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Eastern Orthodox theology

January 23, 2023

Eastern Orthodox theology is the theology particular to the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is characterized by monotheistic Trinitarianism, belief in the Incarnation of the essentially divine Logos or only-begotten Son of God, a balancing of cataphatic theology with apophatic theology, a hermeneutic defined by a Sacred Tradition, a catholic ecclesiology, a robust of the person, and a principally recapitulative and therapeutic soteriology.

Holy Tradition

Ecclesiology

 
Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine (centre) and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

The Eastern Orthodox Church considers itself to be the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. The Eastern Orthodox Church asserts to have been very careful in preserving these traditions. Eastern Orthodox Christians regard the Christian Bible as a collection of inspired texts that sprang out of this tradition, not the other way around; and the choices made in the compilation of the New Testament as having come from comparison with already firmly established faith. The Bible has come to be a very important part of tradition, but not the only part.

Tradition also includes the Nicene Creed, the decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, the writings of the Church Fathers, as well as Eastern Orthodox laws (canons), liturgical books, icons, etc.

Consensus of the Fathers

See also: Theoria and Hesychasm

Eastern Orthodoxy interprets truth based on three witnesses: the consensus of the Holy Fathers of the Church; the ongoing teaching of the Holy Spirit guiding the life of the Church through the nous, or mind of the Church (also called the "Universal Consciousness of the Church"[1]), which is believed to be the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16); and the praxis of the church (including among other things asceticism, liturgy, hymnography, and iconography).

The consensus of the Church over time defines its catholicity—that which is believed at all times by the entire Church. St. Vincent of Lerins wrote in his Commonitoria (434 AD) that Church doctrine, like the human body, develops over time while still keeping its original identity: "[I]n the Orthodox Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all."[2] Those who disagree with that consensus are not accepted as authentic "Fathers." All theological concepts must be in agreement with that consensus. Even those considered to be authentic "Fathers" may have some theological opinions that are not universally shared, but are not thereby considered heretical. Some Holy Fathers have even made statements that were later defined as heretical, but their mistakes do not exclude them from position of authority. Thus an Eastern Orthodox Christian is not bound to agree with every opinion of every Father, but rather with the consensus of the Fathers, and then only on those matters about which the church is dogmatic.

Some of the greatest theologians in the history of the church come from the 4th century, including the Cappadocian Fathers and the Three Hierarchs. However, the Eastern Orthodox do not consider the "Patristic era" to be a thing of the past, but that it continues in an unbroken succession of enlightened teachers (i.e., the saints, especially those who have left us theological writings) from the Apostles to the present day.

Scripture

 
A page from a rare Georgian Bible (1030 AD), depicting the Raising of Lazarus.

From the Eastern Orthodox perspective, the Bible represents those texts approved by the Church for the purpose of conveying the most important parts of what it already believes. The Church more or less accepted the preexisting Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew scriptures as handed down to them from the Jews; but the New Testament texts were written to members or congregations of the Church which already existed. These texts were not universally considered canonical until the church reviewed, edited, accepted and ratified them in 368 AD.

The Greeks have always understood that certain sections of Scripture, while containing moral lessons and complex truth, do not necessarily have to be interpreted literally[citation needed]. The Eastern Orthodox also understand that a particular passage may be interpreted on many different levels simultaneously. However, interpretation is not a matter of personal opinion (2 Peter 1:20). For this reason, Eastern Orthodox depend upon the consensus of the Holy Fathers to provide a trustworthy guide to the accurate interpretation of Scripture.[3][4]

Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a strongly biblical church. A large portion of the Daily Office is made up of either direct portions of scripture (Psalms, lections) or allusions to scriptural passages or themes (hymnography such as that contained in the Octoechos, Triodion, Pentecostarion, etc.) The entire Psalter is read in the course of a week (twice during Great Lent). The entire New Testament (with the exception of the Book of Revelation) is read during the course of the year, and numerous passages are read from the Old Testament at Vespers and other services.

The Gospel Book is considered to be an icon of Christ, and is placed in a position of honour on the Holy Table (altar). The Gospel Book is traditionally not covered in leather (the skin of a dead animal) because the Word of God is considered to be life-giving. Traditionally, the Gospel is covered in gold or cloth. Eastern Orthodox Christians are encouraged to read and study the Bible daily, especially making use of the writings of the Holy Fathers for guidance.

Recent essays have been written by various contemporary Eastern Orthodox scholars which attempt to reconcile and react to both the creationist interpretation of Genesis 1-2 and the Darwinian theory of human evolution.[5]

God

Trinity

 
"Hospitality of Abraham", icon by Andrei Rublev; the three angels represent the Godhead according to Trinitarian Christians.

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in a monotheistic conception of God (God is only one), which is both transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material universe) and immanent (involved in the material universe).[6] In discussing God's relationship to his creation, Eastern Orthodox theology distinguishes between God's eternal essence, which is totally transcendent, and his uncreated energies, which is how he reaches humanity.[6] The God who is transcendent and the God who touches mankind are one and the same.[6] That is, these energies are not something that proceed from God or that God produces, but rather they are God himself: distinct, yet inseparable from God's inner being.[7]

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in a single God who is both three and one (triune); the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, "one in essence and undivided".[6] The Trinity, three distinct, divine persons (hypostases), without overlap or modality among them, who each have one divine essence (ousia, Greek: οὐσία)—uncreated, immaterial, and eternal.[8] The Father is eternal and not begotten and does not proceed from any, the Son is eternal and begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is eternal and proceeds from the Father.[6] Eastern Orthodox doctrine regarding the Trinity is summarised in the Nicene Creed.[9] The essence of God being that which is beyond human comprehension and cannot be defined or approached by human understanding.[10]

Christology

 

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe the Word of God (Greek: Λόγος) is one person in two natures, both fully divine and fully human, perfectly God (τέλειος Θεός) and perfectly man (τέλειος άνθρωπος) united in the person of Jesus Christ, in a unique event known as "the Incarnation".[11] Throughout the ages this has been a point of contention between schismatic Christian theological factions (heterodox) and the mainstream body of Christian believers (orthodox). Christ had a divine will, or set of desires and spiritual incentives, and a human will with fleshly drives. He had a human body, human mind, and human spirit able to be tempted with sin and to suffer the same way as we would. In this way God is said to have suffered and died in the flesh of Jesus, although the divine nature is itself impassible and immortal.

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah of the Jews, the God of Israel come to be with his people, the Redeemer of the human race who saves the world from sin and its effects, the comprehensible self-revelation of the incomprehensible God, and the pre-eternal Son begotten of the Father before all ages: "the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons), Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father."[12] He is said to have been begotten timelessly as God without a mother and begotten in history as man without a father.

Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in the betrayal, trial, execution, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that he truly rose from the dead on the third day following his crucifixion. The feast of the resurrection of Christ, which is called "Easter" in Germanic languages, is known as Pascha in the Eastern Orthodox Church. This is the Aramaic variant (the language spoken at the time of Jesus) of the Hebrew Pesach, meaning "Passover". The resurrection of Christ is the Christian Passover. Pascha is called "the Feast of Feasts" and is considered the greatest feast of all the Church's liturgical feasts, including the feasts of the Nativity (Christmas) and the Annunciation.

Essence and energies

Main article: Essence-Energies distinction

In discussing God's relationship to his creation a distinction is made within Eastern Orthodox theology between God's eternal essence and uncreated energies, though it is understood that this does not compromise the divine simplicity. Energies and essence are both inseparably God. The divine energies are the expressions of divine being in action according to Eastern Orthodox doctrine, whereas the persons of the Trinity are divine by nature. Hence, created beings are united to God through participation in the divine energies and not the divine essence or ousia.

