What is Paleo-Orthodoxy?

Paleo-orthodoxy sounds like a strange term indeed. It is a combination of two words: (1) "paleo" which means "old" or "ancient" and (2) "orthodox" which means "correct belief." Combine "paleo" and "orthodox" and you get the short, simple definition: ancient, correct belief.

Thomas C. Oden is the prominent theologian associated with paleo-orthodoxy. According to him, the term refers to the common faith of the ancient ecumenical church; i.e. the universal faith of the Church that existed before the East-West Schism of 1054 AD.

Wikipedia describes it as "a Protestant Christian theological movement of the late 20th and early 21st centuries which focuses on the consensual understanding of the faith among the Ecumenical councils and Church Fathers...Paleo-orthodoxy sees the essentials of Christian theology in the consensus of the old church before the schism between the Orthodox Church and the Roman-Catholic Church (the East-West Schism of 1054) and before the separation of Protestantism from the Catholic Church (the Protestant Reformation of 1517), described in the canon of Vincent of Lérins as "Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus" ("What [is believed] everywhere, always and by everyone").

So what is paleo-orthodoxy? It is a fairly modern theological movement among certain Protestant Christians, who seek to learn theology from the historical ecumenical consensus of the Church prior to the East-West Schism of 1054 AD.

Another term closely related to paleo-orthodoxy is classic Christianity or classical Christianity. Pocket Scroll is an informative blog that offers an excellent post that attempts to answer the question - "What is Classical Christianity?" The post is worth reading.