GOD, MAN AND UNION: AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN REFLECTION

 

By Jason Caros | January 21, 2024 (updated)

 

Background: Some years ago, I was asked to speak at a Unitarian congregation about the teachings of the Orthodox Church. This essay is an expanded version of that talk, hence some of the emphasis on the Trinity and some of the topics in the Q & A section. Important footnotes have been added. The content is meant for a reader with an understanding of fundamental Christian teachings. If you wish to have quick access to footnotes, click here for the pdf version of this essay. 

 

There are two things I believe with certainty as an Orthodox[1] Christian: first, there is a God; second, I am not God. However, I do believe that I have the potential to become “like” God and enter into communion with God. In this regard, Athanasius the Great, an important 4th century Church Father,[2] said: “The Word was made flesh in order that we might be made gods.”[3] This transformation is the purpose of creation and should be the pursuit of every Orthodox Christian. It is important to clarify that becoming like gods does not mean we become God or assume His nature. Unlike adherents of far eastern spirituality, we do not believe that our souls meld with an impersonal divine force and we lose our own identities. We are forever created beings and God remains Creator; instead, we become partakers of the divine nature (1 Peter 1:4).

 

Who is this God we believe in, and how does a person enter into a relationship with God? In the Divine Liturgy, the primary worship service of the Orthodox Church, there comes a moment when the priest prays the following words, which express fundamental beliefs about God:

 

“It is proper and right to sing to You, bless You, praise You, thank You and

and worship You in all places of Your dominion; for You are God ineffable,

beyond comprehension, invisible, beyond understanding, existing forever

and always the same…”

 

In this apophatic[4] description of God, or way of negation, we find that in one sense, God is beyond our understanding and wholly other. In fact, John of Damascus, an 8th century Church Father, said that the word God does not refer to the divine nature (essence), for that is unknowable. God refers rather to the divine energies—the power and grace of God that we can perceive in this world. Interestingly, the Greek[5] word for God used in the Bible is Theos, the word from which theology is derived. Theos comes from a verb that means “run,” “see” or “burn.” These are energy words, so to speak, not nature or essence words. 

 

Regarding essence and energy, when I say essence[6] (or nature or substance) I am speaking about the actual elements or realities that make up something. For instance, everyone knows that water, H₂O, is composed of 2 parts hydrogen and 1-part oxygen—this is its essence. We can know the essence of water and other elements in the material world, but according to John of Damascus and the other Eastern Church Fathers, we cannot know or experience the essence of God. Rather, we know and experience Him through His uncreated energies. What are energies?

 

The word “energy” comes from the ancient Greek word energeia (ἐνέργεια), coined by Aristotle in the 4th century BC in a physics and metaphysical context. Beginning in the 1st century BC it appears in the writings of the pre-Christian Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria, and others who came after him. In terms of its first use among Christians, the word energeia and its cognates was used more than twenty times by Paul in his New Testament epistles,[7] and following writers like Philo and St. Paul, Eastern Church Fathers used the essence and energy distinction, starting with the Apostolic Fathers. It has been used by Eastern Christians ever since. In the twelfth chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians you can see several uses of this word in verses 4-11 (note that I have underlined English words used for energies, energizes, etc. in the NKJV translation followed by the original Greek words in English phonetics in parentheses):

 

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences

of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities

(energēmatōn) but it is the same God who works (energōn) all in all.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of

all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another

the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the

same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the

working (energēmata) of miracles,[8] to another prophecy, to another

discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another

the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works (energei)

all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

 

With this context in mind, “divine energy” refers to the activity or the dynamic quality of God. It is through these energies that God enters into a direct and immediate relationship with humanity, often described in the word “synergy” (συνεργία). The word is frequently translated into English as “cooperation,” which does not convey the precise meaning; however, our cooperation and positive response to God’s grace makes us synergoi with God. Therefore, synergy is God’s grace working together with human freedom (in 1 Cor. 3:9, synergoi is commonly translated in English as “fellow-workers”). Again, “cooperation” or “fellow-workers” are not precise expressions of synergy, as my son and I could cooperate to put a puzzle together, we could be fellow-workers, but we would simply be two people working toward a common goal. Syn = with, so syn-energy means that a human is energized by God’s grace resulting in a union of energies, God’s divine energy and man’s human energy.