Theodicy

The Eastern Orthodox theologian Olivier Clement,[13] wrote:

There is no need for Christians to create a special theory for justifying God (theodicy). To all the questions regarding the allowance of evil by God (the problem of evil) there is one answer - Christ; the Crucified Christ, Who burns up in Himself all the world's sufferings for ever; Christ, Who regenerates our nature and has opened the entry to the Kingdom of everlasting and full life to each one who desires it. The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that from the time of Christ's coming into the world, the fullness of Divine Love is revealed to those who believe in Him, the veil is fallen, and the Lord's sacrifice has demonstrated His Divine Love in His resurrection. It only remains for the faithful to partake of this Love: "O taste and see that the Lord is good," exclaims David the Psalmist.[14]

From an Eastern Orthodox perspective the concept of theodicy and the problem of evil stem both from a misconceived anthropology of man.[14] Early on in the history of the Christian community Gnostics attacked the God of the Jews and the story of cosmic creation contained in the Torah. They regarded this God as inferior for allowing his creation to be imperfect and negative events to occur. Western Roman Catholic philosophers (such as Augustine, Anselm of Canterbury, and Thomas Aquinas)[15] have attempted to develop theodicies for the Judeo-Christian God.[15]

The Church taught (against the Gnostics) that the cosmos is fallen not because God created it dysfunctional, but because humanity misused their freedom to love and chose a path separating them from God by idolatrously proclaiming their self-sufficiency. When humanity made this choice, it is taught in Eastern patristics, all of reality, i.e. every sphere of human experience, "fell" and was corrupted. The Eastern Orthodox understanding of creation stands in radical contrast to the fatalist approach to sin as taught by the Gnostics and later by strict Augustinians. God created sarx ("the flesh") as a provision for humanity, as led by the Spirit of God, to remedy its fallen state by using the time on earth to seek and reconcile with God, even as our common sarx separates us from Him.

Eastern Orthodox authors see theodicy as an exclusively Western preoccupation. Pavel Florensky in The Pillar and Ground of the Truth: An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters; Archbishop Stylianos in Theodicy and Eschatology: A Fundamental Orthodox Viewpoint in Theodicy and Eschatology (Australian Theological Forum Press 2005 ISBN 1-920691-48-0); Tsunami and Theodicy by David B. Hart, an Eastern Orthodox theologian and author of The Beauty of the Infinite; "The Lady and the Wench": A Practical Theodicy in Russian Literature by Paul Valliere; and with regard to one of the Fathers of the Church Irenaeus' Theodicy.

Sin

Main article: Eastern Orthodox view of sin

The Eastern Orthodox approach to sin, and how it is dealt with, shuns perceived Western "legalism." Following rules strictly without the heart "being in it" does not help a believer with his salvation. Sin is not fundamentally about transgressing a Divine law; rather, it stands for any behavior which "misses the mark," that is, fails to live up to the higher goal of conforming to God's nature, which is love.

Thus, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition sin is not viewed primarily as a guilty stain on the soul that needs to be wiped out, but rather as a pervading sickness or a failure to achieve the goal of a truly human life, fulfilling one's Divine design and function as the created likeness of God. Sin, therefore, implies the impetus to become something other than what we were created for, rather than guilt for violating a commandment. Because each person's experience is unique, conquering one's sinful habits requires individual attention and correction. The ultimate goal for this salvific process is to become divinized, to reflect the Divine likeness by becoming Christ-like in one's thought, life and behavior.

A traditional practice of Eastern Orthodoxy is, as in other apostolic churches, to have a spiritual mentor and guide to whom one confesses and who treats the sin on an individual basis. An experienced and spiritually mature guide will know how and when to apply strictness in dealing with sin and when to administer mercy.

Original Sin

In Eastern Orthodoxy, God created humanity with the ability to freely love him and gave humans a direction to follow. Man (Adam) and Woman (Eve) chose rather to disobey God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thus changing the "perfect" mode of existence of Man into a flawed or "fallen" one. Since then a fallen nature and all that has come from it is the result of this "Ancestral Sin".[16] Because of the entrance of death into the world through Adam, all humans end up sinning and follow in his ways (Rom. 5:12, Heb. 2:14-15). Through the union of humanity with divinity in Jesus Christ the mode of existence of humanity is restored in the Person of Christ. Those who are incorporated in him may participate in this renewal of the perfect mode of existence, be saved from sin and death, and be united to God in deification (theosis). Ancestral sin is cleansed in humans through baptism or, in the case of the Theotokos, the moment Christ took form within her.

Man is not seen as inherently guilty of the sin committed by Adam, a view that differs from the Roman Catholic doctrine of original sin, where Adam is conceived as the federal head and legal representative of the human race, as first articulated by Latin Father Augustine of Hippo, [note 1] According to the Orthodox, humanity inherited the consequences of Adam's sin, not the guilt. The difference stems from Augustine's interpretation of a Latin translation of Romans 5:12 to mean that through Adam all men sinned, whereas the Orthodox, reading in Greek, interpret it as meaning that all of humanity sins as a consequence of the inheritance from Adam of a mortal nature. The Orthodox Church does not teach that all are born guilty and deserving of damnation, and Protestant doctrines such as predestination which are derived from the Augustinian theory of original sin and are especially prominent in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions, are not a part of Orthodox belief.

In the book Ancestral Sin, John S. Romanides addresses the concept of original sin, which he understands as an inheritance of ancestral sin from previous generations. Romanides asserts that original sin (understood as innate guilt) is not an apostolic doctrine of the Church nor cohesive with the Eastern Orthodox faith, but rather an unfortunate innovation of later church fathers such as Augustine. In the realm of ascetics it is by choice, not birth, that one takes on the sins of the world.[17]

Hell

 
Detail of Hell in a painting depicting the Second Coming (Georgios Klontzas, late 16th century)
Main article: Christian views on Hell § Eastern Orthodox views

The Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Non-Chalcedonian Churches (i.e., Oriental Orthodoxy and Assyrian Church of the East), teach that both the elect and the lost enter into the presence of God after death, and that the elect experience this presence as light and rest, while the lost experience it as darkness and torment.[18] The Orthodox see this doctrine as supported by Scripture and by the patristic tradition. Hell as professed in the East is neither the absence of God, nor the ontological separation of the soul from the presence of God, but rather the opposite—Heaven and Hell are the fully manifest divine presence, experienced either pleasantly as peace and joy or unpleasantly as shame and anguish, depending upon one's spiritual state and preparedness.

Satan

In Eastern Orthodoxy, Satan is one of the three enemies of humanity along with sin and death.

Salvation

 
Eastern Orthodox icon of the Resurrection (14th-century fresco, Chora Church, Istanbul).

Disrupted communion with God

Eastern Orthodox Christians hold that man was originally created in communion with God, but through acting in a manner contrary to his own nature (which is intrinsically ordered to communion with God), he disrupted that communion. Because of man's refusal to fulfill the "image and likeness of God" within him, corruption and the sickness of sin whose consequence is death entered man's mode of existence. But when Jesus came into the world he was perfect man and perfect God united in the divine Hypostasis of the Logos, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Through his assumption of human nature, human existence was restored, enabling human beings to bring creation to its fullness through participation in divinity by incorporation into Jesus Christ. St. Athanasius:

The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father, Who could recreate man made after the Image. In order to effect this re-creation, however, He had first to do away with death and corruption. Therefore He assumed a human body, in order that in it death might once and for all be destroyed, and that men might be renewed according to the Image [of God].[19]

Salvation, or "being saved," therefore, refers to this process of being saved from death and corruption and the fate of hell. The Orthodox Church believes that its teachings and practices represent the true path to participation in the gifts of God. Yet, it should be understood that the Orthodox do not believe that you must be Orthodox to participate in salvation. God is merciful to all. The Orthodox believe that there is nothing that a person (Orthodox or non-Orthodox) can do to earn salvation. It is rather a gift from God. However, this gift of relationship has to be accepted by the believer, since God will not force salvation on humanity. Man is free to reject the gift of salvation continually offered by God. To be saved, man must work together with God in a synergeia whereby his entire being, including his will, effort and actions, are perfectly conformed with, and united to, the divine. Vladimir Lossky:

God becomes powerless before human freedom; He cannot violate it since it flows from His own omnipotence. Certainly man was created by the will of God alone; but he cannot be deified [made Holy] by it alone. A single will for creation, but two for deification. A single will to raise up the image, but two to make the image into a likeness. The love of God for man is so great that it cannot constrain; for there is no love without respect. Divine will always will submit itself to gropings, to detours, even to revolts of human will to bring it to a free consent.[20]

Incarnation

 

Prior to Christ's incarnation on Earth it was man's "fate", when he died, because of the fall of Adam, to be separated from God. Because man distorted his mode of existence through acting against what was natural to him - thus disobeying God - humanity placed itself in a terrible and inescapable position. God, however, raised humanity's fallen nature by uniting his divine nature with our human nature. This he accomplished through the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who assumed human nature, thus becoming man, whilst retaining the divine nature proper to divinity. It is fundamental for Orthodox Christians that they accept Christ as both God and Man, both natures complete. This is viewed as the only way of escaping the hell of separation from God. The incarnation unites humanity to divinity. Orthodox Christians believe that because of that Incarnation, everything is different. It is said that St Basil stated: "We are to strive to become little gods, within God, little jesus christs within Jesus Christ". In other words, Orthodox Christians must seek perfection in all things in their lives; and strive to acquire Godly virtue. It is believed that God, through assuming humanity, makes it possible for man to participate in divinity. Orthodox Christians do not believe in becoming "separate" gods in the pagan sense; rather, they believe that humans may participate in the divine energies of God without loss of their personal particularity. Humans, therefore, become by grace what God is by nature ("God became man so that man might become a god.", De Incarnatione, Athanasius of Alexandria[21]).

