Product Description

Beginning in the street ministry days of the Jesus Movement, Matthew Gallatin devoted more than 20 years to evangelical Christian ministry. He was a singer/songwriter, worship leader, youth leader, and Calvary Chapel pastor. Nevertheless, he eventually accepted a painful reality: no matter how hard he tried, he was never able to experience the God whom he longed to know. In encountering Orthodox Christianity, he finally found the fullness of the Faith.

In Thirsting for God, philosophy professor Gallatin expresses many of the struggles that a Protestant will encounter in coming face to face with Orthodoxy: such things as Protestant relativism, rationalism versus the Orthodox sacramental path to God, and the unity of Scripture and Tradition. He also discusses praying with icons, praying formal prayers, and many other Orthodox traditions.

An outstanding book that will help Orthodox readers more deeply appreciate their faith and will give Protestant readers a more thorough understanding of the Church.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #252800 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 189 pages

About the Author
Matthew Gallatin teaches Philosophy at North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He resides in Post Falls, Idaho, with his wife, Alice, and daughter, Kaci. Son Joshua lives in nearby Coeur d’Alene. The Gallatins are active members of St. John the Baptist Antiochian Orthodox Church in Post Falls.

Gallatin’s parents, both sincere Christians, instilled in him a commitment to seek out the truth about Christ—to discover what Christ really taught, and what He really expects of His children. This thirst for truth led his parents to embrace Seventh-day Adventism when Gallatin was thirteen. Paradoxically, the devotion to truth that his parents had cultivated in him eventually led Gallatin to question Adventist doctrine. At twenty-eight, after an intense five-year investigation of his Adventist beliefs, Gallatin left the church.

In time, Gallatin was ordained as a Calvary Chapel minister. His pastoral experience brought him face to face with an obvious problem: Bible-believing Protestants have different versions of the truth. Protestants hold contrary opinions about the nature of God, and contradictory notions about how people are saved. Making the problem worse is the fact that Protestants arrive at these various interpretations of truth by applying the same doctrine: sola scriptura, the belief that "the Scriptures alone" determine truth.

Given these circumstances, Gallatin saw that a Protestant can never have any assurance that his or her beliefs about God are actually true. The truth about God can never be anything more than one’s disputable personal opinion. He simply could not accept that God would leave His children so divided, confused, and unclear about Himself.

Gallatin’s quest for the truth about Christ ultimately led him to an encounter with the history and teachings of the Early Church. Through his studies, he came to understand that Christian truth is not discovered by interpreting the Scriptures. Rather, knowing the truth about God simply requires learning what Christians have believed about God since the beginning of the Christian faith. For a Christian, then, truth is a matter of historical fact, not theological interpretation.

Gallatin also discovered that the teachings and practices of the Early Church have been faithfully preserved in only one place—within the life, teachings, and worship practices of the Eastern Orthodox churches. While Roman Catholicism has retained much of the original Christian faith, it also has made changes and additions to it. Protestantism has simply discarded the bulk of those early Christian beliefs and practices.

Gallatin has recounted the steps on his journey into Orthodoxy in a new book entitled Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells. The book, available from Conciliar Press, details the self-contradictions that Gallatin discovered within Protestantism. It also presents the case for Eastern Orthodoxy, defending many of those early Church doctrines and practices that contemporary Protestants may question: liturgical worship, formal prayer, veneration of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, infant baptism, and the literal Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Customer Reviews

Recommended for both Protesant and Orthodox readers!
Although I've read a handful of books more than once, "Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells" is the first book that finished and started right over again!

I am a former Evangelical who had raised many questions about the Protestant church, but continued to hang on for lack of an alternative. It wasn't until I heard about the Eastern Orthodox Church at a lecture given by Frank Schaeffer in 1997, that I began investigating this pearl of great price.

Gallatin's book appeals to me in that he asked many of the same questions I did, but with his philosophical background, he approached them in greater depth. One friend of mine says that he attacks the rationalism of Protestantism using a rationalistic argument. This may be true, but some of us coming out of this background need to have head questions answered before we can commit our heart. (Once you become Orthodox, you realize this is all backwards.)

In the final chapter of this book, Gallatin writes, "I pray that Protestant readers have been challenged to come to grips with the inescapable inconsistencies of their theological heritage. I hope many of their misconceptions regarding the ancient Orthodox Faith have been dispelled. Most of all, I hope I have helped them to see Christianity in the light of its historical truth and its sacramental spirit."

He continues in the next paragraph with, "When it comes to Orthodox readers, my prayer is that this book has nurtured within them a deeper appreciation of their faith. Perhaps they have come to understand it better. Most of all, I hope that they will be able to use the perspectives presented here to help them as they share the truth of their faith in a predominantly Protestant society."

I would agree that he's on target on both counts. I'd recommend this title to both Protestant inquirers and Orthodox "evangelists."

From a Protestant perspective to the Orthodox Way...
As a recent convert to Orthodox Christianity from Protestantism, I'm always looking for things pertaining to the Orthodox Church as it is in America, and without the overtones of being "Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc." This book does that.

The first part of the book is that of the author's personal journey to Orthodoxy. After decades of trying to find the "True Way" among various Protestant denominations, he still felt that something was *missing* in the Protestant view of the Church and of the world. He also goes on to elaborate just what it was that seemed to be missing or contradictory in Protestant doctrine, both specifically, and in general.

The second part of the book is almost a handbook as to what the Orthodox church may look like to those coming from a Protestant viewpoint. Things such as veneration of icons, formal prayers, and church tradition are discussed here in a way for those who probably have had very little experience with these things.

I, myself, am tickled to read about others' journeys to (and within) Orthodoxy, particularly in America. I just sent this book in a package to my mom. I don't know if she will read it, but if she does, I hope that she will at least come away knowing that me becoming Orthodox has everything to do with the church, and very little to do with me being fascinated with Russia or whatnot.

....in such a short time you can persuade me....?
The question in Agrippa's (Acts 26:28) lips seems fitting now for mine. As a long-time and committed Reformed Protestant, I must say I have never been so challenged by such a work as this. I am amazed by how quickly Mr. Gallatin went through all my objections one by one and led me to seek out more about the Orthodox church. It is a well done and well written apologetic that left me hungry for more like it.