Reddit mentions of Welcome to the Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity

The difficulty in understanding comes from the western idea of "original sin".

The basic idea there is that the sin of Adam/Eve is inherited by all of us, and isn't washed away until we are baptized. That complicates the question of babies for them, and so the concept of "limbo" was introduced - the edge of hell, where various people end up, as a consequence of their original sin. Limbo isn't official Catholic doctrine, however, but it does reflect some of the challenges that come with that idea of inherited original sin.

Orthodoxy doesn't have this idea of original sin, however. Rather, sin was simply introduced into the world with that first sin, and with that the world fell. We still live in a fallen world, and we grapple with the consequences of the fallen world - but that doesn't mean we each, personally, are responsible for the sin of someone else (Adam/Eve). We are responsible for our own sins - but the nature of fallenness is that we are still impacted by each other's sins.

My favorite book to recommend to people exploring Orthodoxy, and especially seeing it in relation to Catholicism and Protestantism, is Welcome to the Orthodox Church by Frederica Matthewes-Green. The section in which she describes the different conceptions of sin and atonement is a great one, and she beautifully illustrates the various understandings in ways that are easy to follow. She talks a lot about this stuff and it's a great starting point and general resource to have on hand.

There have been a lot of answers that touched upon this or that detail, but I'm not sure if anyone has clearly mentioned the most important thing:

The Orthodox Church is One, and you don't have to speak Serbian (or any other particular language) or be culturally Serbian (or any other particular culture) in order to be Orthodox.

You haven't mentioned which country you live in, but in most English-speaking countries it's not too difficult to find a nearby Orthodox church that does the services in English and where most of the people attending are native English speakers. If you happen to live in the US or Canada, here is an extremely useful Orthodox church locator:

http://www.assemblyofbishops.org/directories/parishes

Most parish churches belonging to the OCA (Orthodox Church in America) and to the Antiochian Archdiocese, are exclusively English-speaking. Here are the respective websites of the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese:

https://www.oca.org/

http://www.antiochian.org/

Obviously, as Aletheia mentioned, since this is the Orthodox sub, you are going to get responses encouraging you to convert to Orthodoxy - and my response is one of them. I just want you to know that language and culture are not a barrier. There are a lot of English-language Orthodox resources online. Here is just one of them:

https://www.ancientfaith.com/

I feel that, especially since you do not go to church regularly now, you should definitely give Orthodoxy a try. Find an English-speaking parish near you, attend a few services and talk to the priest. You may be pleasantly surprised. And maybe your fiance will be pleasantly surprised too, and get to learn more about his faith.

And speaking of your fiance, here are some good books that serve as great introductions to Orthodoxy. No matter what you decide to do, I think you should definitely get one (or all) of these for him, to help him learn more about his faith:

Welcome to the Orthodox Church - this book tries to explain everything about Orthodoxy from the perspective of a fictional convert joining a fictional Orthodox parish; it's particularly good for understanding the Liturgy and other elements of Orthodox praxis

Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy - this book explains the differences between Orthodoxy and other forms of Christianity (and even talks a bit about non-Christian religions), and has a really good chapter on Catholicism

Know the Faith - this book explains Orthodox theology, particularly arguing against Protestant ideas that are common in the West

Of course, it may be that your future father-in-law really just wants his grandchildren to be Serbian, rather than just Orthodox. In that case, you can tell him that you will raise them in the Orthodox faith, but if on top of that he wants them to learn Serbian customs - well, that's what their father (your husband) will be there for.

But since faith and nationality are often seen as one and the same by most Serbs (and other cultures too), there's a good chance that raising the children Orthodox would be enough, for even the most patriotic Serbian father-in-law.

A few other points of note:

>We have decided to do two ceremonies to try to respect both religions and upbringings.

That is not possible - not unless you can find priests willing to break their respective Churches' rules. Marriage is a sacrament in both the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. This means that you can only get married in church if both spouses have some level of commitment to that specific faith and if they agree to raise the children in that faith.

Basically, the Church that you do not want to raise your children in, will not agree to marry you. Unless you can find a priest who will break the rules for you. But you really shouldn't.

>He claimed that because I am a woman, it is expected that I conform to my husband's religion in terms of raising children. He said this is historically how it has always been amongst both of our 'patriarchal' religions.

He's wrong, but not in a way that changes your situation.

According to the Orthodox Church, it doesn't matter who is the man and who is the woman. If the husband was Catholic and the wife was Orthodox, the Church would still say that they should raise the children Orthodox, and they cannot get an Orthodox marriage if they don't want to raise their children Orthodox.

To get an Orthodox marriage, the official requirements are:

1. At least one of the spouses must be Orthodox (doesn't matter which one)
   
2. The other spouse must be a baptized Christian who believes in the Holy Trinity
   
3. They must agree to raise their children Orthodox
   
   Some cultures insist more on this if the husband is Orthodox, but the Church doesn't.

I haven't read it yet, but have heard great things about "Welcome to the Orthodox Church." It also comes with supporting videos. Frederica Matthewes-Green (author/presenter) is a former Protestant herself.

I'm also excited to see "Journey to Fullness." Fr Barnabas is a former Pentecostal pastor, so he too can speak from a former Protestant perspective.

There's an excellent book called Welcome to the Orthodox Church by Frederica Mathewes-Green that is exactly what you're looking for right now. If you don't want to wait to read it, it's available in audiobook form and read by the author, which in Frederica's case I always recommend.

Our priest gave us this one and said it's one of the best intro books he's read. I'm half way through, and it's not bad. It's very basic and covers the bases pretty well.

https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Orthodox-Church-Introduction-Christianity/dp/1557259216

>specifically Greek Orthodoxy

All Orthodoxy are the same (minus Oriental). Greek, Russian, Antiochian, etc. We all teach and profess the same theology and Christianity, we just use different languages and have slightly different cultures.

https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Orthodox-Church-Introduction-Christianity/dp/1557259216

It's for the non-specialist.

Welcome to the Orthodox Church by Frederica Mathewes-Green

The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware

are both good books on the subject.

I can dump a few lectures on YouTube if you want.