Orthodoxy (a tracing from the Greek ὀρθοδοξία — literally “correct judgment,” “correct teaching,” or “correct glorification”) is one of the three main directions in Christianity (along with Catholicism and Protestantism), which developed in the first millennium after the birth of Christ on the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium).
After the division of the Churches (1054), which was the result of a long process of alienation between the Churches in the West and the East due to theological disputes and the desire of the Roman bishops (popes) to subjugate the Eastern Churches, the first place in honor among the Orthodox Churches belongs to the see of the bishop of Constantinople — New Rome (according to the rules of the Ecumenical Councils, before the schism, the primacy of honor belonged to the Roman see).
Orthodoxy, in the sense of the word considering itself — in contrast to heresies — as a confession of the true apostolic faith, imprinted in the Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, is the doctrine of the Orthodox Church, which is understood as a community of administratively independent autocephalous local Churches that have Eucharistic communion with each other.
The Orthodox Church professes the Nicene-Constantinople Creed (without the filioque) and recognizes the decrees of the seven Ecumenical Councils, considers itself the only, catholic church, the founder and head of which is Jesus Christ.
Orthodoxy is currently the predominant confession in the following countries: Russia, the countries of the Balkan Peninsula (Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Montenegro), Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Cyprus.
Origin and theological meaning of the term.
Historically, as well as in theological literature, «Orthodoxy» denotes the teaching approved by the Catholic Church — as opposed to heresy. The term appears as an antonym to the word «heterodoxy», which denoted «other», or non-ecclesiastical, theological views of various kinds of heretics and those teachers whose opinions the Church rejected for some reason. In the Christian context, the word «Orthodoxy» (Greek: ὀρθοδοξία) is already found in the works of apologists of the 2nd century (in particular, Clement of Alexandria). The terminological meaning of it was assigned by Eusebius of Caesarea (3rd century), and was officially recorded for the first time in the acts of the Chalcedonian (IV Ecumenical) Council (451), and since the time of Justinian (6th century) the word «Orthodoxy» has been used quite widely to denote theological views, regarding which there is an opinion that they exactly correspond to the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. In doctrinal documents, the term was sometimes used as a synonym for the term «catholic» (Greek καθολικός). In this sense, it is also used by the Roman Catholic Church, including in its liturgical texts, and for the pre-Chalcedonian ancient Eastern Orthodox churches it is even part of their generally accepted name.
According to the opinion of the professor of the Imperial St. Petersburg Theological Academy N. N. Glubokovsky, «Orthodoxy is the «right confession» — ορθο-δοξία — because it reproduces in itself the entire intelligible object, itself sees and shows it to others in the «correct opinion» in all its subject wealth and with all its features.» In the Russian language, in scientific literature, the terms «Orthodoxy (Orthodox)» and «orthodoxy (orthodox)» are used as synonyms in their original meaning — to designate the supporters of the Nicene Creed («Nicaeans») as opposed to the Arians, as well as for the orthodox side in further church disputes — Monophysite, iconoclastic. To designate “Orthodoxy” in the narrow sense, after the 11th century, as opposed to “Catholicism”, in the Russian language the words “orthodoxy” and “orthodox” are not used, although such usage is sometimes found in secular and translated literature.
History of the term in Rus’.
The word «Orthodoxy» is found in the earliest surviving copy of the Tale of Bygone Years, part of the Laurentian Chronicle, dating from 1377. It is also found in the earliest fully preserved copy of the «Word on Law and Grace» (1037-1050) by Metropolitan Hilarion, dating from the second half of the 15th century:
Praise with praiseworthy voices: the Roman land of Peter and Paul, who believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God; Asia and Ephesus, and Patmos of John the Theologian, India Thomas, Egypt Mark. All countries and cities and people honor and glorify each of their teachers who taught them the Orthodox faith.
According to I. I. Sreznevsky, the term «Orthodoxy» in the 14th-16th centuries was used in such meanings as «piety», «Orthodox faith» and «Orthodox community».
