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As the two oldest strains of Christianity, Catholicism and Orthodoxy have much in common. Much of what they share differs from Protestant Christianity, as well. One of the most significant doctrinal areas in which Catholic and Orthodox Christianity are unique is in their understanding of Mary, the mother of Jesus. ...
The sacraments of the Greek Orthodox Church are as follows: Eucharist (communion), baptism, chrismation (confirmation), confession, marriage, holy orders, and anointing of the sick (holy unction). The holy liturgy centers around the Eucharist. Liturgy means people’s work, due to the communal aspect of this sacrament.
- Councils and Confessions
- God and Man
- Christ
- The Holy Spirit
- The Holy Trinity
- The Transcendence of God
- Modern Theological Developments
All Orthodox credal formulas, liturgical texts, and doctrinal statements affirm the claim that the Orthodox Church has preserved the original apostolic faith, which was also expressed in the common Christian tradition of the first centuries. The Orthodox Church recognizes as ecumenical the seven councils of Nicaea I (325), Constantinople I (381), E...
The development of the doctrines concerning the Trinity and the incarnation, as it took place during the first eight centuries of Christian history, was related to the concept of man's participation in divine life. The Greek Fathers of the church always implied that the phrase found in the biblical story of the creation of man (Gen. 1:26), accordin...
The Orthodox Church is formally committed to the Christology (doctrine of Christ) that was defined by the councils of the first eight centuries. Together with the Latin Church of the West, it has rejected Arianism (a belief in the subordination of the Son to the Father) at Nicaea (325), Nestorianism (a belief that stresses the independence of the d...
The gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost "called all men into unity," according to the Byzantine liturgical hymn of the day; into this new unity, which St. Paul called the "body of Christ," each individual Christian enters through Baptism and "chrismation" (the Eastern form of the Western "confirmation") when the priest anoints him saying "the seal...
By the 4th century a polarity developed between the Eastern and Western Christians in their respective understandings of the Trinity. In the West God was understood primarily in terms of one essence (the Trinity of Persons being conceived as an irrational truth found in revelation); in the East the tri-personality of God was understood as the prima...
An important element in the Eastern Christian understanding of God is the notion that God, in his essence, is totally transcendent and unknowable and that, strictly speaking, God can only be designated by negative attributes: it is possible to say what God is not, but it is impossible to say what he is. A purely negative, or "apophatic" theology—th...
Until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453), Byzantium was the unquestioned intellectual centre of the Orthodox Church. Far from being monolithic, Byzantine theological thought was often polarized by a Humanistic trend, favouring the use of Greek philosophy in theological thinking, and the more austere and mystical theology of the mona...
Mar 25, 2024 · The Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos or “Mother of God,” holds a central place in the hearts and devotion of Orthodox Christians. To understand why she is so important, it is necessary to delve into the teachings and beliefs of Orthodoxy. First and foremost, Orthodox Christians believe in the Incarnation, which is the belief that ...
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Jan 22, 2019 · This early reflection provides a fruitful background to understanding the place of Mary in modern Orthodox ecclesiology. Bulgakov’s reflection on Mary is deeply bound up with his sophiology; for Sophia, the Wisdom of God, Mary, the Mother of God, and indeed the Church inhabit what one might call an ‘in-between’ realm, linking the ...
- Andrew Louth
- 2018
Abstract. Although the Eastern Orthodox approach to Mary is based on the rich devotion to the Mother of God found in the liturgical worship and iconography of the Orthodox Church, there is a deep reticence about embarking on dogmatic definition in Mariology. The thought of four twentieth-century theologians is discussed: Bulgakov, Lossky, the ...
Theotokos, (Greek: “God-Bearer”), in Eastern Orthodoxy, the designation of the Virgin Mary as mother of God. The term has had great historical importance because the Nestorians, who stressed the independence of the divine and human natures in Christ, opposed its use, on the ground that it compromised the human nature of Christ, and held ...