 

A famous example of how God’s energies work in us that has been used by various Church Fathers is that of a steel sword thrust into a fire until the sword takes on a red glow. The energy of the fire interpenetrates the sword. The sword never becomes fire, but it acquires the properties of fire. Our human nature can be interpenetrated with the energies of God, not God’s essence. Another often-used example that helps to distinguish between essence and energies is the star in our solar system, commonly known as the Sun. When the Sun’s rays reach us and we are illumined and feel its warmth, we experience the energies of the Sun, not its essence. Likewise, when we experience God’s graces, we experience His energies, not His essence. So, when we say that someone is transformed by the grace of God, we mean he has a direct experience of God—he knows God through His energies, not His essence.[10]

 

John of Damascus, Gregory Palamas and other Church Fathers used the example of steel and fire and the Sun’s rays to show how one experiences God’s energies or graces. This understanding of God’s energies helps to shed light on a well-known verse in Paul’s letter to the Philippians that is often translated as “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me” (4:13). A more literal rendering is “I can do all things through Christ, the One Who empowers me.” The word often translated as “strengthens” is ἐνδυναμοῦντί or endynamounti, which is rooted in the word “dynamis.” To be en-dynamounti is to be infused with power, force or energy. God’s grace or energy is dynamic.

 

Earlier I used the word “know” in connection to experiencing God. When it comes to knowing God, in the Eastern Christian tradition this word is used somewhat differently than in much of the West. In our contemporary American culture, when we say we have knowledge about something, we often mean we have some type of intellectual understanding. Our discursive reasoning is utilized. In the East, when we say we know God, we infer something beyond knowledge “about” Him. We mean knowledge “of” Him—experience, in addition to, and beyond reason. This experience of God occurs in the nous, our receptive or intuitive faculty.[11] Moreover, Orthodox worship involves mind, body and spirit, and it enlivens all the senses, which are to be illuminated along with the mind and heart.

 

How is this knowledge “of” God attained? By communion—communion with God, communion with one another, and communion with all of His creation. If we look closely enough, we can see that this communion is an inherent part of our existence. Take, for example, the historical-philosophical-biblical word for “human” in the Greek. The word is anthropos. This word literally means “to look up.” To look up to what? To look up to Whom? The Greek word for person, prosopon, means “face,” hence, we are made “to look out.” To look out at what? To look out at Whom? We are, by our very nature, relational creatures and Orthodox believe this is so by virtue of the fact that we are created in the image and according to the likeness of God Who is relational (Gen. 1:26-27). God is communion, and we are communion. There is not one person unless there are at least two or three persons.

 

Now I come to an obvious distinction between the Orthodox and Unitarian conceptions of God. We are Trinitarian. We believe that this God Who created us in His image and according to His likeness, this relational God, is one in essence but three in hypostases[12] or persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is relational, and humans reflect the Trinity.

 

Orthodox believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Who revealed Himself to Moses and the Hebrew people as Yahweh (Exodus 3:14), or in English, “I am He who is” (notice the verbal nature of the name), Whose Spirit touched the lives of the people of God. Furthermore, we believe that this God, at a particular point in time became man, human that is, through the Incarnation, in the person of Jesus Christ.[13] In one of our Nativity hymns we sing about our Lord Jesus Christ: “He was begotten in eternity from a Father without a mother, born in time from a mother without a Father.”

