Why I Became Catholic and not Orthodox by Professor ROBERT MOORE-JUMONVILLE
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n 2019, at the Easter Vigil, I was received into the Catholic Church. My decision came as a surprise to some, though those who knew me well saw my confirmation as the culmination of years of deliberation. Let me add some context. For 33 years, I had served as an elder in the United Methodist Church and 21 of those years as a pastor in rural Midwestern parishes. In addition, for almost 30 years I have taught theology, Christian history, and spiritual formation at two evangelical universities, and I earned my doctorate in a program titled “The History of Christianity in the West.” For years, I considered joining the Orthodox Church, but in the end, I decided against it. It might be constructive to reflect on the factors that spurred my decision.
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My first real exposure to Orthodoxy occurred about 20 years ago, when two of my Protestant clergy friends drew me into reading Orthodox theology. We had all been pondering the validity of Protestant sacraments. And what is there not to love about Orthodox theology—its history and its mystery? The Eastern Church lives comfortably with theological paradoxes and puzzles, whereas the Catholic Church tends to parse every theological nuance. That difference in theological temperament between East and West can be observed as far back as the 3rd century— for instance, if we compare Origen with Tertullian. In these past two decades, my library has become stuffed with Orthodox books by Athanasius, Chrysostom, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, Symeon the New Theologian, Kallistos Ware, John Meyendorff, Lev