Resurrection

Main article: Death and Resurrection of Jesus
 

The Resurrection of Christ is the central event in the liturgical year of the Orthodox Church and is understood in literal terms as a real historical event. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified and died, descended into Hades, rescued all the souls held there as a consequence of their having sinned; and then, because Hades could not restrain the infinite God, rose from the dead, thus saving all humanity. Through these events, he released humanity from the bonds of Hades and then came back to the living as man and God. That each individual human may partake of this immortality, which would have been impossible without the Resurrection, is the main promise held out by God in his New Covenant with humanity, according to Orthodox Christian tradition.

Every holy day of the Orthodox liturgical year relates to the Resurrection directly or indirectly. Every Sunday of the year is dedicated to celebrating the Resurrection; many Orthodox believers will refrain from kneeling or prostrating on Sundays in observance thereof. Even in the liturgical commemorations of the Passion of Christ during Holy Week, there are frequent allusions to the ultimate victory at its completion.

Deification

The ultimate goal of the Orthodox Christian is to achieve theosis ("deification") or conformity to and intimate union with God. This is sometimes expressed thus: "God became man so that Man might become god." Some of the greatest saints have achieved, in this life, a measure of this process. The individual who achieves theosis never realizes his accomplishment, as his perfect humility keeps him blind to pride. Salvation therefore is not merely an escape from the eternal bondage of death, but an entrance to life in Christ here and now.

Noetic renewal as spiritual therapy

A central concept in Eastern Christianity is nous (typically translated "mind" or "understanding"), the apperceptive and relational faculty of attention or awareness which is the center, heart, or spirit of the person.[22][23] Nous is the eye or soul of the person.[24][25] It is the nous that is both logical and intuitive understanding.[26] It was humanity's nous that was damaged by Adam's sin and fall and it was this damaged consciousness that each human by birth now receives.

It is the nous which has to be healed and nourished by means of illumination (see theoria).[27] In Orthodox thought, the Church offers a therapeutic treatment for pain, suffering, and the search for value in existence. Orthodox Christianity is healing or therapeutic, and works in each individual to overcome their passions (i.e. evil thoughts, pasts, addictions).[26]

As a reorientation of the self, faith (pistis) is sometimes used interchangeably with noesis in Eastern Christianity.[28] Faith is the intuitive, noetic experience of the nous or spirit. Transformative faith is a gift from God and among his uncreated operations.[29]

According to anti-Latin polemicist John Romanides, Western Christianity does not offer a spiritual cure for spiritual problems, but expresses salvation as a worldly (religious) goal in the pursuit of happiness, rather than seeking to attain the vision of God and transcend the self.[30] Spiritual work is done to reconcile the heart and mind, by putting the mind in the heart, and then contemplating through our intuition.[26][note 2] According to Lossky, rationalism reduces man and nature to cold mechanical concepts, interpretations and symbols of reality not reality in and of itself.[27][32]

Mother of God

 
The Theotokos of Vladimir, one of the most venerated of Orthodox Christian icons of the Virgin Mary.
Main article: Theotokos

A great many traditions revolve around the Ever-Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, the Birth-giver in Incarnation of the preeternal Word of God. It is believed by Orthodox Christians that she was and remained a virgin before and after Christ's birth. Many of the Church's beliefs concerning the Virgin Mary are reflected in the apocryphal text "The Nativity of Mary", which was not included in scripture, but is considered to be accurate in its description of events. The child Mary was consecrated at the age of three to serve in the temple as a temple virgin. Zachariah, at that time High Priest of the Temple, did the unthinkable and carried Mary into the Holy of Holies as a sign of her importance – that she herself would become the ark in which God would take form. At the age of twelve she was required to give up her position and marry, but she desired to remain forever a virgin in dedication to God. And so it was decided to marry her to a close relative, Joseph, an uncle or cousin, an older man, a widower, who would take care of her and allow her to retain her virginity. And so it was that when the time came she submitted to God's will and allowed the Christ to take form within her. It is believed by many Orthodox that she, in her life, committed no sin; however, the Orthodox do not accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate conception. The Theotokos was subject to original sin as the Orthodox understand it, yet she lived her life stainless and pure. In the theology of the Orthodox Church, it is most important to understand that Christ, from the very moment of conception, was fully God and fully man. Therefore, Orthodox Christians believe that it is correct to say that Mary is indeed the Theotokos, the Birth-giver of God, and that she is the greatest of all humans ever to have lived (except, of course, for Christ her Son). The term 'Theotokos' has tremendous theological significance to Orthodox Christians, as it was at the center of the Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries AD.

After her great role was accomplished, the Church believes she remained a virgin, continuing to serve God in all ways. She traveled much with her son, and was present both at his Passion on the Cross and at his ascension into heaven. It is also believed that she was the first to know of her son's resurrection – the Archangel Gabriel appearing to her once more revealed it to her. It is believed she lived to the age of seventy and called all the apostles to her before she died. According to tradition Saint Thomas arrived late and was not present at her death. Desiring to kiss her hand one last time he opened her tomb but her body was gone. The Orthodox believe she was assumed into heaven bodily; however, unlike in the Roman Catholic Church, it is not held dogmatically and the holy day is usually referred to as the Feast of the Dormition, not that of the Assumption.

Saints, relics, and the deceased

In the Eastern Orthodox Church a saint is defined as anyone who is currently in Heaven, whether recognized here on earth or not. By this definition, Adam and Eve, Moses, the various prophets, martyrs for the faith, the angels and archangels are all given the title of Saint. There is a service in the Orthodox Church in which a saint is formally recognized by the entire Church, called glorification. This does not, however, "make" a saint but simply accords him or her a place on the calendar with regular services in his honor. Recently, in order to avoid abuses, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has begun to follow the longstanding practice of other local Orthodox churches by issuing special encyclical letters (tomoi) in which the Church acknowledges the popular veneration of a saint. Glorification usually happens after believers have already begun venerating a saint. There are numerous small local followings of countless saints that have not yet been recognized by the entire Orthodox Church.

A strong element in favor of glorification can be the perceived miraculous condition of physical remains (relics), although that alone is not considered sufficient. In some Orthodox countries it is the custom to re-use graves after three to five years due to limited space. Bones are respectfully washed and placed in an ossuary, often with the person's name written on the skull. Occasionally when a body is exhumed something believed to be miraculous occurs to reveal the person's sainthood. There have been numerous occurrences where the exhumed bones are said to suddenly give off a wonderful fragrance, like flowers; or sometimes the body is said to be found incorrupt despite having not been embalmed (traditionally the Orthodox do not embalm the dead) and having been buried for three years.

For the Orthodox, body and soul both comprise the person, and in the end, body and soul will be reunited; therefore, the body of a saint shares in the holiness of the soul of the saint.

Orthodox venerate saints and ask for their prayers, and consider them brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Saints are venerated and loved and asked to intercede for salvation, but they are not given the worship accorded to God, because their holiness is believed to come from God. In fact, anyone who worships a saint, relics, or icons is to be excommunicated. As a general rule only clergy will touch relics in order to move them or carry them in procession; however, in veneration the faithful will kiss the relic to show love and respect toward the saint. Every altar in every Orthodox church contains relics, usually of a martyr. The Church building interiors are covered with the icons of saints.