 

We believe this God entered into time and space, by assuming human nature. He taught, healed, gave up His earthly life on the Cross and rose victoriously from the dead, and as we sing on Pascha,[14] or Easter Sunday, “He trampled down death by death”—death being the enemy which held all of humanity captive in Hades.[15]  God descended, so that we could ascend. He became lowly so that we could be exalted. He became man, so that we might become like God.

 

Our God is a relational, loving God Whose (Holy) Spirit, we say, resides within us and guides His Church.[16] What is the Church? Unlike Muslims who believe Allah gave them a prophet and left them a book as their truth and guide, we believe our Lord dwelt among us and left us with the Church, the Body of Christ.[17] This Church is a living, breathing organism, a dynamic entity consisting of God, the angels, and humanity, those in Heaven and those on earth. Some people mistakenly look at the Church on earth as a type of institution that delivers some sort of heavenly goods or sacraments.[18] However, it is not an organization with sacraments, but a sacrament with organization. We enter into communion with God, and we share in the divine love via God’s Church.

 

The Church is a body with The Lord Jesus Christ at the head, and the people are its members. As a worshiping community guided by The Holy Spirit, we, the Church, offer praise, glory and worship and participate in the “means to the end,” the end being God Himself. These means are liturgy (corporate worship services) and those life-giving gifts that are commonly described as sacraments such as Baptism, Chrismation, Eucharist, Confession, etc. They also consist of personal prayers, fasting and other spiritual practices and methods of self-discipline, almsgiving, reading and contemplation of sacred scripture,[19] and the experience of sacred and liturgical music and art. The fruit of Christian worship and practice, marked by repentance, self-denial and humility, is holiness, and holiness is demonstrated by love, love of God and love of neighbor. Put another way, the Christian who acquires The Holy Spirit is known by his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

 

As I mentioned earlier, Orthodox worship involves the mind, body and spirit, and the graces of the Church enliven all the senses. Herein lies a difference between Eastern Christian spirituality and much of Western Christian spirituality. On this topic, someone has pointed out that there are Three Orders of Reality: 1) The Eye of the Mind—logic and philosophy, 2) The Eye of the Senses—empiricism, and 3) The Eye of Contemplation—the intuitive and receptive faculties of the self that are opened up via spiritual and ascetical practices. This 3rd eye, I believe, is missing from much of modern Western culture, and perhaps this is the reason so many in the last couple of generations have sought truth in Far Eastern religions and New Age spirituality.

 

By living in the Church, our hope is that through the graces or energies provided by God, we could attain to self-knowledge, that is, the point of self-realization. This is the point when we can see God, for as the Beatitude reads in the Gospel of Matthew, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (5:8). If we can open ourselves up, or put another way, let go of ourselves, God will enter into us more fully and complete us. For again, the Beatitude reads, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”[20]

 

Does this mean that the believer, the one who hungers and thirsts, and who experiences purity of heart, will go to Heaven? Will he be saved, so to speak? The question common to Baptists and other evangelicals, “Are you saved?” is one that is foreign to Orthodox Christianity. Orthodox believe salvation is a process—it does not merely happen as a result of a single affirmation or event in a person’s life. Emphasizing a process or journey, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware[21] aptly responded to the question about salvation thusly: “I trust, by God’s mercy, I am being saved.” With a little more time, an Orthodox Christian might speak about salvation in the following threefold way: 1) We have been saved through the saving work of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2) we are being saved through faith by participating in the Christian life, and 3) we hope to be saved; we consider it presumptuous to say unequivocally “Yes, I will be in Heaven!” With that said, just as there are three orders of reality, there are also three elements or stages of the salvific journey. The first is Catharsis or Purification: a person must live a pure or holy life—Our Lord said, “Be Holy because I the Lord am Holy.” The second is Photismos or Illumination: only when one becomes purer can he experience the vision of God. In other words, people who live pure lives will be open to the reception of God’s graces and truly begin to understand their own humanity in relation to God. The third element is Henosis or Union: a person achieves what we call in Orthodoxy, Theosis, or union with God, the purpose of our life-long journey! For this reason, it is also called Teleosis, which means completion or perfection.[22]

