This council established the diaconate and selected
the first seven deacons of the Church.The Orthodox Christian Church views itself as the original Church founded by Christ on the day of Pentecost. It has existed continuously for almost 2000 years, and can point to a succession of bishops who have passed down the doctrines, Traditions, and Life of the Church since that time. The Orthodox Church consists of a number of national/ethnic churches, including the Greek, Russian, many Eastern European, Antiochan/Arab, Jerusalem, and others. Although the national churches have different liturgical traditions -- the language, music, and some customs associated with their services differ -- their doctrine and faith are the same.
The unity is organic to the Orthodox Church, rather than the result of a centralized hierarchy. It has no equivalent of the Roman Catholic Pope, although the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is considered "first among equals" and has considerable influence on Orthodoxy as a whole. Orthodoxy is what it is because it grew that way over the past almost 2,000 years, through the slow, time-consuming common struggle, common worship, and common theologizing of its members.
Because of this, it is impossible to discuss Orthodox theology properly, even in a brief overview, without discussing where it came from and how it developed. This overview therefore covers the basic theology of the Orthodox Church as it developed, in history.
The Creed of Orthodox Christianity is that written by the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea in 325 AD, and amended by the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381 AD, commonly called the Nicene Creed:
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth and all things, visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
the Only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages;
Light of Light, true God of true God;
begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father;
by whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
and suffered, and was buried,
and arose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into the Heavens,
and sits at the right hand of the Father,
and shall come again in glory to judge both the living and the dead,
and His kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life,
Who proceeds from the Father,
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified,
Who spoke by the prophets.
In One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.
This creed contains within it the fundamentals of Orthodox Christianity. Below is a discussion of where it came from and who wrote it.
The Church does not define new doctrine and never has, as the Orthodox understand it. Rather, the Lord revealed His Truth to the apostles, prophets, bishops, and fathers of the Church, who then lived it and, as the Holy Spirit moved them and as the needs of the Church dictated, wrote it down. The significant written sources of Orthodox Christian doctrine are:
The Holy Scriptures, the Bible, contains the earliest and most central written records of the Church. In them is contained the works of the Old Testament Prophets and men of God, and the written records we have of the people of God in the Old Testament, or the Old Testament Church, as the Church Fathers often refer to the Israelites of this period. This history of God's interactions with His people Israel provides critical background for understanding much of the story of Jesus Christ, and the prophecies of his coming. The Psalms even today are the basic liturgical music of the Orthodox Christian Church.
The New Testament books include the four Gospels, the Church's written record of the life and ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In these we have the treasures of the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, stories of our Lord's interactions with the people around Him, His teaching of His disciples, and (perhaps the greatest treasures) His prayers. The Gospel of John has an especially rich collection of the prayers of our Lord, including the incomparable prayer in the Garden of Olives, shortly before He was betrayed into His enemies' hands. (John 17)
Among them are also the earliest written record of the activities of the New Testament Church, beginning at Pentecost -- the Acts of the Apostles, and the letters of the Apostles, the earliest written doctrinal material the Church possesses. These letters give a superb picture of the early Church, and the first century Church leaders, working out their salvation a step at a time, amidst real problems, real sin, and real persecutions. It was in the midst of this, not in an idealized state, that the Church was born and grew, and that the early disciples so showed their love for God and trust in His promises that torture and death could not change their minds.
At every liturgy and in many other services of the Church, passages from the Gospel, and from either the Acts or one of the Epistles, are read. Only the Psalms are read more frequently.
In addition to writing the Nicene Creed, the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea finalized the Canon of Scripture, which is the list of documents to be included in the Bible. The story of this council and how it determined which books to include in the Canon of Scripture is fascinating. After weeks of discussion, the bishops at the council couldn't determine if certain works should or should not be included in the Canon, so one night they placed copies of all the documents under consideration for inclusion in the canon on the table in the Altar. They then prayed to God to enlighten them and let them know which works He had inspired and should therefore be included in the Canon.
In the morning, several scrolls were no longer on the Altar table, but had fallen beneath it. The bishops took this as a sign from God, and the documents which remained on the Altar table became the Canon of Scripture.