History of the formulation of doctrine.
Seven Ecumenical Councils, with the Creation of the World and the Council of the Twelve Apostles (icon of the 19th century)
The Orthodox Church considers the entire history of the united Church before the Great Schism (1054) as its own history. Orthodox doctrine dates back to apostolic times (1st century). Subsequently, it was formulated by oros (literally — boundaries, doctrinal definitions) of the Ecumenical, as well as some Local Councils. Orthodoxy does not recognize the decrees of the councils that were convened by the Roman Church after the Schism, including those where representatives of the Eastern Patriarchates were present, for example, the Council of Florence. The first two councils were convened by the emperors of the united Roman Empire who ruled in Constantinople, and the rest were convened by the Roman (Byzantine) emperors, who considered themselves the only legitimate Roman emperors after the liquidation of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and usually took place under their administrative chairmanship.
The main dogmatic and canonical provisions. Dogmatics.
The doctrine is based on the Holy Scripture (i.e. the Bible) and the Holy Tradition, which includes, in particular, the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. The main dogmatic document used in the liturgy of Orthodoxy is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed without the filioque, which states:
Salvation through the confession of faith «in one God» (1st article of the Creed).
The equality of the Persons of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the same worship and glorification of Them (Articles 2 and 8 of the Creed), the consubstantiality of God the Father and God the Son. The confession of Jesus as Christ, the Lord and Son of God, born of God the Father before the beginning of time (Article 2 of the Creed). The Incarnation of God (Article 3 of the Creed).
Belief in the crucifixion for people, the bodily resurrection, ascension, and future second coming of Jesus Christ, the general resurrection, and “the life of the age to come” (Articles 5, 6, 7, 11, 12).
Confession of the Holy Spirit as the Lord, the giver of life, and proceeding from God the Father (Article 8 of the Creed).
Belief in the unity, holiness, and catholicity of the Church (Article 9 of the Creed). The Head of the Church is Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:23).
The necessity of a single baptism for the remission of sins (the 10th article of the Symbol).
In addition, the First Ecumenical Council approved the Nicene Creed, which affirms the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with God the Father and God the Son, as well as the truth that God the Father is Light, and the Son is Light from Light. The IV Ecumenical Council approved the dogma of the two natures of Jesus Christ: divine and human, and the VI Ecumenical Council approved the dogma of the two wills and two actions of Jesus Christ: divine and human. The VII Ecumenical Council proclaimed the dogma of the veneration of icons.
Structure and basic canonical norms.
Basic canonical norms and institutions:
Hierarchical priesthood (clergy), which has 3 degrees: bishop, presbyter, deacon. Nowadays, clergy in Orthodoxy are always male. In the ancient church, women served as deaconesses. A necessary condition for the legitimacy of the hierarchy is direct canonically legitimate apostolic succession through an uninterrupted sequence of ordinations. Each bishop (regardless of the title he holds) has full canonical authority within his jurisdiction (diocese). Although the canons prohibit persons of holy orders from «getting involved in public administration» (the 81st and 6th Rules of the Holy Apostles, as well as the 11th Rule of the Second Council, etc.), there have been individual episodes in history when Orthodox bishops stood at the head of the state (the most famous are the Orthodox Roman popes of the 1st millennium AD, the Novgorod archbishops, the rulers of Njegoš in Montenegro, the President of Albania Fan Noli, the President of Cyprus Macarius III) or had significant powers of civil authority (the Patriarchs of Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire in the role of the millet-bashi, that is, the ethnarch of the Orthodox subjects of the sultan). The institution of monasticism. Includes the so-called black clergy, which has played a leading role in all spheres of Church life since the 4th century. Representatives of the black clergy can be elected to the episcopal service in the Church.
Established calendar fasts: Great (40-day pre-Easter fast), Peter’s, Dormition, Nativity, together with the holidays, make up the liturgical year. Worship.