 

According to Metropolitan Hierotheos, the three stages—Purification, Illumination, and Theosis— “are not stages of anthropocentric activity, but rather they are results of the uncreated energy of God. When the divine grace (energy of God) purifies man from passions, it is called purifying; when it illumines his nous[23] it is called illuminating; and when it deifies man it is called deifying. This same grace and energy of God is given various names according to its effects.”[24] The stages, then, are not measures but are instead the fruit of God’s grace. These levels of spiritual perfection develop in those who cooperate and respond to divine grace (i.e. synergize). The journey is lived as a member of the Body of Christ, the Church, via the sacramental and ascetical life described earlier. Full union, however, occurs in paradise.

 

To conclude, I am going to present some responses to common questions about salvation, sin, Hell, and the Trinity:

 

1. Does the Orthodox view of salvation described above mean that people can earn salvation by their efforts or works?

 

Following the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works (energon) in you both to will and to do (energein) for His good pleasure” (2:12-13), the Orthodox Church teaches that the relationship between God and man is truly one of synergy (synergeia), or working together. God does not force His creation to love Him, as evidenced by the disobedience of Adam and Eve and subsequent generations of humans after the primordial sin. God respects our free will; He knocks on the door but waits for us to open it. He does not break down the door so to speak. When speaking of synergy related to theosis, one must be careful to properly ascribe to God what is God’s and to man what is man’s. It is true that there is cooperation between God’s grace and our free will; we are, as Paul said, synergoi or fellow-workers. Both are necessary, but what God does is incomparably more important than what man does. One cannot ascribe any type of numerical value on the roles of God and man in the synergistic process. One should not, for instance, define God’s part as 90% and man’s as 10%, but rather the teaching should be that God freely provides His saving grace so that God “operates” and man “cooperates.” Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said, “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), but when it comes to accepting His saving graces, it is also true that God will not compel us. This interrelationship between God’s grace and our free will cooperation always remains a “mystery” in the true sense of the word.[25]

 

As for the Western debate about faith versus works that began during the Protestant Reformation, this was never a subject of discord among Eastern Christians as it was in the West. Commenting on verses from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, where the apostle says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works (ergon), lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (ergois), which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (2:8-10), the writers of the Orthodox Study Bible say the following: “How can one get from the one kingdom to the other? By the unity of grace, faith, and works. Not that these are equal, for grace is uncreated and infinite, whereas our faith is limited and can grow; good works flow out of authentic faith. Works cannot earn us this great treasure—it is a pure gift—but those who receive this gift do good. We are not saved by good works, but for good works.”

 

2. Does one have to be “Orthodox” to be saved, so to speak?

 

While we believe the Orthodox Church is the Church that was established by Our Lord and Savior about two thousand years ago,[26] and that it contains the fullness of the truth, we are not in the business of prognostication. Here are a few sayings on salvation that I believe express a paradoxical truth. The first is by Cyprian of Carthage, a famous 3rd century bishop of the Church. He said, “You cannot have God for your father unless you have the Church for your mother.” A second quote from a contemporary Orthodox luminary goes like this, “We are bound to the means God provides, but God is not bound.” In a similar vein, “God’s grace extends beyond the Church.” So, at once we believe salvation is through Christ and His Church and yet we do not know the extent of God’s loving-kindness. We pray for the salvation of all.

