From the first days of her existence, the Holy Church of Christ has ceaselessly been concerned that her children, her members, should stand firm in the pure truth.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth," writes the holy Apostle, John the Theologian (3 John 4). "I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand," says the holy Apostle Peter in concluding his catholic epistle (1 Peter 5:12). ("Catholic," meaning "universal," is the name applied to the New Testament Epistles (those of James, Peter, Jude, and John) which were addressed, not to individuals or local churches (as are all the Epistles of St. Paul), but to the whole Church or to believers in general.)

The holy Apostle Paul relates concerning himself that, having preached for fourteen years, he went to Jerusalem by revelation with Barnabas and Titus, and there he offered — especially to the most renowned citizens — the gospel which he preached, "lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain" (Gal. 2:2). "Instruct us in Thy path, that we may walk in Thy Truth" — is the first petition in the priestly prayers (the Prayers at Lamplighting. The "Prayers at Lamplighting" are the silent prayers read by the priest before the Royal Doors while Psalm 103 is being read aloud by the Reader.) in the first Divine Service of the daily cycle, Vespers.

The true path of faith which has always been carefully preserved in the history of the Church, from of old was called straight, right, in Greek, orthos — that is, "orthodoxy." In the Psalter — from which, as we know from the history of the Christian Divine services, the Church has been inseparable from the first moment of her existence — we find such phrases as the following — "my foot hath stood in uprightness" (Ps. 25:10); "from before Thy face let my judgment come forth" (Ps. 16:2); "praise is meet for the upright" (Ps. 32:1); and there are others. The Apostle Paul instructs Timothy to present himself before God "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (that is, rightly cutting with a chisel, from the Greek orthotomounta) the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). In early Christian literature there is constant mention of the keeping of "the rule of faith," the "rule of truth" The very term "orthodoxy" was widely used even in the epoch before the Ecumenical Councils, then in the terminology of the Ecumenical Councils themselves, and in the Fathers of the Church both of the East and of the West.

Side by side with the straight, or right, path of faith there have always been those who thought differently (heterodoxountes, or "heterodox," in the expression of St. Ignatius the God-bearer), a world of greater or lesser errors among Christians, and sometimes even whole incorrect systems which attempted to burst into the midst of Orthodox Christians. As a result of the quest for truth there occurred divisions among Christians.

Becoming acquainted with the history of the Church, and likewise observing the contemporary world, we see that the errors which war against Orthodox Truth have appeared and do appear a) under the influence of other religions, b) under the influence of philosophy, and c) through the weakness and inclinations of fallen human nature, which seeks the rights and justifications of these weaknesses and inclinations.

Errors take root and become obstinate most frequently because of the pride of those who defend them, because of intellectual pride.

So as to guard the right path of faith, the Church has had to forge strict forms for the expression of the truths of faith: it has had to build up the fortresses of truth for the repulsion of influences foreign to the Church. The definitions of truth declared by the Church have been called, since the days of the Apostles, dogmas. In the Acts of the Apostles we read of the Apostles Paul and Timothy that "as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees (dogmata) for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem" (Acts 16:4; here the reference is to the decrees of the Apostolic Council which is described in the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Acts). Among the ancient Greeks and Romans the Greek word dogmat was used to refer a) to philosophical conceptions, and b) to directives which were to be precisely fulfilled. In the Christian understanding, "dogmas" are the opposite of "opinions," that is, inconstant personal conceptions.

On what are dogmas founded? It is clear that dogmas are not founded on the rational conceptions of separate individuals, even though these might be Fathers and Teachers of the Church, but, rather, on the teaching of Sacred Scripture and on the Apostolic Sacred Tradition. The truths of faith which are contained in the Sacred Scripture and the Apostolic Sacred Tradition give the fullness of the teaching of faith which was called by the ancient Fathers of the Church the "catholic faith," the "catholic teaching" of the Church. (In such phrases the word "catholic" means "universal" as referring to the Church of all times, peoples, and places "where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all" (Col. 3:11). A celebrated definition of "catholic" in the early Church was given by St. Vincent of Lerins, the 5^th century monastic Father of Gaul, who in his Communitorium says, "Every care should be taken to hold fast to what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. That is truly and properly 'catholic' as indicated by the force and etymology of the name itself, which comprises everything truly universal" (ch. 2, Fathers of the Church edition, p. 270). The name of "catholic" has been kept from early times in the "Roman Catholic" church, but the teaching of the early Church has been preserved in the Orthodox Church, which even to this day can be and still is called "catholic." In many places in this book, Father Michael will be contrasting the teaching of Roman Catholicism and the true catholic or Orthodox teaching.) The truths of Scripture and Tradition, harmoniously fused together into a single whole, define the "catholic consciousness" of the Church, a consciousness that is guided by the Holy Spirit.

