Введение

§ 1. The concept of Christian, Orthodox-dogmatic Theology Christian, Orthodox-dogmatic Theology is a science that expounds the Christian, Orthodox-dogmatic teaching about God, or is a scientific exposition of Christian Orthodox dogmas. Note 1. We call our dogmatic Theology: a) Christian, in contrast to any non-Christian dogmatic Theology: Jewish, Mohammedan, pagan; b) Orthodox-dogmatic, in contrast to any dogmatic Christian Theology, but non-Orthodox: Roman, Lutheran and others. 2. The concepts of the Christian religion and revelation, of the Orthodox Church as the guardian and interpreter of Christian revelation, of Christian Orthodox Theology in general and its main branches are assumed by well-known students from “Basic Theology”. 3. The word dogma, in Greek (δόγμα from δοκέω), means opinion, doctrine, position, definition. In the sense of teaching and definition, this word is also used in relation to the Christian religion in the Holy Scripture itself - when, for example, it is said that Christ abolished the law of the commandments of the Old Testament teachings (δόγμαςι) (Eph. 2:15) and the definitions of the Apostolic Council that was in Jerusalem are called dogmas in the original text (Acts 16:4). § 2. The place of dogmas among other Christian truths, the concept of Christian Orthodox dogmas and their essential properties 1. The truths of Christian Revelation, contained in the Holy. Scripture and Holy traditions, are divided into two types: the truths of faith, which must be assimilated by the mind of the believer, and the truths of activity, which must be assimilated by the will and implemented in life. The truths of faith are further divided into two classes: some relate to the very essence of the Christian religion, as a restored union between God and man, and contain the doctrine of God and His relationship to the world and especially to man, determining what and how a person must believe in order to be saved; and therefore they are offered to us as indisputable and unchangeable rules of saving faith. Others do not directly relate to the essence of the Christian religion, and contain either historical stories about various events and persons of the Church of the Old Testament and New Testament, or private sayings of various sacred persons, Prophets, Apostles, even Christ the Savior Himself, not related to the essence of Christianity (for example, John 1:42, 47; 4:50; 5:8), or prophecies regarding the fate of different nations, cities, etc.; and therefore, although they are worthy of all our faith, being set forth in Divine Revelation, they are not offered to us as necessary for our salvation. The truths of activity are also divided into two classes: those that determine what a person should do as a moral being, called into a new union with God - these are the moral Christian commandments, and those that show how a Christian should express his attitude towards God in external worship, and how a Christian should live in the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15), - ritual and canonical truths. Among all these Christian truths, thus divided into four classes, dogmas occupy the first place and are contained in the first class. II. The name of Christian Orthodox dogmas refers to the truths of faith revealed to us by God and taught by the Orthodox Church, which relate to the very essence of the Christian religion and contain the teaching about God and His relationship to the world and man, necessary for our salvation, and therefore - indisputable and unchangeable truths. This concept indicates the following essential properties in every Christian Orthodox dogma: 1. As a Christian, it is the truth revealed to us by God, and, therefore, necessarily lies in Divine Revelation. For this property, Christian dogmas are called by St. Fathers of the Church Divine Christ, Evangelical, Apostolic, and differ a) from the dogmas of any other religion and in general from non-Christian truths; b) from Christian truths, but not contained in Divine Revelation, such as many truths relating to church worship and deanery 1 . 2. As an Orthodox, he is certainly the truth, contained and taught to people by the Orthodox, truly Catholic Church, which alone, being constantly guided by the Holy Spirit, can infallibly determine and explain the truths of Divine Revelation, while each of the believers and entire private churches are not exempt from the danger of being mistaken. For this property, Christian dogmas are called by St. church fathers, Orthodox, sound, pious, and differ a) from the non-Orthodox, corrupt, heretical dogmas held by private churches, societies and persons who have separated from the Orthodox-Catholic Church of Christ; b) from private opinions, which each of the Orthodox believers can form directly on the basis of Revelation, and which, even being completely faithful to the truth, will forever remain only opinions, since they are not contained and not taught to everyone by the Church. 