 

3. What is sin? 

 

For Orthodox, the word “sin” is not to be taken in a legalistic sense as it is in some of the Western confessions. We do not view sin simply as the transgression of a law. The Ancient Greek word for sin in the scriptures is hamartia. This word refers to “missing the mark,” like an archer who misses the bull’s-eye. In fact, the etymology of the word hamartia stretches back to the ancient practice of archery. Sin, then, occurs when a person acts outside of the bounds of his nature, and the consequence is not so much a prescribed punishment from God but a natural consequence of the sinful act. For instance, we are taught that food is good and from God but that we should eat and drink moderately. If one over eats regularly and is gluttonous, a physical consequence may be that the person gains weight and becomes unhealthy. According to the Church Fathers, there are other spiritual consequences that are connected to this behavior such as laziness and lust, not to mention possible missed opportunities to donate to those in need. All of these things draw one away from God. Interestingly, the first human sin, that of Adam and Eve, involved food. The fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was good food, but it was not meant for Adam and Eve. Their eating the “forbidden fruit” was a misappropriation of the good. They were acting outside of their nature. This is an example of hamartia—the original hamartia.

 

In short, to sin means to miss the mark and the mark is goodness. Put another way, when you hit the mark or target you act or think virtuously. There is more that can be said about different types of sins and degrees of sin, both lesser and greater sins, but suffice it say that all humans sin, and sin distances us from God and impairs our relations with others. Our aim should be to reduce sinning as much as possible as we pursue a relationship with God. The less we sin the closer we come to God and the more we understand our humanity and purpose.

 

Finally, Orthodox Christians see sin as sickness. We view the Church as a hospital for the sick who need therapy and healing. The therapies are the means by which we experience God’s graces that I mentioned earlier. The therapist is the Healer of our souls and bodies, the Lord Jesus Christ (the name, Jesus, literally means healer). 

 

4. What does the Orthodox Church teach about why people end up in Hell?

 

Orthodox Christians believe in Hell, but we do not believe God wishes to send us to Hell. On the contrary, as C.S. Lewis famously said something in The Problem of Pain that resonates with Orthodox teaching: “…the doors of Hell are locked from the inside.”  What does it mean? Before responding to the question, it is important to first say that while we believe in Heaven and Hell, we do not believe they are physical places. We do not believe bodily angels are playing harps in the clouds, nor do we believe demons carry pitchforks in a fiery furnace. The scriptures contain fire imagery to be sure, but it is just that, imagery. So, the doors in Lewis’ statement are metaphorical. Second, people begin to experience Heaven and Hell while on earth, so for us, these two are states of existence. Which state one is in depends on whether or not he is in communion with God. The moment we reject God and live for ourselves, we begin to experience Hell. We do not need to watch the news long and see the devastation on earth to notice examples of Hell on earth. Unfortunately, Heaven doesn’t receive much airtime in our media. Much like I said earlier with regard to the natural consequences of sin, we believe there are natural consequences to accepting or rejecting God’s love. By the way, we believe this consequence is eternal. On this, Lewis said that those who end up in Hell are rebels till the end.[27]  Because God is a God of love, He does not compel us to love Him.[28] There is no compulsion in love, but it is His everlasting love for us that can be Hell to those who reject Him. On this, Isaac the Syrian, a seventh century Church Father, said that those who are punished in Hell “are scourged by the scourging of love,” and he even goes as far as to say that these scourges “are harder and more bitter than the torments which result from fear.”[29]

 

5. Do Orthodox believe morality is relative or objective?

 

Objective. Truth, Beauty, and Goodness are not merely universals in a Platonic sense, but each expresses a Divine attribute or energy; therefore, morality comes from God and is objective. Goodness and morality are not left to the whims of each person.

 

6. How can a rational person make sense of a Triune God?

 