By "sacred scripture" are to be understood those books written by the holy Prophets and Apostles under the action of the Holy Spirit; therefore they are called "divinely inspired" They are divided into books of the Old Testament and the books of the New Testament.

The Church recognizes 38 books of the Old Testament. After the example of the Old Testament Church (Although the Church in the strict sense was established only at the coming of Christ (see Matt.16:18), there was in a certain sense a "Church" in the Old Testament also, composed of all those who looked with hope to the coming of the Messiah. After the death of Christ on the Cross, when He descended into hell and "preached unto the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19), He brought up the righteous ones of the Old Testament with Him into Paradise, and to this day the Orthodox Church celebrates the feast days of the Old Testament Forefathers, Patriarchs, and prophets as equal to the saints of New Testament.), several of these books are joined to form a single book, bringing the number to twenty-two books, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. (The 22 "canonical" books of the Old Testament are: 1. Genesis, 2. Exodus, 3. Leviticus, 4. Numbers, 5. Deuteronomy, 6. Joshua, 7. Judges and Ruth considered as one, 8. First and Second Kings (called First and Second Samuel in the King James Version), 9. Third and Fourth Kings (First and Second Kings in the KJV), 10. First and Second Paralipomena (First and Second Chronicles in the KJV), 11. First Esdras (Ezra) and Nehemiah, 12. Esther, 13. Job, 14. Psalms, 15. Proverbs, 16. Ecclesiastes, 17. The Song of Songs, 18. Isaiah, 19. Jeremiah, 20. Ezekiel, 21. Daniel, 22. The Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). This is the list given by St. John Damascene in the Exact Exposition of the Christian Faith, p. 375) These books, which were entered at some time into the Hebrew canon, are called "canonical." (The word "canonical" here has a specialized meaning with reference to the books of Scripture, and thus must be distinguished from the more usual use of the word in the Orthodox Church, where it refers not to the "canon" of Scripture, but to "canons" or laws proclaimed at church councils. In the latter sense, "canonical" means "in accordance with the Church's canons." But in the former, restricted sense, "canonical" means only "included in the Hebrew canon," and "non-canonical" means only "not included in the Hebrew canon" (but still accepted by the Church as Scripture). In the Protestant world the "non-canonical" books of the Old Testament are commonly called the "Apocrypha," often with a pejorative connotation, even though they were included in the earliest printings of the King James Version, and a law of 1615 in England even forbade the Bible to be printed without these books. In the Roman Catholic Church since the 16^th century the "non-canonical" books have been called "Deuterocanonical" — i.e. belonging to a "second" or later canon of Scripture. In most translations of the Bible which include the "non-canonical" books, they are placed together at the end of the canonical books; but in older printings in Orthodox countries there is no distinction made between the canonical and non-canonical books, see for example the Slavonic Bible printed in St. Petersburg, 1904, and approved by the Holy Synod) To them are joined a group of "non-canonical" books — that is, those which were not included in the Hebrew canon because they were written after the closing of the canon of the sacred Old Testament books. (The "non-canonical" books of the Old Testament accepted by the Orthodox Church are those of the "Septuagint" — the Greek translation of the Old Testament made by the "Seventy" scholars who, according to tradition, were sent from Jerusalem to Egypt at the request of the Egyptian King Ptolemy II in the 3^rd century B.C. to translate the Old Testament into Greek. The Hebrew originals of most of the books have been lost, and most of the books were composed only in the last few centuries before Christ. The "non-canonical" books of the Old Testament are: Tobit, Judith, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Joshua the Son of Sirach, Baruch, Three Books of Maccabees, the Epistle of Jeremiah, Psalm 151, and the additions to the book of Esther, of 2 Chronicles (The Prayer of Manassah), and Daniel (The Song of the Three Youths, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon).) The Church accepts these latter books also as useful and instructive and in antiquity assigned them for instructive reading not only in homes but also in churches, which is why they have been called "ecclesiastical." The Church includes these books in a single volume of the Bible together with the canonical books. As a source of the teaching of the faith, the Church puts them in a secondary place and looks on them as an appendix to the canonical books. Certain of them are so close in merit to the Divinely-inspired books that, for example, in the 85th Apostolic Canon (The "Apostolic Canons" or the "Canons of the Holy Apostles" are a collection of 85 ecclesiastical canons or laws handed down from the Apostles and their successors and given official Church approval at the Quinsext church Council (in Trullo) in 692 and in the First Canon of the Seventh Ecumenical (787). Some of these canons were cited and approved at the Ecumenical Councils, beginning with the First Council in 325, but the whole collection of them together was made probably not before the 4^th century. The name "apostolic" does not necessarily mean that all the canons or the collection of them were made by the Apostles themselves, but only that they are in the tradition handed down from the Apostles (just as not all the "Psalms of David" were actually written by the Prophet David). For their text, see the Eerdmans Seven Ecumenical Councils, pp. 594-600. The 85^th Apostolic Canon lists the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments.) the three books of Maccabees and the book of Joshua the son of Sirach are numbered together with the canonical books, and, concerning all of them together it is said that they are "venerable and holy." However, this means only that they were respected in the ancient Church; but a distinction between the canonical and non-canonical books of the Old Testament has always been maintained in the Church.