3. As a dogma, it is the truth of faith, one of those truths that relate to the very essence of the Christian religion and contain the teaching about God and His relationship to the world and man, necessary for our salvation. That this is precisely what the Orthodox Church itself believes to be the distinctive property of its dogmas among all other truths of Christian revelation, is clearly demonstrated by a) its brief statements of dogmas, or creeds, where the Church teaches us, in fact, only the truths about God and His relationship to the world and man, necessary for our salvation; and then b) and the explanation of these symbols by the Orthodox Church in catechisms. 4. Finally, as Christian, as Orthodox and as a dogma, it is an indisputable and unchangeable truth, which all Orthodox Christians are obliged to accept and maintain in its entirety and inviolability, and which none of them has the right to reject or change: because the dogmas are revealed to us by God Himself, taught to us by the Church, a God-established and infallible teacher, and contain the teaching necessary for our salvation. As a result of this property of dogmas, anyone who dares to reject or distort any of them is thereby separated from the society of Christian Orthodox believers and is deprived of hope of salvation. “If we, or an Angel from heaven, brings you good news, even more so than we bring good news to you,” said St. Apostle, let him be anathema (Gal. 1:8). “If anyone of all,” say the fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, following the Apostle, “does not contain and does not accept the dogmas of piety, and does not think and preach like this, but attempts to go against them: let him be anathema, and let him be excommunicated and cast out from the Christian estate” (Rule 1). § 3. Differences between Orthodox Christian dogmas However, although all Christian Orthodox dogmas have the same essential properties, there is a difference between these dogmas, partly in their relation to each other, and partly in their relation to our mind. 1. In the first respect, they are distinguished: a) general and fundamental dogmas, otherwise called members of faith (ἄρθρα τῆς πίστεως), of which each contains several other dogmas, or serves as some kind of basis for them, and b) private dogmas (δόγματα τῆς πίστεως), derived from the first, or based on them. The set of general dogmas, defined and approved at ecumenical councils, constitutes the Creed. “The members of the Orthodox and Catholic faith,” says the Orthodox Confession (Part 1, answer to Question 5), “according to the symbol of the first, Nicene, and the second, Constantinople, councils, there are twelve. Everything belonging to our faith is so clearly set out in them that we should believe no more, no less, and no differently than in accordance with the understanding of these fathers. However, some of these members are clear and intelligible in themselves, while others contain something hidden, from which the rest must be understood.” Derivation and definition of particular dogmas on the basis of the Creed, St. The Church offers us in her lengthy confessions or catechisms. 2. In relation to our mind: a) some dogmas are incomprehensible to it and are called mysteries or sacraments of faith, such as the dogmas about the Holy Trinity, about the incarnation of the Son of God, about temptation; b) others are more or less comprehensible, such as, for example, the dogma of Divine Providence. The former are accepted by us only by faith and from one supernatural Revelation, and the latter can be assimilated by us not by faith only and not from one supernatural Revelation, but partly by reasoning reason from natural revelation. § 4. Source and samples of Christian Orthodox-Dogmatic Theology 1. All Christian dogmas are communicated to people by God Himself in supernatural Revelation. And therefore, the only source for Orthodox dogmatic Theology is Divine Revelation, i.e. Holy Scripture and St. tradition. 2. But so that people can correctly understand these dogmas and not deviate into errors and heresies, the Orthodox Church, as a God-established and infallible teacher, has always offered and offers to believers models of faith, brief and quite extensive, which should be models for Orthodox dogmatic Theology. 1. The short ones include: a) Nicene-Constantinopolitan symbol, compiled at the first and second Ecumenical Councils and accepted by the universal Church as an unchanging example of faith for all centuries. b) Dogmatic definitions of subsequent Ecumenical Councils, such as the dogma of the IV Ecumenical Council about two natures in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the dogma of the VI Ecumenical Council about two wills and actions in our Lord Jesus Christ. c) Dogmatic teaching, found in the rules of ten local councils adopted by the Orthodox Church, also in the rules or canonical epistles of the Holy Fathers, named and approved by the sixth ecumenical Council, Trullo. For example, the doctrine of original sin, the effects of grace, the need for baptism for infants - in the rules (123-130) of the Council of Carthage; the teaching about the sacrament of confirmation is in canon (48) of the Council of Laodicea; the doctrine of penances - in the canonical letter of St. Gregory of Nyssa to Litoius and others. d) Creed of St. Gregory the Wonderworker on the Holy Trinity, written by special revelation, and although deliberately not considered at the Ecumenical Councils, respected by the entire Orthodox Church. e) The symbol known as St. Athanasius the Great, expounding two dogmas - about the Most Holy Trinity and about the sacrament of the Incarnation, also, although not considered at the Ecumenical Councils, is respected by the entire Orthodox Church. 