Believing in The Trinity may not seem to make sense, but it is sensible. First, when it comes to a God Who is beyond being, Orthodox Christians must be willing to accept mystery. Mystery is not a way to avoid explaining a seemingly esoteric belief but it is rather an admission of reality. The Greek word for mystery refers to something one cannot see but is really there, as opposed to magic, which is something one sees but is not really there.[30]  Referring again to the words from The Divine Liturgy, we believe God is ineffable, beyond comprehension, invisible, and beyond understanding. This naturally means that whatever we say about God is going to be incomplete, and if we say too much, we run the risk of error. Thankfully, we have and believe in divine revelation; this is the second point. Christianity is an historical faith. Indeed, we believe that God assumed humanity at a particular point in history, but even before the Incarnation, God visited, communicated with, and inspired His people Israel through theophanies, signs and prophesies. We learn about God from Holy Scriptures and through the lives and teachings of holy men and women throughout time. Third, logic and philosophical language, though it has limits, can provide insights about the Triune God when used in concert with revelation. If you think back to the meaning of the word essence for a moment, consider the following as a logical example of the theology of the Trinity—one essence and three persons. If I take a lit candle and light two others from the first flame I would have three lit candles. The flames on the three candles would have one essence, the essence of fire, but there would be three individual flames, analogous to three persons. [31] In the case of the Holy Trinity, the first candle would correspond to the Father as the source of the Trinity, the second and third candles would correspond to the Son and Holy Spirit, respectively. If one considers our humanity, we are all of one essence but many individual persons. Our essence or nature is humanity—man has a human nature. God’s essence or nature is divinity—God has a divine nature.[32] We humans are each born in time. According to the Creed of the ancient Church,[33] The Word of God, or the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is begotten[34] and The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father eternally, or outside of time. So there never was a time when the Triune God came into existence; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-eternal.

 

7. Is God male or female?

 

Along the lines of the essence and energies discussion, it is just not possible to ascribe sex to the essence of God; however, humans experience the divine via God’s energies. God has been revealed to us, first, in the Old Covenant, and secondly under the New Covenant[35] with the Incarnation of the Logos. Certainly, God can have the truly male and female attributes, but in the revelation we have been given, it is clear we are to refer to God as father and not mother. There are many scriptural evidences of this but perhaps the most important is the direct instruction from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself who taught, “When you pray say, Our Father, Who art in Heaven…” Orthodox prayers are directed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

More on the Orthodox Faith

 

These are, in a nutshell, some key Orthodox beliefs about God, man and union with the Divine. For a fuller explanation of the Orthodox faith and the history of the Church, I recommend Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s The Orthodox Church (the author’s name is listed as Timothy Ware). For Orthodox Christians who wish to learn more about their faith and practice, I recommend The Orthodox Faith, Worship and Life by Hieromonk Gregorios. For Christians of other confessions who wish to learn about the history and teachings of the various churches, read The Rock and the Sand: An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformers and Their Teachings by Father Josiah Trenham.

 

Speaking of history, go on to the next page to see the Church’s Creed. That is followed by a timeline of Church history, which illustrates the continuity and longevity of the Orthodox Church. It begins with a holy day called Pentecost in AD 33, fifty days after Pascha (Easter), when Jesus’ apostles began preaching the Gospel and the New Testament Church was born.[36] In this timeline you will also see the origin of the various other Christian confessions, sometimes referred to as “denominations.” I prefer the word “confessions” as it better suggests that there are different beliefs and practices confessed among them, whereas the word denominations is a bit generic, and the Orthodox Church, by definition, is not simply a denomination. It is rightly called an Apostolic Church in that it has an uninterrupted link to the apostles of Christ through its unbroken line of bishops, and it also traces its lineage to the apostles through its beliefs and practices, hence the name “Orthodox.” 

 

 

Jason Caros is a husband, father and classical school headmaster. He taught high school and adult catechism at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Orlando, Florida for about a decade. He is a classical school headmaster in Texas.

 


*Scroll down for Endnotes, Greek and English versions of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and a graphic timeline of church history. 


Endnotes: 

 

[1] “Orthodox” is a Greek word that means correct glory and refers to true beliefs and practices. The word was used in the early days of Christianity to distinguish between true faith and heterodox, or unorthodox faith. Heterodox refers to beliefs practices that are not in agreement with Church teachings. Today, the word orthodox can be used in multiple contexts with a lowercase “o” to describe correct or accepted beliefs, generally, or with an uppercase “O” to describe the over 300 million Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Churches that are in communion with one another (e.g. Antiochian, Greek, Romanian, Russian, Serbian etc.).

[2] “Church Fathers” refers to the Christian luminaries who faithfully and beautifully explained and defended the teachings of the Church through the ages. This, they were able to do because of the teachings that were handed down to them, and because of their theoria, or direct experience of God.

[3] Word, or Logos in Greek, refers to God, specifically the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. See more on pages 4 and 8-9. Regarding “gods,” consider Psalm 81 (82):6: I said, “You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High,” also quoted by The Lord Jesus Christ in John 10:34-36.  

[4] Apophatic refers to describing something by what it is not. It is Greek for “away from or without light.” Apophatic language is often used in connection to beliefs about God’s Divine Simplicity.

[5] Greek was the language of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, which was used by the Jews in the Second Temple period, at the time of Christ and His apostles, and throughout the history of Eastern Christendom. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, all except one Gospel, and it was the language of the Eastern Church Fathers. Greek words and roots are central in philosophy and religious texts to this day.

[6] Oυσία or Ousia in Greek, meaning essence, nature or substance.

[7] Examples of some of the other verses where Paul, James and Matthew use the word energy or its cognates: Galatians 2:8, Galatians 3:5, Galatians 5:6, Ephesians 1:11, Ephesians 1:19-20, Ephesians 3:7, Ephesians 3:20, Ephesians 4:16, Philippians 3:21, Philippians 2:12-13, Colossians 1:29, Colossians 2:12, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, James 5:16, Matthew 14:2

[8] The word translated as “miracles” is dynameōn, from the root, dynámeis, or dynamic in English, which indicates “power” or energy.

[9] It is important to note that the Eastern Orthodox teaching is that when we experience God’s grace we experience God’s divinity; we do not experience God through created effects, or what is referred to as “created grace.” 

[10] The Greek word “nous” is used in the scriptures, and it is ubiquitous in the writings of the Eastern Church Fathers. Using the tri-partite soul model adopted by early Christians (one might think of the head-chest-belly language of C.S. Lewis), the head or intellect is sub-divided into the reasoning aspect and the intuitive/receptive aspect, or nous. However, the Fathers generally reserve this word for a higher aspect of the soul, or more specifically, as the eye of the soul, or heart.

[11] In Trinitarian Theology, the Greek word hypostasis (ὑπόστασις) is often rendered in English as person (coming from the Latin, persona). Hypostasis indicates an individual or particular subject; therefore, the basic Trinitarian profession in Greek is one ousia (essence) and three hypostases. See more in notes 31 and 32.

[12] “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God…And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1,14). Logos, often translated into English as Word, is a reference in John’s Gospel to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The Logos (Word) became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Logos may be better translated as “rational speech,” rather than as simply “word.”

[13] Pascha is the Orthodox word for Easter. It means “Passover” and refers to Christ’s redemptive Passover.

[14] Hades is not the same as Hell. Hades is the place, or rather the state of existence, of the dead described throughout the Bible. Christ descended into Hades after His death on the Cross, He defeated death (1 Corinthians 15: 55-57) and rose on the third day, raising the souls of the dead with Him (see the Anastasi Icon in the Chora Church).

[15] John 15:26 is one passage among others that describes the Holy Spirit guiding the Church.

[16] Paul refers to the Church as “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).

[17] Sacraments, historically called Mysteries among Orthodox Christians, refer to various God-given graces, often transmitted by visible means, by which we come to experience His love and enter into a closer union with Him. The Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion, is a significant sacrament such that a first-century saint, Ignatius of Antioch, referred to it as the Medicine of Immortality. Some sacraments are regarded higher in order than others, such as Baptism and the Eucharist, but God transmits His grace (energies) in many ways to bring us into communion with Him.

