Carlton, The Way, Review

Carlton, The Way

Review

The Way[1] is a well written collection of anecdotes.  Deriving from a culture where all Christians are expected to give their “testimony” as an element of Christian witness, it is among the best ever: both charming and witty.

That being said, it carries the flaw of all anecdotal appeals.  It rests on a sample size of one.  It tugs on the emotions, more than on the νοῦς (Greek: mind, rationality, thought processes).  While it reports one individual’s journey from being a Baptist to becoming Orthodox; it does not appear to be an accurate portrayal of either group as a whole.  The reports concerning the individual are honest enough, but they end up being overgeneralized, and not at all analytical.  While the book strives for the truth, it fails of that goal because of a lack of scope.

This would not be a fault worth reporting if the outcome were the furtherance of genuine Christian unity; instead the result becomes highly argumentative and divisive.  This result works itself out in alarming errors: errors, which if perpetuated allow Christians to continue talking past each other rather than with each other.[2]

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[1] Carlton, Clark, The Way, (Regina, Salisbury, MA: 1997), 221 pages

[2] “I wrote it to invite you to enter the fullness of the truth.  Such an invitation implies, however, that Evangelicals [and Catholics] do not possess the fullness of the truth.”  This requires that we define fullness.  Fullness is the fact that the Holy Ghost brings all that there is to bring of God, and the things of God, to The Church.  Thus, the claim for exclusive Orthodox fullness is patently false, and obviously heretical.  It assumes that Orthodoxy determines the dispensing of the Holy Ghost, exclusively; rather than accepting the fact that the Holy Ghost exclusively determines what is catholic and orthodox, and what is neither catholic nor orthodox.  We venture to claim that there is a great deal among Protestantism that the Holy Ghost fully blesses as both catholic and orthodox.  Similarly, there is a great deal within Orthodoxy which the Holy Ghost curses as Donatism, which is neither catholic nor orthodox.  The Orthodox claim for exclusive fullness is merely so much arrogance.  Wherever the Holy Ghost choses to be, there is the fullness of The Church.  Carlton, Clark, The Way, (Regina, Salisbury, MA: 1997), page 29

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