2. More extensive statements of faith, in which the Orthodox Church reveals the dogmas it contains in some detail and in detail, include: a) The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East, compiled by the Kiev Metropolitan Peter Mogila, or with his blessing (c. 1640), and then considered and approved by all the Eastern patriarchs, as a right and pure Confession and accepted by the Orthodox Church. b) Message of the Patriarchs of the Orthodox-Catholic Church on the Orthodox faith. This Confession was originally read and approved at the Jerusalem Council in 1672, then it was sent in 1723 on behalf of all the high priests of the East in response to the Christians of Great Britain, as a true presentation of the Orthodox faith, and in 1838 it was published in Russian translation, as determined by the Holy Synod. c) The Long Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church, reviewed and approved by the Holy Synod and published for the use of all Orthodox Christians. § 5. Scientific character and method of Christian, Orthodox-dogmatic Theology I. Christian, Orthodox-dogmatic Theology, as a science, must fulfill all the conditions of science. And these conditions require that it: a) present the dogmas in a systematic order - the possibility of such a presentation of the dogmas is revealed by the fact that although many of them are incomprehensible to reason, they all essentially relate to one main subject - the doctrine of God and are in the closest connection with each other; b) presented as completely as possible, i.e. and all the dogmas that the Orthodox Church contains, and from all sides; c) stated as thoroughly as possible, i.e. indicating the sufficient grounds on which each dogma is affirmed. By this scientific character, dogmatic Theology differs: a) from all examples and confessions of faith, more or less brief and alien to a strict system, in which the saint herself teaches dogmas. Church, and b) in general from any other presentation of dogmas that is not systematic and complete. II. The method of Orthodox Dogmatics in presenting dogmas is determined by the following two conditions: 1. First of all, as an Orthodox Christian, she must give an exact definition of the dogma being revealed from the short or most extensive confessions of the Church, i.e. show how the Orthodox Church teaches about dogma. For this purpose, sometimes it is enough to bring church teaching about several dogmas together - at the beginning of the section or chapter in which those dogmas are to be considered; then divide the given teaching into parts, in accordance with the requirements of the system, and, according to the decomposition, consider each part separately, one after the other. But sometimes, especially when presenting incomprehensible dogmas, it is necessary to provide an even more specific church definition of dogma, with its detailed disclosure. 2. Following the church definition of dogma, Orthodox Dogmatics must bring its very foundations from Holy Scripture and St. legends. For the Church does not teach us her teaching and not from herself; its dogmas are revealed truths, which, one and all, it borrows from the Word of God. The most important rules for Orthodox Dogma in this matter are the following: a) there is no need to cite all the passages of Scripture that can relate to a known dogma, but it is enough to cite some of the clearest passages, the so-called classical ones; b) extracting passages from Scripture and interpreting them to support dogmas should not be done otherwise than according to the rules of sound, Orthodox Hermeneutics; c) provide evidence from tradition, to confirm or explain dogmas, should be provided after evidence from Scripture, the first and most important source of the Christian faith, is presented; d) it is necessary to cite evidence from tradition in all those cases where the evidence of Scripture is either not clear and complete, or is subject to different interpretations and disputes; e) but there is no need to cite passages from tradition where passages from Scripture are completely clear and definite, so that they are not subject to any doubts or reinterpretations, either from the Orthodox or even from the non-Orthodox. Note. Having fulfilled these two essential duties, when revealing each dogma, i.e. showing how the Orthodox Church teaches about him and why she teaches this on the basis of Holy Scripture and St. traditions, dogmatic theology can also allow considerations of common human reason regarding the dogma in question (Rom. 15:2; 1 Thess. 