Introduction to Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox Christianity is the life in faith of the Orthodox Church, inseparable from that concrete, historic community and encompassing its entire way of life. The Orthodox Christian faith is that faith "handed once to the saints" (Jude 3), passed on in Holy Tradition to the apostles by Jesus Christ, and then handed down from one generation to the next, without addition or subtraction.
Contents
God
Main article: Holy Trinity
Orthodox Christians worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity, the one God. Following the Holy Scriptures and the Church Fathers, the Church believes that the Trinity is three divine persons (hypostases) who share one essence (ousia). It is paradoxical to believe thus, but that is how God has revealed himself. All three persons are consubstantial with each other, that is, they are of one essence (homoousios) and coeternal. There never was a time when any of the persons of the Trinity did not exist. God is beyond and before time and yet acts within time, moving and speaking within history.
God is not an impersonal essence or mere "higher power," but rather each of the divine persons relates to mankind personally. Neither is God a simple name for three gods (i.e., polytheism), but rather the Orthodox faith is monotheist and yet Trinitarian. The God of the Orthodox Christian Church is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the I AM who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush.
The source and unity of the Holy Trinity is the Father, from whom the Son is begotten and also from whom the Spirit proceeds. Thus, the Father is both the ground of unity of the Trinity and also of distinction. To try to comprehend unbegottenness (Father), begottenness (Son), or procession (Holy Spirit) leads to insanity, says the holy Gregory the Theologian, and so the Church approaches God in divine mystery, content to approach God apophatically, being content to encounter God personally and yet realize the inadequacy of the human mind to comprehend him.
The primary statement of what the Church believes about God is to be found in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.
Christology
Main article: Christology
Ecclesiology
Main article: Ecclesiology
Tradition
Main article: Holy Tradition
Worship
Main article: Worship
Sacraments
Main article: Sacraments
Anthropology
Main article: Anthropology
Soteriology
Main article: Soteriology
Clergy
Main article: Clergy
Saints
Main article: Saints
History
Main article: Church History
External links
- About Orthodoxy, from St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, Brooklyn, New York
- Orthodox Christianity, from the Church of Serbia
- Introducing the Orthodox Christian Church (OCA site)
- Our Faith (GOA site)
- What We Believe (Antiochian site)
- Meeting the Orthodox: Questions & Answers on the Orthodox Faith, by Fr. Thomas Hopko
- Some straight answers about the Orthodox Church
- Orthodoxy, by Fr. John Behr
- Introduction to the Orthodox Church, by Fr. Leonidas Contos
