normative, but there has been, is, and hopefully will be a wide variety within this norm.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/808278#Comment_808278

Ken has provided an appropriate answer. The core of Orthodox is worship rather than theology. Alexander Schmeemann's books on liturgical theology are more fundamental to Orthodoxy than any introduction to / systematic theology. After the church fathers, I would think that Gregory Palamas is the most influential theologian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Eastern_Orthodox_theologians provides a nice list of the theologians that you could explore to see who might best meet your needs.

Stephen Terlizzi

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/808289#Comment_808289

I think you can find out everything you need to know about the Catholic faith and its theology by reading (1) the Catechism of the Catholic Church and (2) Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Both have great footnotes back to Sacred Scripture, writings of the Early Fathers, and teachings of the Magisterium throughout the Centuries.

Agape,

Steve

SineNomine

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/808292#Comment_808292

I think you can find out everything you need to know about the Catholic faith and its theology by reading (1) the Catechism of the Catholic Church and (2) Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Both have great footnotes back to Sacred Scripture, writings of the Early Fathers, and teachings of the Magisterium throughout the Centuries.

Agape,

Steve

Another option--slightly lighter reading--is the YouCat, the Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church, commissioned by Pope Benedict XVI. The Compendium of the Catholic Church is also a good option.