5:21). If this dogma is a truth accessible to the mind, then the mind can find new explanations and even reinforcements for it in the circle of its own knowledge. If the dogma is mysterious and incomprehensible, then the mind can at least show how this mystery, despite all its incomprehensibility, is luminous for the believer, how closely it is connected with other truths of the Christian faith, comprehensible to the mind, how the thought it expresses is worthy of God, consistent with His perfections and at the same time useful for human morality, how unfair it is to reject this mystery just because it incomprehensible, etc. Finally, it is known that dogmas comprehensible to reason, and especially dogmas incomprehensible, have always been and are subject to objections from freethinkers, which, for the most part, are borrowed from reason, and therefore can only be refuted, as with the help of reason. It is only necessary, with this use of reason in the field of Orthodox Dogmatics, to constantly keep him in obedience to faith (2 Cor. 10:5), so that he does not try to explain what is beyond his strength, and does not dare to philosophize more than he should philosophize (Rom. 12:3). § 6. Division and subdivision of Christian, Orthodox-dogmatic Theology I. Orthodox dogmatic Theology, as a science, must be a faithful copy of its subject: therefore, it must correspond to it in its division into its component parts. The subject of this theology is the dogmas of faith, or those truths that relate to the very essence of the Christian religion and contain the teaching about God and His relationship to the world and man, necessary for our salvation. But the Christian religion is not only the union of God with man, which was the primitive union to which the Lord called man, along with all other spiritual beings, through their very creation: but it is a union restored after the fall of man, a union to which only fallen man is called directly, and is called through the redemption in Christ Jesus. That is why Christian dogmas, which set forth the doctrine of God and His relationship to the world and man, are of two kinds. Some contain the doctrine of God and His relationship to the world and man in general (naturali, ordinario), which God had and has to all other creatures of the world. Others contain the doctrine of God, in fact, as the Savior of men, and of His special relationship to the human race (supranaturali, extraordinario). Christ the Savior himself seemed to indicate such a division of dogmas when in a prayer to His Father he said: Behold, this is the eternal life, that they may know Thee the one true God, and Him also that Jesus Christ sent (John 17:3), expressing that in order to achieve salvation we need to know, firstly, the true God, i.e. to assimilate by faith everything that the Christian Revelation teaches about the true God, and, secondly, to know Jesus Christ, sent by Him, i.e. to assimilate all the truths of Revelation about our Savior and the work He accomplished of our salvation. This division of Christian dogmas was most commonly used by the ancient Fathers of the Church, who usually designated the totality of dogmas of the first kind with the word θεολογία - Theology, and the totality of dogmas of the last kind with the word οἰκονομία - the sacrament of atonement, or economy (Eph. 3:9 in the text authentic). It remained common in the Orthodox Church in later times: “it has a custom,” wrote Mitrofan Kritopulus, who was Patriarch of Alexandria towards the end of the 17th century, in his “Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East,” “to divide its dogmatic teaching into simple Theology (θεολογία ἁπλῆ), and into Theology concerning redemption (θεολογία οἰκονομική)". As a result of all this, even now Orthodox dogmatic Theology can be divided into two main parts: 1) the doctrine of God and His general relationship to the world and man (θεολογία ἁπλῆ), and 2) the doctrine of God the Savior and His special relationship to the human race (θεολογία οἰκονομική). II. But God’s general relationship to the world and man consists in his two main actions: a) that He created everyone and everything, is the Creator of the world, and b) that He provides for everyone and everything, is the Provider of the world. Equally, the special relationship of God the Savior to the human race consists of two main actions: a) in the fact that He sanctifies us, sinners, or offers us all the means for us to assimilate the salvation He has perfected, He is our Sanctifier, and b) in the fact that, after we finish our earthly career, He demands or will demand from us an account of how we took advantage of these saving means, and rewards or rewards us according to our deserts, He is our Judge and Rewarder. Therefore, both parts of Orthodox dogmatic Theology, with greater clarity, can be expressed and divided, each into two halves or departments as follows: Part one: about God and His general relationship to the world and man. Section II: about God as Creator and Provider. Part two: about God the Savior and His special relationship to the human race. Section I: about God the Savior. Section II: about God as Sanctifier and as Judge and Rewarder. The most quotes from the writings of St. For the sake of brevity, the fathers and teachers of the Church, both here and in the entire “Manual,” are not represented by us. And those who wish can see these quotes in the corresponding paragraphs of our “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology”. You might be interested in: