Session 11 - Doctrine and Dogma

Doctrine Matters

In our lives we are concerned about what is true. Whether it is a jury listening to the facts of a trial to come to a right conclusion, a nurse providing just the right amount of medication, or engineers checking and rechecking their math to make sure it is accurate. We care about reality, and this is essential in our spiritual lives as well. Yet today you may hear people ask "who is God to you?" rather than "who is God?" For many the spiritual realm seems entirely subjective rather than objective, after all, how could any one person really know if Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, or any various sect within each religion is really true? This question is too difficult and contains centuries of historical strife, so much of the world today would rather step aside and either deny it entirely or accept each person's understanding as "their truth."

 Ultimately this speaks to how people have chosen to segment their lives. Off in this corner are my religious views, in this other corner are my political views, and in the other corner are my other opinions. The issue with this vein of thinking is that Christ does not call us to maintain a set of views - He asks us to live the truth and reorder our lives around Him. He is "the way, the truth, and the life." - John 14:6. The way that we live, work, and interact with the world should always be ordered first according to how God has set for us.

Terms

Orthodoxy - Both "true teaching" and "true worship". Orthodox Christianity is the life in faith given by Jesus Christ to the apostles and then passed down within the Church from generation to generation.

Dogma - The unchangeable, non-negotiable teachings of the Church. Comes from the Greek word for "seem," used originally in the apostolic phrase "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us" (Acts 15:28). Dogma is usually expressed by the doctrinal decrees of the ecumenical councils.

Doctrine - How dogma is taught. This can change somewhat over time as the Church encounters new cultural and linguistic situations in which dogma needs to be explained.

Theology - Reflections on the dogma and doctrine of the Church. It is much more variable over time but should not contradict dogma.

Tradition - The faith "handed over" (the literal meaning of the word) by the apostles to their disciples and then to each succeeding generation. Often described as "the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church"

Heresy - Literally, "choosing." Heresy is the act of choosing to be separate from Orthodoxy in doctrine and/or worship.

Schism - Literally, "separation." Schism is a separation of a group from the Church, which may not (but often does) include heresy on the part of the schismatics. Schism usually involves setting up a parallel hierarchy.

The Holy Trinity

• There is one God, who created all things out of nothing.
• God is uncreated, existing before all created things, even time itself. God is three divine Persons (hypostases) who are one in essence, or consubstantial (homoousios).
• The three Persons of the Trinity are all absolutely equal in deity, power, honor, and eternality.
• Each Person of the Trinity shares all that it means to be God with the other two, but none of what it means to be that Person with the other two. There is nothing that two share without the third also sharing it.
• The eternal source of the Godhead is the Father, from whom the Son is begotten and the Holy Spirit proceeds.
• God is essence and energies. God is absolutely transcendent and unknowable in His essence, but immanent and knowable in His energies. Grace is another term for God's energies.

Jesus Christ

• Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity.
• Jesus Christ is fully divine by virtue of being the Son of God, begotten before all ages. He is of one essence, or consubstantial (homoousios), with the Father.
• Jesus Christ is fully human by virtue of being the son of the Virgin Mary, begotten in time of her and incarnate of her and the Holy Spirit. He is of one essence, or consubstantial (homoousios), with all of mankind. Jesus Christ is one Person (hypostasis) in two natures, the divine and the human. This union is the only hypostatic union in existence. Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament).
• Jesus Christ was born, grew up, taught and healed, was crucified and died on the Cross, and then rose from the dead on the third day.

Salvation and the Church

• There is only one Church, the Orthodox Church.
• The Church is the Body of Christ, a divine-human organism, of which Christ is the chief member and the sole Head.
• Salvation is within and through the Church.
• Salvation is theosis, becoming divinized/deified, which means union (but not fusion) with God and becoming ever more like Him, becoming by grace what Christ is by nature as adopted children of God. It is participation in the energies of God, becoming "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4), but not participation in His essence. This extends through all eternity, because God is infinite. Other models for understanding salvation are also in Scripture and the rest of the Orthodox tradition.
• Salvation rescues us not only from the guilt of sin, but from the very power of sin and death. It is not merely a change in legal status, but a change in actual being.
• Salvation is possible only by the power of God, with the cooperation of man-"by grace... through faith" (Eph. 2:8). This cooperation is called synergy. God honors the free will He granted to man, so if man ceases his cooperation, then God's grace is rendered inoperative. Cooperation consists in repentance of sins, prayer, and participation in the sacraments.
• The Holy Mysteries (sacraments ) truly communicate grace by the action of God Himself through the clergy, who are the servants of the mysteries, not their masters. The clergy are, through the episcopacy, in the succession of the apostles, who were ordained by Christ.
• Christ will return again to earth, which will be the end of time and of reality as we now know it. All those who remain alive in the earthly life will then be transitioned into the next life, where everyone else awaits them. All the dead will then rise again, reuniting their bodies with their souls eternally. Everyone will be judged according to what they did in this life.