Orthodoxy is shown, not proved. That is why there is only one way to understand Orthodoxy: through direct Orthodox experience. One hears that, in foreign lands, people are now learning how to swim, lying on the floor, with the aid of equipment. In the same way, one can become a Catholic or Protestant without experiencing life at all-by reading books in one's study. But to become Orthodox, it is necessary to immerse oneself all at once in the very element of Orthodoxy, to begin living in an Orthodox way. There is no other way.
------Fr. Pavel Florensky
The Pillar and Ground of the Truth
A friend and former teacher from when I belonged to a Protestant church recently told me he was reading a book called Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western Perspective by Daniel Clendenin, which I had just heard of and thought would be as good an introduction as any until I looked up and read this description on Amazon:
In this reliable and engaging survey, Daniel Clendenin introduces Protestants to Eastern Orthodox history and theology with the hope that the two groups will come to see their traditions as complementary...
Well, I'd definitely NOT recommend this book as an introduction to Orthodoxy because it approaches the subject from a totally Protestant mindset. All that studying Orthodox teaching with a western mindset will get you is a new way of thinking about what you already believe. However, Orthodoxy is not something we do alone in our study, but in our lives everyday. Certainly a Protestant or Catholic or anyone else can learn a lot from Orthodoxy and can even do some Orthodox practices like lighting candles and burning incense, and the more daring might even hand up some icons or practice the Jesus prayer, but none of that will get one very far. Orthodoxy is a whole piece. Divorced from the whole life of the Church, any practice becomes mere piety, and any teaching turns to academic speculation. But to live as an Orthodox Christian is to die to oneself and be raised in unity with the Source of all Life. The teachings and the practices are the experience of that goal. The quote above, I thought, explains the difference between the Orthodox and Catholic/Protestant ways well.
The description ends this way:
Clendenin examines at length a particular aspect of Orthodoxy's intersection with Protestantism-its growing exchange with evangelicalism.
I'm not sure what this means exactly. If he means an exchange of ideas that is understandable, writers read each others books. If he means an actual influence of one to the other I haven't seen it, not from the Orthodox side. Most Protestants I've known who have become Orthodox had well thought out reasons for doing so and would seem not to accept, one might even say hostile to, the thought of bringing anything of what they left into Orthodoxy. Once again, Orthodoxy is a whole piece, nothing needs to be added or removed. Being open minded about what other people are teaching and doing is fine, but he life of the mind cannot be confused with the life in the Spirit. A life within the Orthodox faith means being "not conformed but transformed". The only real exchange I have seen between Orthodoxy and evangelicalism is that people from the latter are joining the former as Protestant churches are dissolving into liberalism, fundamentalism, extra-church groups or movements that all but replace churches, and a do-it-yourself spirituality.
I really haven't kept up much with what movements have been in fashion in evangelical circles in the last several years since most of it begins in the US and I haven't lived there for the last 7 years, but most seem to be just that, fashions. Fashions come and go and lack any real depth to them, they may give one a feeling of being 'spiritual' or 'ancient' but lack a living connection to ancient Christianity. I'm thinking here of things like the Jewish Roots movement or the so-called Emerging Church (as though the Church hasn't always been, and been what it should be, and needs to emerge). I don't know if these movements are still moving, they didn't exist when I left the US, at least not in Alabama, and I don't keep up with the US as much recently.
I suggested to my friend a few books from authors who did write from within the Orthodox tradition, The Orthodox Church and The Orthodox Way by Bp. KALLISTOS Ware, and Mystical Theology of the Orthodox Church by Vladimir Lossky, if anyone is interested. The first two are meant as an introduction, the second for those interested in theology. I had to add that the only real way to understand Orthodoxy was to actually visit a church. Orthodoxy cannot be understood otherwise. I studied for months before stepping into an Orthodox church, and didn't learn half before as I did after. The Divine Liturgy, while not the totality or Orthodox experience, is it's hight. The liturgy is our movement into heavenly places. It's our action of unity with God and one another. It is where we "commit ourselves and one another and our whole life unto Christ our God."* Few have left as they entered.
So for those who are interested, in the words of the apostle St. Andrew: "Come and see." Many of those who have decided for themselves, "There is no other way."
Note: Forgive me is there was anything here you found offensive. I have spoken from 21 years of experience as a Protestant and from what I have seen from the outside looking in. In generalizing I have tried to be as accurate as possible, but please remember I am not speaking of YOU or YOUR church alone. Judge for yourself how much of what I have said applies to your own experience.
*A quote from the Divine Liturgy 
