The Reformed Ninja

Some Eastern Orthodox apologists have sought to adapt a form of Presuppositionalism in their defense of the Eastern Orthodox Church (EOC). Eastern Orthodox Presuppositionalism (EOP) is an ecclesiological epistemology, and even narrower still it is a sectarian epistemology, i.e. anti-catholic. In other words, according to EOP, the epistemological ground or cause of knowledge is said to be rooted in Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology, for EOP holds that the EOC is a precondition of intelligibility and knowledge. In contrast, Reformed Presuppositionalism (RP) is rooted in the Verbum Dei , with its epistemological ground seen to be God’s Word, and its epistemological consequence being unto and causative of ecclesiology. Put more simply, the RP position is that we can know the Church because of the transcendentally fundamental nature of God’s Word, not vice versa. The EOP position is that we know God’s Word because of the Church, thus causing the Scriptures and epistemology to submit to the Chu...

Introduction In his attempt at growing the Orthodox Church, Archpriest Josiah Trenham has made a name for himself as a relatively erenic interlocutor with Protestant, Reformed, and Evangelical Christians of multiple stripes. In claiming common ground with them, he makes mention in an interview of his time as a student at Westminster Seminary under RC Sproul, where he became attracted to ( here ), if not convicted of ( here ), what he saw as the truth of Eastern Orthodoxy. According to his testimony, he even began his earnest search into Orthodoxy prior to going to seminary, planning his seminary studies ahead of time to coordinate with this specific search ( here ). He was even known at seminary for not likely continuing in the faith of his seminary ( here ). The significance of this background seems to be that, although Trenham states to have come from a Reformed background, it is clear from his testimony that he had notably departed in spirit from Reformed Christianity already durin...