General information.
Historically, Orthodoxy allowed the use of various rites, but after the schism in the Church, the almost exclusive use of the Byzantine rite was established.
Liturgy is the main liturgical sequence during which the sacrament of the Eucharist is performed: it consists of the Liturgy of the Catechumens and the Liturgy of the Faithful (their main elements are the reading of the Gospel and the Anaphora, respectively). Communion is performed with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Wine (Cahors) and leavened bread — prosphora are used for the sacrament. Historically, the public (church) worship in Byzantium includes 4 liturgical cycles: daily, weekly, fixed annual and mobile annual cycle formed around the feast of Easter. Since the mid-20th century, there have been Orthodox parishes in the USA and some other countries (mainly in the Antiochian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) that practice Western rites.
Sacraments in the Orthodox Church.
The formulated isolation of seven sacraments from worship was made in Latin scholastic theology: the doctrine of the seven sacraments was conciliarly approved in Roman Catholicism at the Florence and Trent Councils of the Roman Church (the Council of Trent adopted a canon according to which all who teach that there are more or less than seven sacraments are anathematized). At the end of the 16th century, this teaching began to be published in books published by Orthodox authors, which was caused by the fact that the Orthodox studied in Catholic educational institutions and copied this teaching, as well as by the theological polemics with the Protestants that began in Constantinople, and in Moscow — the strong influence of the Kyiv school (Kiev-Mohyla Academy) on the emerging academic theology. However, the tradition of distinguishing the sacraments from other sacred rites of the church (monastic tonsure, funeral service, great blessing of water, etc.) took place in later school theology (this teaching was included in various doctrinal books published by the Orthodox). Thus, explaining the 10th article of the Symbol of Faith («I confess one baptism for the remission of sins»), the catechism, which was widely circulated in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, called «The Orthodox Confession» (the original version was written under the direction of Peter Mogila; the first complete edition in Greek in 1667) states: Since he mentions Baptism, the first Sacrament, he gives us the opportunity to consider the seven Sacraments of the Church. They are the following: Baptism, Chrismation, Eucharist, Penance, Priesthood, Honorable Matrimony and Unction. These seven Sacraments correspond to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. For through these Sacraments the Holy Spirit pours out His gifts and grace on the souls of those who use them properly. Patriarch Jeremiah discusses this subject at length in the book he wrote for the conversion of Lutherans.
It is noteworthy that, for example, John of Damascus spoke of two sacraments, Dionysius the Areopagite, Theodore the Studite — of six, and Metropolitan Joasaph of Ephesus (XV) — of ten, the last three, burial and monastic tonsure, were considered sacraments. Unlike Catholicism, the teaching of only seven sacraments was never affirmed by the entire conciliar plenitude of the Orthodox Church, due to the fact that the difference between a sacred rite and a sacrament was never defined by anyone.
Distribution.
Orthodoxy is widespread among a number of peoples in the Balkans — Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Romanians and some Albanians; in Eastern Europe — among the East Slavic peoples, as well as Georgians, Mingrelians, peoples of the Levant, Gagauz, Moldovans and, along with Russians and Kryashens, among a number of other peoples of the Russian Federation: Chuvashes, Mari, Udmurts, Komi, Karelians, Mordvins, Yakuts, some Ossetians and many others.
It is impossible to determine the exact number of adherents, since in a number of countries where Orthodoxy is traditionally spread, state and church bodies do not keep records
of Church members. The number of believers in the canonical Orthodox churches is estimated at 225 million (2007) and 227 million (2013).
Together with the ancient Eastern churches, the number of Orthodox Christians is 260-270 million people. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and other sources estimate the total number of Orthodox Christians at around 250-300 million.