A list of books for further reading is provided at the end of this document, for those who want to learn more about this.
The Church venerates its early leaders and relies heavily on their teachings. The Church Fathers (or Apostolic Fathers) are not just historical figures to Orthodox Christians. They are saints to whom we pray and whose intercession we ask for individuals and for the Church. Some of these Fathers are:
In particular, the writings of the last four saints listed above have influenced the Orthodox Church in ways that can scarcely be exaggerated. St. John Chrysostom's liturgy is still the liturgy of the Church. St. Basil the Great's work on the nature of Christ and on the Holy Spirit provided the foundation for many of the conclusions of the first two Ecumenical Councils, discussed in more detail below. Sts. Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory the Theologian also provided much of the theological work that supported the conclusions of these councils.
The Church held councils to resolve issues when less formal dialogue failed to produce a consensus. Most councils were local, although in some cases their decrees gained wide acceptance. The first such council was held in Jerusalem during the first century, and is referred to in the Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7.
In Judaism of the period, the main body of Jews was split into two groups -- those from the Holy Land, and those from Asia Minor. This split was mirrored in the first century Church. At the time the Church took care of its widows, who in that culture and period often were destitute and had no means of supporting themselves and their children.
A dispute arose because the Hellenic Jewish widows (those from Asia Minor) were being neglected when food was distributed. (The "Greeks" referred to in this passage were not Gentiles -- the Church had not yet begun significant outreach among the Gentiles at this point.)
As usual, the problem was brought to the Apostles. Realizing that to take over the food distribution would result in distracting them from their real work, the Apostles called together the Church to find a better solution. The Apostles asked the Church to select seven men, filled with the Holy Spirit and of worthy character, to whom much of the daily work of the Church could be entrusted. The Church prayed together and discussed this thoroughly before selecting the seven men, the first deacons of the Church.
In the Book of Acts, the Evangelist Luke reports the results:
"So the Word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the Faith."
One of the seven deacons, Stephen, later became the first martyr of the Church.
This council established the diaconate and selected
the first seven deacons of the Church.
This pattern continued and developed over the early centuries of the Church. Councils made decisions on theological matters, and issued rulings, especially on theological disputes, and almost inevitably in response to a real problem raised by the teachings of actual people. These were not theoretical disputes, as many tend to see them centuries later. They dealt with the nature of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation, the nature of the Holy Spirit, and the meaning of the material world -- issues that strike at the heart of the Christian Faith.
While this means of hashing out problems was the pattern of the entire early Christian church, the Byzantine Orthodox Church embraced it to a greater extent than did the North African or Roman/Western Churches. For this reason the Byzantine Church became widely known as the "Conciliar Church", and to this day Orthodox Christians define themselves by their acceptance of the seven Ecumenical Councils, councils which defined what the Church believed and taught about the nature of God, the Incarnation, and the working of His Grace among men.
The seven ecumenical, or universal, councils and the issues they dealt with were:
Called by the Emperor Constantine, to resolve the issues raised by the teachings of the Alexandrian priest Arius, who taught that Jesus Christ was not God, but was a created being. 318 bishops participated, and produced 20 canons. One of these contained the Nicene Creed, discussed above.
This council established the Canon of Scripture, the list of books considered part of the Bible by the Christian Church. This council also established the celebration of Easter, or Pascha, to be the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, following the Jewish feast of Passover.
This council proclaimed that Jesus
Christ was fully God, begotten and not created, coeternal with
the Father, and of one essence with the Father.
Called by the Emperor Theodosius the Great. 150 bishops participated, among them St. Gregory the Theologian, who presided over the Council, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Cyril of Jerusalem. This council condemned the Arian teachings of Macedonius, the Bishop of Constantinople, who taught that the Holy Spirit was not God, and called him a created power subservient to the Father and the Son. The council condemned this, and supplemented the Nicene Creed with five canons setting forth doctrines on the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Sacraments, resurrection of the dead and life of the age to come.
This council proclaimed that the Holy Spirit is fully God, equal to the Father and the Son and of one essence with them.