[18] Sacred scripture refers to The Holy Bible (Septuagint Old Testament and The New Testament). Orthodox view the Bible as, first, a liturgical text, and second, as one that each believer ought to read as part of his daily praxis. For brief explanations of the place of The Bible in the Orthodox Church, read Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s article, “How to Read the Bible,” or Raymond Zell’s “Scripture and Tradition.” Both are available online.

[19] The Beatitudes are at the beginning of Jesus’s most famous teachings from His Sermon on the Mount found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5-7. They enumerate the ways in which one lives a blessed or truly happy life. The Greek word from which beatitude comes is Μακάριοι, from the root μακάριος (makarios). Makarios refers to a state of bliss or happiness. 

[20] Metropolitan is a title for an Orthodox bishop who oversees a diocese.

[21] There are many teachings about Theosis in the writings of the Church Fathers and contemporary writers. In the Holy Scriptures, it is helpful to read passages such as the following in the context of Theosis and notice the emphases on purity or incorruption and deathlessness or immortality: Matthew 5:8, 48, Matthew 13:43, John 10:34, Romans 8:28-30, 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, 15:45-58, 2 Peter 1:2-10, Romans 6:22, 1 John 3:1-10 or Philippians 3:12-14, 20-21.

[22] See note 11 about the nous.

[23] Hierotheos Vlachos, Orthodox Spirituality, p. 45.

[24] Kallistos Ware, How are We Saved, p. 36. On the word “mystery,” see notes 29 and 35.

[25] For more on the Church’s beginnings, see the final paragraph on p. 10 and the graphic timeline on p. 12.

[26] Lewis’ comment on the doors of Hell and rebels is found at the end of his chapter on Hell.

[27] “God does not compel; for violence is foreign to the divine nature.” -Letter to Diognetus, 2nd century.

[28] Ascetical Homily 27.  

[29] Mysterion, μυστήριον, means to cover or shut. See more about “the mysteries” in note 35.

[30] Keep in mind that analogies are not meant to be perfect comparisons.

[31] Regarding imperfect analogies, it is important to note a distinction here. Though humans share a common essence, we are individual and separate beings. The Holy Trinity, however, exists in a different mode of being from humans. Within The Trinity there are three unique and distinct hypostases or persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), but God is not three separate beings. For more, read the Eastern Fathers on “Perichoresis.”

[32] The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, generally known as the Nicene Creed, was composed in two universal Church councils in the 4th century in order to distinguish true beliefs about God and the Church from falsehoods, or heterodox teachings. The Creed appears on page 11 below.

[33] Begetting refers to fatherhood—mothers bear children, fathers beget children.

[34] Old Covenant and New Covenant refer to the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

[35] Gospel comes from an Old English word, gōdspel, which means “the good news” (εὐαγγέλιον or evangelion in Greek). It refers to the good news expressed in the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, about the saving work of The Lord Jesus Christ. In the ancient Church, the Gospel, which was proclaimed to everyone, was distinguished from the inner mysteries (μυστήριa, mysteria) or the teachings that only baptized Christians were taught. Hence, the Bible was never meant to contain everything one ought to know about the faith, never mind that most people in the Ancient world, and for most of human history for that matter, could not read it to begin with—the Bible was used mostly in a liturgical context.     

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed

 

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was composed in the first two universal or Ecumenical Church Councils, in AD 325 and 381 at Nicaea and Constantinople, in order to distinguish true beliefs about God and the Church from false or heterodox teachings. These teachings were rooted in the early life of the Church and in Holy Scripture. The statement of faith is generally referred to in English as The Creed. In Greek, it is called The Symbol of Faith. The Creed appears below in English and in the original Greek.

 

Note that when The Creed was recited at the end of the first two councils, and repeated at later councils, the church fathers began with the word Πιστεύομεν or “We believe.” When used in liturgical services, the singular is used, Πιστεύω, or “I believe.” The Creed is the confession of faith made by those entering into the Church through Baptism, and each time it is recited in services it is a reaffirmation of each believer’s faith and baptismal vow.

Timeline of Church History