The largest number of Orthodox Christians live in Russia: about 40% of the total number of Orthodox Christians (including ancient Eastern Christians) in the world. In the modern world, countries with a majority Orthodox population, according to censuses and surveys, also include: Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Cyprus, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Montenegro. Orthodoxy is also noticeably present in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Turkmenistan, Finland, and the Aleutian Islands of the American state of Alaska. In addition, Orthodoxy is professed by part of the population of Lebanon (8% of the country’s population), Syria, Jordan, and Israel.
Migration processes in the 20th century, as well as Orthodox missionary work, led to the establishment of Orthodox communities and dioceses in countries on all continents outside the traditional spread of Orthodoxy, in particular, the rapid growth of its adherents in the United States, where many Orthodox jurisdictions coexist. Since the end of the 20th century, one of the zones of comparatively rapid spread of Orthodoxy has been sub-Saharan Africa, as well as Southeast Asia and South Korea.
Old Believer churches.
Churches of the Russian tradition that rejected the reform of Patriarch Nikon (17th century) and do not have Eucharistic communion with the world community of local Orthodox churches.
After the recognition by the Local Council of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1971 of the «non-existent» «oaths» of the Great Moscow Council of 1666 on pre-reform Russian rites and those adhering to them, church communion was not restored. The Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) does not recognize the validity of the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (Belokrinitsky Agreement).
Priestdom.
Priestdom is a movement that has priesthood and ordination succession, but is not recognized by universal Orthodoxy. These include: Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (Belokrinitsky Hierarchy);
Russian Old Orthodox Church (Beglopopovskoye Agreement).
Bespopovstvo.
Bespopovstvo is a movement that believes that ordination succession was interrupted with the death of the last bishop who did not recognize the reform of Patriarch Nikon.
These include:
Old Orthodox Pomor Church;
Fedoseyevtsy;
Spassovtsy;
Netovtsy.
True Orthodox Churches.
True Orthodox Churches (TOC) are a number of associations that are non-canonical from the point of view of the churches of world, or universal Orthodoxy, but claim to be the ones preserving the tradition of true Orthodoxy (hence the name), and for this reason oppose themselves to local Orthodox churches. The TOCs are not in Eucharistic communion with world Orthodoxy and, often, with each other. They arose in Greece and Russia during the church schisms of the 1920s. The TOCs currently declare their main doctrinal difference from the churches of world Orthodoxy to be their rejection of ecumenical contacts in the forms in which they are practiced in the official churches. In terms of the number of adherents, they are significantly inferior to the local churches of universal Orthodoxy. Thus, in terms of the number of parishes, the Local Orthodox Church in the Russian Federation (ROC) surpasses the largest organizations from among the Russian ROCs — the Russian True Orthodox Church and the ROC(R), by more than 2 orders of magnitude — 30,142, 200 (according to the ROC itself for 2008) and 150 parishes, respectively.
Old Calendar churches (Old Calendarists).
Old Calendar Churches is a name that unites the «true Orthodox» churches in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, South Ossetia, Finland and Cyprus that do not have Eucharistic communion with the local Orthodox churches.
These churches received their name due to the fact that the initial reason for the division was the transition of many local churches to the New Julian calendar; the separated bishops and parishes retained the use of the Julian calendar («old style»).
The name «Old Calendar Churches» was assigned only to these churches and is not used to describe either the local churches in Russia, Serbia and Georgia, or the Russian ROCOR, which use the Julian calendar.
Autocephalies outside canonical communion with world Orthodoxy.
A number of religious associations of the Orthodox tradition call themselves autocephalous Orthodox churches, but are not recognized as such by any local church
of world Orthodoxy. Among them are such churches as:
Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church;
Macedonian Orthodox Church;
Montenegrin Orthodox Church;
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church;
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate);
Canonical Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
From the point of view of adherents of world Orthodoxy, all these churches are non-canonical structures. The Orthodox Church in America is recognized as autocephalous
only by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian, Georgian, Polish Orthodox Churches and the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, while other churches also consider its autocephaly non-canonical. Unlike the ROCOR, these structures recognize the canonicity of world Orthodoxy, do not make confessional claims against it, have Eucharistic communion with it (even if it is interrupted with the church from which they broke away), and, as a rule, seek legitimization on its part.