Convened under the Emperor Theodosius II. 200 Bishops participated. They condemned the doctrines of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, who taught that the Virgin Mary gave birth only to the human Jesus Christ, not to God, and referred to her as "Christ-bearing", or Christokos, not as "God-bearing", or Theotokos. In addition, he referred to Jesus Christ Himself as "God-bearing", not as God incarnate. The bishops condemned his views, and also affirmed the Nicene Creed as amended by the Second Ecumenical Council, forbidding any additions or changes to it.
This council affirmed that:
Convened under the Emperor Marcian. 650 bishops participated, and condemned the doctrines of the Archimandrite Eutychius, who taught that Jesus Christ possessed only one, divine nature, and not two natures, divine and human. The bishops condemned this teaching, called Monophysitism, and reaffirmed that in Jesus Christ human and divine natures are both present and united in one person.
This council reaffirmed that Christ possesses two natures, and that in His human nature he is fully human and like all other human beings except for sin.
Convened under the Emperor Justinian I. 165 bishops participated, and resolved a controversy between the Nestorians and the Eutychians, both condemned as heresies in earlier ecumenical councils. The bishops reiterated the Church's condemnation of both heresies, and in addition condemned three works, titled "The Three Chapters."
This council reiterated the Church's teaching on the dual nature of Christ, and reaffirmed that He is both Truly God and Truly Man.
Convened under the Emperor Constantine IV. 170 bishops participated, and condemned the doctrines of the Monothelites, who taught that Jesus Christ, although he possessed two natures, possessed only one will, a divine will. The council also established many other canons by which the Church has been guided since.
This council completed the Church's fundamental
teachings on Jesus Christ, or Christology, by
affirming that in Christ are two wills as well as two natures,
and that the human will is not opposed to, but rather in
submission to, the divine will.
Convened under the Empress Irene, widow of the Emperor Leo IV. 367 bishops participated. The council condemned the iconoclastic heresy, the teaching that representations of Christ, the Theotokos, and the saints were idols and that those who venerated icons were idolators. The council's rulings were finally put into effect in 843 AD, under the Empress Theodora.
This council proclaimed that veneration of the cross and images of Christ and the Saints, collectively called icons, was acceptable and meritorious.
While the Orthodox have had other great saints whose works influenced it tremendously, after the seventh council was implemented it had assumed a form and established a doctrine that largely persist today. A twentieth-century Orthodox Christian would probably not understand the language of the Byzantine Liturgy of the ninth century, but would be able to follow what was happening quite well because it would be the same liturgy the Church uses today.
There have been saints whose work has influenced Orthodox Theology, though, since this period. The greatest is St. Symeon the New Theologian, an eleventh-century monk whose ascetic and theological work, poetry, and hymns remain one of the great treasures of the Orthodox Church. St. Symeon focused almost entirely on personal, mystical contact with the Divine Light, the Holy Spirit, in his theology. While his theology was monastic and intended for monks, it has become fundamental to the Church as a whole's understanding of the interior life Christians enjoy with Christ.
Saints from Russia during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries have also been enormously influential in developing the Church's understanding of the spiritual life.
In the West there have been reformations, restorations, and a long list of attempts to get back to Christianity as it was originally practiced. There have also been counter-reformations and rearguard actions in response to these movements. Eastern Orthodox Christianity has known little or none of this. This isn't because the Orthodox haven't faced problems, or because it lacks points of contention. Orthodoxy has "grown up" differently than western Christianity, though, and, to a large extent, asks different questions than western Christians do.
Because it has in the past and continues to develop organically, Orthodox Christianity is conservative, in the original rather than current western political sense of the word. The Orthodox Church changes slowly, when it changes, and its essential beliefs and character do not change. This isn't the same as remaining totally unchanged, of course. Just what change, and how much change, is needed in a given place and time, and to what extent Orthodox Christians can and should adapt to the larger non-Orthodox community around them, has always been a topic guaranteed to generate lots of conversation in any gathering of Orthodox Christians, especially during the 1990s.
Here is a list of books which people interested in learning more about Orthodox Christianity may find helpful:
I would like to acknowledge the following people for reviewing this, commenting on it, and correcting some major errors in early editions:
Any errors that remain are mine. I am sure there are many, so please feel free to email me if you see one or several. :>
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