The Orthodox Church sees baptism, both for infants and adults, as the moment one is incorporated into Christ. The person baptised is given a new name, usually the name of a saint. As well as birthdays, Orthodox celebrate the day of the saint for whom the person is named (the person's name day).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky, Orthodox Theology, Part II: God Manifest in the World, 5. Concerning Evil and Sin Footnote on Augustine and Original Sin. Man's fall into sin Perhaps no doctrine of the Eastern Orthodox Church has caused such heated discussions and misunderstandings in our day as has this doctrine of original or ancestral sin. The misunderstandings usually occur either from the desire to define the doctrine too precisely, or from overreactions to this over-definition. The expressions of the early Fathers in general (apart from Blessed Augustine in the West) do not go into the “how” of this matter, but simply state:“When Adam had transgressed, his sin reached unto all men” (St. Athanasius the Great, Four Discourses Against the Arians, 1, 51, Eerdmans English tr., p. 336). Some Eastern Orthodox Christians have mistakenly defended the Augustinian notion of “original guilt" — that is, that all men have inherited the guilt of Adam's sin — and others, going to the opposite extreme,have denied altogether the inheritance of sinfulness from Adam. Pomazansky rightly points out, in his balanced presentation, that from Adam we have indeed inherited our tendency towards sin, together with the death and corruption that are now part of our sinful nature, but we have not inherited the guilt of Adam's personal sin. The term “original sin” itself comes from Blessed Augustine's treatise De Peccato Originale, and a few people imagine that merely to use this term implies acceptance of Augustine's exaggerations of this doctrine. This, of course, need not be the case. In Greek (and Russian) there are two terms used to express this concept, usually translated “original sin” and “ancestral sin.” One Eastern Orthodox scholar in the Greek (Old Calendar) Church describes them as follows: “There are two terms used in Greek for 'original sin.' The first, progoniki amartia is used frequently in the Fathers (St. Symeon the New Theologian, St. Maximus the Confessor). I have always seen it translated 'original sin,' though Greek theologians are careful when they use the term to distinguish it from the term as it is applied in translating St. Augustine. The second expression one sees is to propatorikon amartima, which is literally 'ancestral sin.' John Karmiria, the Greek theologian, suggests in his dogmatic volumes that the latter term, used in later confessions, does not suggest anything as strong as Augustinian 'original sin,' but certainly suggests that 'everyone is conceived in sin.' “There are sometimes extreme reactions against and for original sin. As recent Greek theologians have pointed out, original sin in Orthodoxy is so tied to the notion of divinization (theosis) and the unspotted part of man (and thus to Christology) that the Augustinian overstatement (of man's fallen nature) causes some discomfort. In the expression 'original sin' the West often includes original guilt, which so clouds the divine potential in man that the term becomes burdensome. There is, of course, no notion of original guilt in Orthodoxy. The Western notion compromises the spiritual goal of man, his theosis and speaks all too lowly of him. Yet rejecting the concept because of this misunderstanding tends to lift man too high — dangerous in so arrogant a time as ours. The balanced Orthodox view is that man has received death and corruption through Adam (original sin), though he does not share Adam's guilt. Many Orthodox, however, have accepted an impossible translation of Romans 5:12, which does not say that we have all sinned in Adam, but that, like Adam, we have all sinned and have found death” (Archimandrite Chrysostomos, St. Gregory Palamas Monastery, Hayesville, Ohio). The King James Version rightly translates Romans 5:12 as: “And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” The Latin translation of the latter clause, “in whom all have sinned,” overstates the doctrine and might be interpreted to imply that all men are guilty of Adam's sin. [1]
  2. ^ Father Archimandrite Rafael (Karelin): "Conquer yourself – this is the highest of all victories."[31]

References

  1. ^ Pomazansky, op. cit., p. 35
  2. ^ (Chap. XXIII, §§ 54–59)
  3. ^ Kallistos (Ware), Bishop (1963). The Orthodox Church. London: Penguin Books (published 1964). pp. 204, ff. ISBN 0-14-020592-6.
  4. ^ Pomazansky, Protopresbyter Michael. "Orthodox Dogmatic Theology". 1984 [English trans.] (Rev. by author, 1973 ed.). Platina, California: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood: 61. LOC # 84-051294. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ Maletis, John P. (2008). "Let There Be Light: An Orthodox Christian Theory of Human Evolution For The 21st Century". Theandros. 5 (3). ISSN 1555-936X.
  6. ^ a b c d e Theokritoff, Elizabeth (2010) [2008]. "Part I: Doctrine and Tradition - Creator and creation". In Cunningham, Mary B.; Theokritoff, Elizabeth (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 63–77. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521864848.005. ISBN 9781139001977.
  7. ^ Ware 1993, pp. 67–69.
  8. ^ Ware 1993, pp. 208–211.
  9. ^ Ware 1993, p. 202.
  10. ^ Lossky, V. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
  11. ^ Louth, Andrew (2007). "The Place of Theosis in Orthodox Theology". In Christensen, Michael J.; Wittung, Jeffery A. (eds.). Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions. Madison, New Jersey and Vancouver, British Columbia: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. pp. 32–44. ISBN 978-0-8386-4111-8. LCCN 2006017877.
  12. ^ Nicene Creed
  13. ^ In Memoriam: Olivier Clément
  14. ^ a b http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/parables_potapov.htm Gospel parables, an Eastern Orthodox commentary By Father Victor Potapov
  15. ^ a b God and evil: an introduction to the issues By Michael L. Peterson ISBN 978-0-8133-2849-2 pg 94 [2]
  16. ^ Versus Original Sin: An Overview with Implications for Psychotherapy by V. Rev. Antony Hughes, M.Div St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  17. ^ Romanides, John S. (2002). Ancestral Sin. Ridgewood, NJ: Zephyr Pub. ISBN 0-9707303-1-4.
  18. ^ Heaven, Hell, and the Afterlife According to the Bible, an Orthodox account
  19. ^ St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation
  20. ^ Vladimir Lossky, Orthodox Theology: An Introduction
  21. ^ "Musings on Theosis or Divinization -- "God became man so that man might become a god"". www.biblicalcatholic.com. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  22. ^ http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/neptic_monasticism.html
  23. ^ Orthodox Psychotherapy. Chapter III by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN 978-960-7070-27-2 [3] January 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ What is the Human Nous? by John Romanides [4]
  25. ^ Orthodox Psychotherapy Section The Knowledge of God according to St. Gregory Palamas by Metropolitan Metropolitan Hierotheos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Greece (January 1, 2005) ISBN 978-960-7070-27-2 [5]
  26. ^ a b c . Archived from the original on February 1, 2009. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  27. ^ a b Orthodox Dogmatic Theology: A Concise Exposition Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky Appendices New currents in Russian philosophico-theological thought Philosophy and Theology.[6]
  28. ^ Nikitas Stithatos-On the Inner Nature of Things and on the Purification of the Intellect: One Hundred Texts Palmer, G.E.H; Sherrard, Philip; Ware, Kallistos (Timothy). The Philokalia, Vol. 4 ISBN 0-571-19382-X
  29. ^ Glossary of terms from the Philokalia pg 430 Palmer, G.E.H; Sherrard; Ware, Kallistos (Timothy). The Philokalia, Vol. 4 ISBN 0-571-19382-X
  30. ^ The Cure Of The Neurobiological Sickness Of Religion The Hellenic Civilization Of The Roman Empire, Charlemagne's Lie Of 794, And His Lie Today by John S. Romanides [7]
  31. ^ Differences in the Religious Thinking Between the East and the West. by Father Archimandrite Rafael (Karelin).[8]
  32. ^ History of Russian Philosophy by Nikolai Lossky ISBN 978-0-8236-8074-0 p. 87

Sources

Further reading

External links

January 23, 2023
eastern, orthodox, theology, this, article, multiple, issues, please, help, improve, discuss, these, issues, talk, page, learn, when, remove, these, template, messages, this, article, uses, bare, urls, which, uninformative, vulnerable, link, please, consider, . This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article uses bare URLs which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting such as Reflinks documentation reFill documentation and Citation bot documentation August 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Eastern Orthodox theology news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article is written like a personal reflection personal essay or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor s personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style January 2023 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message Eastern Orthodox theology is the theology particular to the Eastern Orthodox Church It is characterized by monotheistic Trinitarianism belief in the Incarnation of the essentially divine Logos or only begotten Son of God a balancing of cataphatic theology with apophatic theology a hermeneutic defined by a Sacred Tradition a catholic ecclesiology a robust of the person and a principally recapitulative and therapeutic soteriology Contents 1 Holy Tradition 1 1 Ecclesiology 1 2 Consensus of the Fathers 1 3 Scripture 2 God 2 1 Trinity 2 2 Christology 2 3 Essence and energies 2 4 Theodicy 3 Sin 3 1 Original Sin 3 2 Hell 3 3 Satan 4 Salvation 4 1 Disrupted communion with God 4 2 Incarnation 4 3 Resurrection 4 4 Deification 4 5 Noetic renewal as spiritual therapy 5 Mother of God 6 Saints relics and the deceased 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 9 1 Sources 10 Further reading 11 External linksHoly Tradition EditEcclesiology Edit Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine centre and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea 325 holding the Niceno Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 The Eastern Orthodox Church considers itself to be the one holy catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles The Eastern Orthodox Church asserts to have been very careful in preserving these traditions Eastern Orthodox Christians regard the Christian Bible as a collection of inspired texts that sprang out of this tradition not the other way around and the choices made in the compilation of the New Testament as having come from comparison with already firmly established faith The Bible has come to be a very important part of tradition but not the only part Tradition also includes the Nicene Creed the decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils the writings of the Church Fathers as well as Eastern Orthodox laws canons liturgical books icons etc Consensus of the Fathers Edit See also Theoria and Hesychasm Eastern Orthodoxy interprets truth based on three witnesses the consensus of the Holy Fathers of the Church the ongoing teaching of the Holy Spirit guiding the life of the Church through the nous or mind of the Church also called the Universal Consciousness of the Church 1 which is believed to be the Mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2 16 and the praxis of the church including among other things asceticism liturgy hymnography and iconography The consensus of the Church over time defines its catholicity that which is believed at all times by the entire Church St Vincent of Lerins wrote in his Commonitoria 434 AD that Church doctrine like the human body develops over time while still keeping its original identity I n the Orthodox Church itself all possible care must be taken that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere always by all 2 Those who disagree with that consensus are not accepted as authentic Fathers All theological concepts must be in agreement with that consensus Even those considered to be authentic Fathers may have some theological opinions that are not universally shared but are not thereby considered heretical Some Holy Fathers have even made statements that were later defined as heretical but their mistakes do not exclude them from position of authority Thus an Eastern Orthodox Christian is not bound to agree with every opinion of every Father but rather with the consensus of the Fathers and then only on those matters about which the church is dogmatic Some of the greatest theologians in the history of the church come from the 4th century including the Cappadocian Fathers and the Three Hierarchs However the Eastern Orthodox do not consider the Patristic era to be a thing of the past but that it continues in an unbroken succession of enlightened teachers i e the saints especially those who have left us theological writings from the Apostles to the present day Scripture Edit A page from a rare Georgian Bible 1030 AD depicting the Raising of Lazarus From the Eastern Orthodox perspective the Bible represents those texts approved by the Church for the purpose of conveying the most important parts of what it already believes The Church more or less accepted the preexisting Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew scriptures as handed down to them from the Jews but the New Testament texts were written to members or congregations of the Church which already existed These texts were not universally considered canonical until the church reviewed edited accepted and ratified them in 368 AD The Greeks have always understood that certain sections of Scripture while containing moral lessons and complex truth do not necessarily have to be interpreted literally citation needed The Eastern Orthodox also understand that a particular passage may be interpreted on many different levels simultaneously However interpretation is not a matter of personal opinion 2 Peter 1 20 For this reason Eastern Orthodox depend upon the consensus of the Holy Fathers to provide a trustworthy guide to the accurate interpretation of Scripture 3 4 Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a strongly biblical church A large portion of the Daily Office is made up of either direct portions of scripture Psalms lections or allusions to scriptural passages or themes hymnography such as that contained in the Octoechos Triodion Pentecostarion etc The entire Psalter is read in the course of a week twice during Great Lent The entire New Testament with the exception of the Book of Revelation is read during the course of the year and numerous passages are read from the Old Testament at Vespers and other services The Gospel Book is considered to be an icon of Christ and is placed in a position of honour on the Holy Table altar The Gospel Book is traditionally not covered in leather the skin of a dead animal because the Word of God is considered to be life giving Traditionally the Gospel is covered in gold or cloth Eastern Orthodox Christians are encouraged to read and study the Bible daily especially making use of the writings of the Holy Fathers for guidance Recent essays have been written by various contemporary Eastern Orthodox scholars which attempt to reconcile and react to both the creationist interpretation of Genesis 1 2 and the Darwinian theory of human evolution 5 God EditTrinity Edit Hospitality of Abraham icon by Andrei Rublev the three angels represent the Godhead according to Trinitarian Christians Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in a monotheistic conception of God God is only one which is both transcendent wholly independent of and removed from the material universe and immanent involved in the material universe 6 In discussing God s relationship to his creation Eastern Orthodox theology distinguishes between God s eternal essence which is totally transcendent and his uncreated energies which is how he reaches humanity 6 The God who is transcendent and the God who touches mankind are one and the same 6 That is these energies are not something that proceed from God or that God produces but rather they are God himself distinct yet inseparable from God s inner being 7 Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in a single God who is both three and one triune the Father Son and Holy Spirit one in essence and undivided 6 The Trinity three distinct divine persons hypostases without overlap or modality among them who each have one divine essence ousia Greek oὐsia uncreated immaterial and eternal 8 The Father is eternal and not begotten and does not proceed from any the Son is eternal and begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit is eternal and proceeds from the Father 6 Eastern Orthodox doctrine regarding the Trinity is summarised in the Nicene Creed 9 The essence of God being that which is beyond human comprehension and cannot be defined or approached by human understanding 10 Christology Edit Eastern Orthodox Christians believe the Word of God Greek Logos is one person in two natures both fully divine and fully human perfectly God teleios 8eos and perfectly man teleios an8rwpos united in the person of Jesus Christ in a unique event known as the Incarnation 11 Throughout the ages this has been a point of contention between schismatic Christian theological factions heterodox and the mainstream body of Christian believers orthodox Christ had a divine will or set of desires and spiritual incentives and a human will with fleshly drives He had a human body human mind and human spirit able to be tempted with sin and to suffer the same way as we would In this way God is said to have suffered and died in the flesh of Jesus although the divine nature is itself impassible and immortal Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah of the Jews the God of Israel come to be with his people the Redeemer of the human race who saves the world from sin and its effects the comprehensible self revelation of the incomprehensible God and the pre eternal Son begotten of the Father before all ages the only begotten Son of God begotten of the Father before all worlds aeons Light of Light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father 12 He is said to have been begotten timelessly as God without a mother and begotten in history as man without a father Eastern Orthodox Christians believe in the betrayal trial execution burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ that he truly rose from the dead on the third day following his crucifixion The feast of the resurrection of Christ which is called Easter in Germanic languages is known as Pascha in the Eastern Orthodox Church This is the Aramaic variant the language spoken at the time of Jesus of the Hebrew Pesach meaning Passover The resurrection of Christ is the Christian Passover Pascha is called the Feast of Feasts and is considered the greatest feast of all the Church s liturgical feasts including the feasts of the Nativity Christmas and the Annunciation Essence and energies Edit Main article Essence Energies distinction In discussing God s relationship to his creation a distinction is made within Eastern Orthodox theology between God s eternal essence and uncreated energies though it is understood that this does not compromise the divine simplicity Energies and essence are both inseparably God The divine energies are the expressions of divine being in action according to Eastern Orthodox doctrine whereas the persons of the Trinity are divine by nature Hence created beings are united to God through participation in the divine energies and not the divine essence or ousia Theodicy Edit The Eastern Orthodox theologian Olivier Clement 13 wrote There is no need for Christians to create a special theory for justifying God theodicy To all the questions regarding the allowance of evil by God the problem of evil there is one answer Christ the Crucified Christ Who burns up in Himself all the world s sufferings for ever Christ Who regenerates our nature and has opened the entry to the Kingdom of everlasting and full life to each one who desires it The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that from the time of Christ s coming into the world the fullness of Divine Love is revealed to those who believe in Him the veil is fallen and the Lord s sacrifice has demonstrated His Divine Love in His resurrection It only remains for the faithful to partake of this Love O taste and see that the Lord is good exclaims David the Psalmist 14 From an Eastern Orthodox perspective the concept of theodicy and the problem of evil stem both from a misconceived anthropology of man 14 Early on in the history of the Christian community Gnostics attacked the God of the Jews and the story of cosmic creation contained in the Torah They regarded this God as inferior for allowing his creation to be imperfect and negative events to occur Western Roman Catholic philosophers such as Augustine Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas 15 have attempted to develop theodicies for the Judeo Christian God 15 The Church taught against the Gnostics that the cosmos is fallen not because God created it dysfunctional but because humanity misused their freedom to love and chose a path separating them from God by idolatrously proclaiming their self sufficiency When humanity made this choice it is taught in Eastern patristics all of reality i e every sphere of human experience fell and was corrupted The Eastern Orthodox understanding of creation stands in radical contrast to the fatalist approach to sin as taught by the Gnostics and later by strict Augustinians God created sarx the flesh as a provision for humanity as led by the Spirit of God to remedy its fallen state by using the time on earth to seek and reconcile with God even as our common sarx separates us from Him Eastern Orthodox authors see theodicy as an exclusively Western preoccupation Pavel Florensky in The Pillar and Ground of the Truth An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters Archbishop Stylianos in Theodicy and Eschatology A Fundamental Orthodox Viewpoint in Theodicy and Eschatology Australian Theological Forum Press 2005 ISBN 1 920691 48 0 Tsunami and Theodicy by David B Hart an Eastern Orthodox theologian and author of The Beauty of the Infinite The Lady and the Wench A Practical Theodicy in Russian Literature by Paul Valliere and with regard to one of the Fathers of the Church Irenaeus Theodicy Sin EditMain article Eastern Orthodox view of sin The Eastern Orthodox approach to sin and how it is dealt with shuns perceived Western legalism Following rules strictly without the heart being in it does not help a believer with his salvation Sin is not fundamentally about transgressing a Divine law rather it stands for any behavior which misses the mark that is fails to live up to the higher goal of conforming to God s nature which is love Thus in the Eastern Orthodox tradition sin is not viewed primarily as a guilty stain on the soul that needs to be wiped out but rather as a pervading sickness or a failure to achieve the goal of a truly human life fulfilling one s Divine design and function as the created likeness of God Sin therefore implies the impetus to become something other than what we were created for rather than guilt for violating a commandment Because each person s experience is unique conquering one s sinful habits requires individual attention and correction The ultimate goal for this salvific process is to become divinized to reflect the Divine likeness by becoming Christ like in one s thought life and behavior A traditional practice of Eastern Orthodoxy is as in other apostolic churches to have a spiritual mentor and guide to whom one confesses and who treats the sin on an individual basis An experienced and spiritually mature guide will know how and when to apply strictness in dealing with sin and when to administer mercy Original Sin Edit In Eastern Orthodoxy God created humanity with the ability to freely love him and gave humans a direction to follow Man Adam and Woman Eve chose rather to disobey God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thus changing the perfect mode of existence of Man into a flawed or fallen one Since then a fallen nature and all that has come from it is the result of this Ancestral Sin 16 Because of the entrance of death into the world through Adam all humans end up sinning and follow in his ways Rom 5 12 Heb 2 14 15 Through the union of humanity with divinity in Jesus Christ the mode of existence of humanity is restored in the Person of Christ Those who are incorporated in him may participate in this renewal of the perfect mode of existence be saved from sin and death and be united to God in deification theosis Ancestral sin is cleansed in humans through baptism or in the case of the Theotokos the moment Christ took form within her Man is not seen as inherently guilty of the sin committed by Adam a view that differs from the Roman Catholic doctrine of original sin where Adam is conceived as the federal head and legal representative of the human race as first articulated by Latin Father Augustine of Hippo note 1 According to the Orthodox humanity inherited the consequences of Adam s sin not the guilt The difference stems from Augustine s interpretation of a Latin translation of Romans 5 12 to mean that through Adam all men sinned whereas the Orthodox reading in Greek interpret it as meaning that all of humanity sins as a consequence of the inheritance from Adam of a mortal nature The Orthodox Church does not teach that all are born guilty and deserving of damnation and Protestant doctrines such as predestination which are derived from the Augustinian theory of original sin and are especially prominent in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions are not a part of Orthodox belief In the book Ancestral Sin John S Romanides addresses the concept of original sin which he understands as an inheritance of ancestral sin from previous generations Romanides asserts that original sin understood as innate guilt is not an apostolic doctrine of the Church nor cohesive with the Eastern Orthodox faith but rather an unfortunate innovation of later church fathers such as Augustine In the realm of ascetics it is by choice not birth that one takes on the sins of the world 17 Hell Edit Detail of Hell in a painting depicting the Second Coming Georgios Klontzas late 16th century Main article Christian views on Hell Eastern Orthodox views The Eastern Orthodox Church as well as the Non Chalcedonian Churches i e Oriental Orthodoxy and Assyrian Church of the East teach that both the elect and the lost enter into the presence of God after death and that the elect experience this presence as light and rest while the lost experience it as darkness and torment 18 The Orthodox see this doctrine as supported by Scripture and by the patristic tradition Hell as professed in the East is neither the absence of God nor the ontological separation of the soul from the presence of God but rather the opposite Heaven and Hell are the fully manifest divine presence experienced either pleasantly as peace and joy or unpleasantly as shame and anguish depending upon one s spiritual state and preparedness Satan Edit In Eastern Orthodoxy Satan is one of the three enemies of humanity along with sin and death Salvation Edit Eastern Orthodox icon of the Resurrection 14th century fresco Chora Church Istanbul Disrupted communion with God Edit Eastern Orthodox Christians hold that man was originally created in communion with God but through acting in a manner contrary to his own nature which is intrinsically ordered to communion with God he disrupted that communion Because of man s refusal to fulfill the image and likeness of God within him corruption and the sickness of sin whose consequence is death entered man s mode of existence But when Jesus came into the world he was perfect man and perfect God united in the divine Hypostasis of the Logos the Second Person of the Holy Trinity Through his assumption of human nature human existence was restored enabling human beings to bring creation to its fullness through participation in divinity by incorporation into Jesus Christ St Athanasius The Word of God came in His own Person because it was He alone the Image of the Father Who could recreate man made after the Image In order to effect this re creation however He had first to do away with death and corruption Therefore He assumed a human body in order that in it death might once and for all be destroyed and that men might be renewed according to the Image of God 19 Salvation or being saved therefore refers to this process of being saved from death and corruption and the fate of hell The Orthodox Church believes that its teachings and practices represent the true path to participation in the gifts of God Yet it should be understood that the Orthodox do not believe that you must be Orthodox to participate in salvation God is merciful to all The Orthodox believe that there is nothing that a person Orthodox or non Orthodox can do to earn salvation It is rather a gift from God However this gift of relationship has to be accepted by the believer since God will not force salvation on humanity Man is free to reject the gift of salvation continually offered by God To be saved man must work together with God in a synergeia whereby his entire being including his will effort and actions are perfectly conformed with and united to the divine Vladimir Lossky God becomes powerless before human freedom He cannot violate it since it flows from His own omnipotence Certainly man was created by the will of God alone but he cannot be deified made Holy by it alone A single will for creation but two for deification A single will to raise up the image but two to make the image into a likeness The love of God for man is so great that it cannot constrain for there is no love without respect Divine will always will submit itself to gropings to detours even to revolts of human will to bring it to a free consent 20 Incarnation Edit Prior to Christ s incarnation on Earth it was man s fate when he died because of the fall of Adam to be separated from God Because man distorted his mode of existence through acting against what was natural to him thus disobeying God humanity placed itself in a terrible and inescapable position God however raised humanity s fallen nature by uniting his divine nature with our human nature This he accomplished through the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who assumed human nature thus becoming man whilst retaining the divine nature proper to divinity It is fundamental for Orthodox Christians that they accept Christ as both God and Man both natures complete This is viewed as the only way of escaping the hell of separation from God The incarnation unites humanity to divinity Orthodox Christians believe that because of that Incarnation everything is different It is said that St Basil stated We are to strive to become little gods within God little jesus christs within Jesus Christ In other words Orthodox Christians must seek perfection in all things in their lives and strive to acquire Godly virtue It is believed that God through assuming humanity makes it possible for man to participate in divinity Orthodox Christians do not believe in becoming separate gods in the pagan sense rather they believe that humans may participate in the divine energies of God without loss of their personal particularity Humans therefore become by grace what God is by nature God became man so that man might become a god De Incarnatione Athanasius of Alexandria 21 Resurrection Edit Main article Death and Resurrection of Jesus The Resurrection of Christ is the central event in the liturgical year of the Orthodox Church and is understood in literal terms as a real historical event Jesus Christ the Son of God was crucified and died descended into Hades rescued all the souls held there as a consequence of their having sinned and then because Hades could not restrain the infinite God rose from the dead thus saving all humanity Through these events he released humanity from the bonds of Hades and then came back to the living as man and God That each individual human may partake of this immortality which would have been impossible without the Resurrection is the main promise held out by God in his New Covenant with humanity according to Orthodox Christian tradition Every holy day of the Orthodox liturgical year relates to the Resurrection directly or indirectly Every Sunday of the year is dedicated to celebrating the Resurrection many Orthodox believers will refrain from kneeling or prostrating on Sundays in observance thereof Even in the liturgical commemorations of the Passion of Christ during Holy Week there are frequent allusions to the ultimate victory at its completion Deification Edit The ultimate goal of the Orthodox Christian is to achieve theosis deification or conformity to and intimate union with God This is sometimes expressed thus God became man so that Man might become god Some of the greatest saints have achieved in this life a measure of this process The individual who achieves theosis never realizes his accomplishment as his perfect humility keeps him blind to pride Salvation therefore is not merely an escape from the eternal bondage of death but an entrance to life in Christ here and now Noetic renewal as spiritual therapy Edit A central concept in Eastern Christianity is nous typically translated mind or understanding the apperceptive and relational faculty of attention or awareness which is the center heart or spirit of the person 22 23 Nous is the eye or soul of the person 24 25 It is the nous that is both logical and intuitive understanding 26 It was humanity s nous that was damaged by Adam s sin and fall and it was this damaged consciousness that each human by birth now receives It is the nous which has to be healed and nourished by means of illumination see theoria 27 In Orthodox thought the Church offers a therapeutic treatment for pain suffering and the search for value in existence Orthodox Christianity is healing or therapeutic and works in each individual to overcome their passions i e evil thoughts pasts addictions 26 As a reorientation of the self faith pistis is sometimes used interchangeably with noesis in Eastern Christianity 28 Faith is the intuitive noetic experience of the nous or spirit Transformative faith is a gift from God and among his uncreated operations 29 According to anti Latin polemicist John Romanides Western Christianity does not offer a spiritual cure for spiritual problems but expresses salvation as a worldly religious goal in the pursuit of happiness rather than seeking to attain the vision of God and transcend the self 30 Spiritual work is done to reconcile the heart and mind by putting the mind in the heart and then contemplating through our intuition 26 note 2 According to Lossky rationalism reduces man and nature to cold mechanical concepts interpretations and symbols of reality not reality in and of itself 27 32 Mother of God Edit The Theotokos of Vladimir one of the most venerated of Orthodox Christian icons of the Virgin Mary Main article Theotokos A great many traditions revolve around the Ever Virgin Mary the Theotokos the Birth giver in Incarnation of the preeternal Word of God It is believed by Orthodox Christians that she was and remained a virgin before and after Christ s birth Many of the Church s beliefs concerning the Virgin Mary are reflected in the apocryphal text The Nativity of Mary which was not included in scripture but is considered to be accurate in its description of events The child Mary was consecrated at the age of three to serve in the temple as a temple virgin Zachariah at that time High Priest of the Temple did the unthinkable and carried Mary into the Holy of Holies as a sign of her importance that she herself would become the ark in which God would take form At the age of twelve she was required to give up her position and marry but she desired to remain forever a virgin in dedication to God And so it was decided to marry her to a close relative Joseph an uncle or cousin an older man a widower who would take care of her and allow her to retain her virginity And so it was that when the time came she submitted to God s will and allowed the Christ to take form within her It is believed by many Orthodox that she in her life committed no sin however the Orthodox do not accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate conception The Theotokos was subject to original sin as the Orthodox understand it yet she lived her life stainless and pure In the theology of the Orthodox Church it is most important to understand that Christ from the very moment of conception was fully God and fully man Therefore Orthodox Christians believe that it is correct to say that Mary is indeed the Theotokos the Birth giver of God and that she is the greatest of all humans ever to have lived except of course for Christ her Son The term Theotokos has tremendous theological significance to Orthodox Christians as it was at the center of the Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries AD After her great role was accomplished the Church believes she remained a virgin continuing to serve God in all ways She traveled much with her son and was present both at his Passion on the Cross and at his ascension into heaven It is also believed that she was the first to know of her son s resurrection the Archangel Gabriel appearing to her once more revealed it to her It is believed she lived to the age of seventy and called all the apostles to her before she died According to tradition Saint Thomas arrived late and was not present at her death Desiring to kiss her hand one last time he opened her tomb but her body was gone The Orthodox believe she was assumed into heaven bodily however unlike in the Roman Catholic Church it is not held dogmatically and the holy day is usually referred to as the Feast of the Dormition not that of the Assumption Saints relics and the deceased Edit Relics of Saint Demetrius in Thessalonika Greece In the Eastern Orthodox Church a saint is defined as anyone who is currently in Heaven whether recognized here on earth or not By this definition Adam and Eve Moses the various prophets martyrs for the faith the angels and archangels are all given the title of Saint There is a service in the Orthodox Church in which a saint is formally recognized by the entire Church called glorification This does not however make a saint but simply accords him or her a place on the calendar with regular services in his honor Recently in order to avoid abuses the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has begun to follow the longstanding practice of other local Orthodox churches by issuing special encyclical letters tomoi in which the Church acknowledges the popular veneration of a saint Glorification usually happens after believers have already begun venerating a saint There are numerous small local followings of countless saints that have not yet been recognized by the entire Orthodox Church A strong element in favor of glorification can be the perceived miraculous condition of physical remains relics although that alone is not considered sufficient In some Orthodox countries it is the custom to re use graves after three to five years due to limited space Bones are respectfully washed and placed in an ossuary often with the person s name written on the skull Occasionally when a body is exhumed something believed to be miraculous occurs to reveal the person s sainthood There have been numerous occurrences where the exhumed bones are said to suddenly give off a wonderful fragrance like flowers or sometimes the body is said to be found incorrupt despite having not been embalmed traditionally the Orthodox do not embalm the dead and having been buried for three years For the Orthodox body and soul both comprise the person and in the end body and soul will be reunited therefore the body of a saint shares in the holiness of the soul of the saint Orthodox venerate saints and ask for their prayers and consider them brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus Saints are venerated and loved and asked to intercede for salvation but they are not given the worship accorded to God because their holiness is believed to come from God In fact anyone who worships a saint relics or icons is to be excommunicated As a general rule only clergy will touch relics in order to move them or carry them in procession however in veneration the faithful will kiss the relic to show love and respect toward the saint Every altar in every Orthodox church contains relics usually of a martyr The Church building interiors are covered with the icons of saints The Orthodox Church sees baptism both for infants and adults as the moment one is incorporated into Christ The person baptised is given a new name usually the name of a saint As well as birthdays Orthodox celebrate the day of the saint for whom the person is named the person s name day See also EditByzantine philosophy Russian philosophy History of Eastern Orthodox theology History of Eastern Orthodox theology in the 20th century Palamism Essence energies distinction Theosis Eastern Christian theology Christian contemplation Phronema Mariology Theological differences between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church Ecclesiastical differences between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox ChurchNotes Edit Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky Orthodox Theology Part II God Manifest in the World 5 Concerning Evil and Sin Footnote on Augustine and Original Sin Man s fall into sin Perhaps no doctrine of the Eastern Orthodox Church has caused such heated discussions and misunderstandings in our day as has this doctrine of original or ancestral sin The misunderstandings usually occur either from the desire to define the doctrine too precisely or from overreactions to this over definition The expressions of the early Fathers in general apart from Blessed Augustine in the West do not go into the how of this matter but simply state When Adam had transgressed his sin reached unto all men St Athanasius the Great Four Discourses Against the Arians 1 51 Eerdmans English tr p 336 Some Eastern Orthodox Christians have mistakenly defended the Augustinian notion of original guilt that is that all men have inherited the guilt of Adam s sin and others going to the opposite extreme have denied altogether the inheritance of sinfulness from Adam Pomazansky rightly points out in his balanced presentation that from Adam we have indeed inherited our tendency towards sin together with the death and corruption that are now part of our sinful nature but we have not inherited the guilt of Adam s personal sin The term original sin itself comes from Blessed Augustine s treatise De Peccato Originale and a few people imagine that merely to use this term implies acceptance of Augustine s exaggerations of this doctrine This of course need not be the case In Greek and Russian there are two terms used to express this concept usually translated original sin and ancestral sin One Eastern Orthodox scholar in the Greek Old Calendar Church describes them as follows There are two terms used in Greek for original sin The first progoniki amartia is used frequently in the Fathers St Symeon the New Theologian St Maximus the Confessor I have always seen it translated original sin though Greek theologians are careful when they use the term to distinguish it from the term as it is applied in translating St Augustine The second expression one sees is to propatorikon amartima which is literally ancestral sin John Karmiria the Greek theologian suggests in his dogmatic volumes that the latter term used in later confessions does not suggest anything as strong as Augustinian original sin but certainly suggests that everyone is conceived in sin There are sometimes extreme reactions against and for original sin As recent Greek theologians have pointed out original sin in Orthodoxy is so tied to the notion of divinization theosis and the unspotted part of man and thus to Christology that the Augustinian overstatement of man s fallen nature causes some discomfort In the expression original sin the West often includes original guilt which so clouds the divine potential in man that the term becomes burdensome There is of course no notion of original guilt in Orthodoxy The Western notion compromises the spiritual goal of man his theosis and speaks all too lowly of him Yet rejecting the concept because of this misunderstanding tends to lift man too high dangerous in so arrogant a time as ours The balanced Orthodox view is that man has received death and corruption through Adam original sin though he does not share Adam s guilt Many Orthodox however have accepted an impossible translation of Romans 5 12 which does not say that we have all sinned in Adam but that like Adam we have all sinned and have found death Archimandrite Chrysostomos St Gregory Palamas Monastery Hayesville Ohio The King James Version rightly translates Romans 5 12 as And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned The Latin translation of the latter clause in whom all have sinned overstates the doctrine and might be interpreted to imply that all men are guilty of Adam s sin 1 Father Archimandrite Rafael Karelin Conquer yourself this is the highest of all victories 31 References Edit Pomazansky op cit p 35 Chap XXIII 54 59 Kallistos Ware Bishop 1963 The Orthodox Church London Penguin Books published 1964 pp 204 ff ISBN 0 14 020592 6 Pomazansky Protopresbyter Michael Orthodox Dogmatic Theology 1984 English trans Rev by author 1973 ed Platina California Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood 61 LOC 84 051294 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Maletis John P 2008 Let There Be Light An Orthodox Christian Theory of Human Evolution For The 21st Century Theandros 5 3 ISSN 1555 936X a b c d e Theokritoff Elizabeth 2010 2008 Part I Doctrine and Tradition Creator and creation In Cunningham Mary B Theokritoff Elizabeth eds The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology Cambridge and New York Cambridge University Press pp 63 77 doi 10 1017 CCOL9780521864848 005 ISBN 9781139001977 Ware 1993 pp 67 69 Ware 1993 pp 208 211 Ware 1993 p 202 Lossky V The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church Louth Andrew 2007 The Place of Theosis in Orthodox Theology In Christensen Michael J Wittung Jeffery A eds Partakers of the Divine Nature The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions Madison New Jersey and Vancouver British Columbia Fairleigh Dickinson University Press pp 32 44 ISBN 978 0 8386 4111 8 LCCN 2006017877 Nicene Creed In Memoriam Olivier Clement a b http www fatheralexander org booklets english parables potapov htm Gospel parables an Eastern Orthodox commentary By Father Victor Potapov a b God and evil an introduction to the issues By Michael L Peterson ISBN 978 0 8133 2849 2 pg 94 2 Versus Original Sin An Overview with Implications for Psychotherapy by V Rev Antony Hughes M Div St Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church Cambridge Massachusetts Romanides John S 2002 Ancestral Sin Ridgewood NJ Zephyr Pub ISBN 0 9707303 1 4 Heaven Hell and the Afterlife According to the Bible an Orthodox account St Athanasius On the Incarnation Vladimir Lossky Orthodox Theology An Introduction Musings on Theosis or Divinization God became man so that man might become a god www biblicalcatholic com Retrieved February 7 2021 http www greekorthodoxchurch org neptic monasticism html Orthodox Psychotherapy Chapter III by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery Greece January 1 2005 ISBN 978 960 7070 27 2 3 Archived January 6 2009 at the Wayback Machine What is the Human Nous by John Romanides 4 Orthodox Psychotherapy Section The Knowledge of God according to St Gregory Palamas by Metropolitan Metropolitan Hierotheos published by Birth of Theotokos Monastery Greece January 1 2005 ISBN 978 960 7070 27 2 5 a b c Life After Death 1 Archived from the original on February 1 2009 Retrieved December 17 2008 a b Orthodox Dogmatic Theology A Concise Exposition Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky Appendices New currents in Russian philosophico theological thought Philosophy and Theology 6 Nikitas Stithatos On the Inner Nature of Things and on the Purification of the Intellect One Hundred Texts Palmer G E H Sherrard Philip Ware Kallistos Timothy The Philokalia Vol 4 ISBN 0 571 19382 X Glossary of terms from the Philokalia pg 430 Palmer G E H Sherrard Ware Kallistos Timothy The Philokalia Vol 4 ISBN 0 571 19382 X The Cure Of The Neurobiological Sickness Of Religion The Hellenic Civilization Of The Roman Empire Charlemagne s Lie Of 794 And His Lie Today by John S Romanides 7 Differences in the Religious Thinking Between the East and the West by Father Archimandrite Rafael Karelin 8 History of Russian Philosophy by Nikolai Lossky ISBN 978 0 8236 8074 0 p 87 Sources Edit Ware Bishop Kallistos Timothy 1991 first published 1964 The Orthodox Church revised original ed New York Penguin Books ISBN 978 0 14 013529 9 Ware Bishop Kallistos Timothy April 29 1993 The Orthodox Church new ed New York Penguin Books ISBN 978 0 14 014656 1Further reading EditVladimir Lossky The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church St Vladimir s Seminary Press 1997 ISBN 0 913836 31 1 James Clarke amp Co Ltd 1991 ISBN 0 227 67919 9 Vladimir Lossky Orthodox Theology An Introduction SVS Press 2001 ISBN 0 913836 43 5 Vladimir Lossky In the Image and Likeness of God SVS Press 1997 ISBN 0 913836 13 3 Vladimir Lossky The Vision of God SVS Press 1997 ISBN 0 913836 19 2 Kallistos Ware The Orthodox Way St Vladimir s Seminary Press 1995 ISBN 0 913836 58 3 Tr Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware The Lenten Triodion St Tikhon s Seminary Press 2002 ISBN 1 878997 51 3 first published by Faber and Faber Ltd 1978 Kallistos Ware The Inner Kingdom Collected Works Vol 1 St Vladimir s Seminary Press 2000 ISBN 0 88141 209 0 Kallistos Ware In the Image of the Trinity Collected Works Vol 2 St Vladimir s Seminary Press 2006 ISBN 0 88141 225 2 Communion and Intercommunion Light amp Life 1980 ISBN 0 937032 20 4 Bishop Kallistos Ware How Are We Saved The Understanding of Salvation in the Orthodox Tradition Light amp Life 1996 ISBN 1 880971 22 4 Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky Orthodox Dogmatic Theology A Concise Exposition St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Press 1994 ISBN 0938635 69 7 Online version 9 Let There Be Light An Orthodox Christian Theory of Human Evolution For the 21st Century Theandros Summer 2008 ISSN 1555 936X 10 External links EditAn Online Orthodox Catechism published by the Russian Orthodox Church Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Eastern Orthodox theology amp oldid 1134726596, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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