Pre-Chalcedonian churches.
The term «Orthodoxy» («orthodoxy») is used in the self-designations of a number of ancient (pre-Chalcedonian) Eastern churches, which, however, are not recognized as members of the community of autocephalous Churches that have Eucharistic communion with each other and recognize the Bishop of Constantinople as the first in honor.
The Ancient Eastern churches include:
Armenian Apostolic Church
Coptic Orthodox Church
Ethiopian Orthodox Church
Eritrean Orthodox Church
Syrian Orthodox Church
Malankara Orthodox Church
The possibility of salvation for heterodox, heretics and schismatics.
The Orthodox confession has never designated the boundaries of salvation, but only indicates the paths of salvation within the fence of Orthodox churches.
The position of the Russian Orthodox Church is outlined by the Jubilee Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in 2000, in the document «Basic Principles of Attitude to Heterodox Faith»:
1.1. The Orthodox Church is the true Church of Christ.
1.15. The Orthodox Church, through the lips of the Holy Fathers, asserts that salvation can be found only in the Church of Christ. But at the same time, communities that have fallen away from unity with
Orthodoxy have never been considered as completely deprived of the grace of God. The rupture of church communion inevitably leads to the damage of the grace-filled life, but not
always to its complete disappearance in the separated communities…
1.16. The church position of those who have separated cannot be unambiguously determined…
1.17. …The Orthodox Church does not pass judgment on the extent to which the grace-filled life is preserved or damaged in heterodoxy, considering this a mystery of Providence and the judgment of God.
2.4. The Orthodox Church cannot accept the thesis that, despite historical divisions, the fundamental, deep unity of Christians was allegedly not violated and that the Church should be understood as coinciding with the entire “Christian world.”
— «Basic principles of attitude to heterodoxy.»
Different jurisdictions (the ROCOR, various Old Believer Orthodox churches and concords, Old Calendar churches, etc.) that are not part of the system of world Orthodoxy may have different points of view on the possibility of salvation of both heterodox and Orthodox from other Orthodox churches.
Orthodoxy and ecumenism.
Attitude to the modern Roman Catholic Church.
There is no single point of view in Orthodoxy on whether to consider the «Latins» heretics who distorted the Creed by means of the self-willed later addition of the Filioque, or schismatics who broke away from the One Catholic Apostolic Church.
The Orthodox unanimously reject the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of doctrine and his claim to primacy over all Christians — at least in the interpretation accepted in the modern Roman Church. The Orthodox Church does not accept a number of other dogmatic provisions of the Roman Catholic Church: the filioque, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, the doctrine of purgatory, the dogma of the bodily assumption of the Mother of God.
Orthodoxy welcomes the symphony of spiritual and secular authorities; the Roman Church has advocated complete ecclesiastical immunity since the early Middle Ages and, in the person of its High Priest, has sovereign secular power.
In December 1965, the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI and their Synods lifted the mutual anathemas of 1054 and signed the «Joint Declaration;
«a gesture of justice and mutual forgiveness» (Joint Declaration, 5) did not lead to overcoming the division (restoration of Eucharistic communion).
Since May 1980, meetings of the Joint Theological Orthodox-Roman Catholic Commission for Dialogue between Local Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church have been held from time to time. Metropolitan Hilarion, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, stated that «by entering into dialogue, the Orthodox Church has renounced the use of the term ‘heresy’ in relation to Catholicism,» explaining that the moratorium on the use of this term during the work of the Theological Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Dialogue does not mean that the term ‘heresy’ itself has been removed from the agenda or that the differences that exist between the Orthodox and Catholics have been removed. The current Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, in his speech at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009, pointedly and publicly used the term “Catholic heresy,” and during a sermon in Tutayev on September 11, 2010, he called the idea of a union with the Catholic Church “a heretical deviation from the truths of the Orthodox faith.”