The Church recognizes twenty-seven canonical books of the New Testament. (These books are: the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles; the Seven Catholic Epistles (one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude); fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul (Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews); and the Apocalypse (Revelations) of St. John the Theologian and Evangelist.) Since the sacred books of the New Testament were written in various years of the apostolic era and were sent by the Apostles to various points of Europe and Asia, and certain of them did not have a definite designation to any specific place, the gathering of them into a single collection or codex could not be an easy matter; it was necessary to keep strict watch lest among the books of apostolic origin there might be found any of the so-called "apocrypha" books, which for the most part were composed in heretical circles. Therefore, the Fathers and teachers of the Church during the first centuries of Christianity preserved a special caution in distinguishing these books, even though they might bear the name of Apostles. The Fathers of the Church frequently entered certain books into their lists with reservations, with uncertainty or doubt, or else gave for this reason an incomplete list of the Sacred Books. This was unavoidable and serves as a memorial to their exceptional caution in this holy matter. They did not trust themselves, but waited for the universal voice of the Church. The local Council of Carthage in 318, in its 33rd Canon, enumerated all of the books of the New Testament without exception.

St. Athanasius the Great names all of the books of the New Testament without the least doubt or distinction, and in one of his works he concludes his list with the following words: "Behold the number and names of the canonical books of the New Testament. These are, as it were, the beginnings, the anchors and pillars of our faith, because they were written and transmitted by the very Apostles of Christ the Savior, who were with Him and were instructed by Him" (from the Synopsis of St. Athanasius). Likewise, St. Cyril of Jerusalem also enumerates the books of the New Testament without the slightest remark as to any kind of distinction between them in the Church. The same complete listing is to be found among the Western ecclesiastical writers, for example in Augustine. Thus, the complete canon of the New Testament books of Sacred Scripture was confirmed by the catholic voice of the whole Church. This Sacred Scripture, in the expression of St. John Damascene, is the "Divine Paradise" (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book 4, Ch. 17; Eng. tr. p. 374).

In the original precise meaning of the word, Sacred Tradition is the tradition which comes from the ancient Church of Apostolic times. In the second to the fourth centuries this was called "the Apostolic Tradition."

One must keep in mind that the ancient Church carefully guarded the inward life of the Church from those outside of her; her Holy Mysteries were secret, being kept from non-Christians. When these Mysteries were performed — Baptism or the Eucharist — those outside the Church were not present; the order of the services was not written down, but was only transmitted orally; and in what was preserved in secret was contained the essential side of the faith. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (4th century) presents this to us especially clearly. In undertaking Christian instruction for those who had not yet expressed a final decision to become Christians, the hierarch precedes his teachings with the following words: "When the catechetical teaching is pronounced, if a catechumen should ask you, 'What did the instructors say?' you are to repeat nothing to those who are without (the church). For we are giving to you the mystery and hope of the future age. Keep the Mystery of Him Who is the Giver of rewards. May no one say to you, 'What harm is it if I shall find out also?' Sick people also ask for wine, but if it is given at the wrong time it produces disorder to the mind, and there are two evil consequences; the sick one dies, and the physician is slandered" (Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures, ch. 12).

In one of his further homilies St. Cyril again remarks: "We include the whole teaching of faith in a few lines. And I would wish that you should remember it word for word and should repeat it among yourselves with all fervor, without writing it down on paper, but noting it by memory in the heart. And you should beware, lest during the time of your occupation with this study none of the catechumens should hear what has been handed down to you" (Fifth Catechetical Lecture, ch. 12). In the introductory words which he wrote down for those being "illumined" — that is, those who were already coming to Baptism, and also to those present who were baptized — he gives the following warning: "This instruction for those who are being illumined is offered to be read by those who are coming to Baptism and by the faithful who have already received Baptism; but by no means give it either to the catechumens or to anyone else who has not yet become a Christian, otherwise you will have to give an answer to the Lord. And if you make a copy of these catechetical. lectures, then, as before the Lord, write this down also" (that is, this warning; End of the Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures). (These three citations may be found in St. Cyril, Catetechical Lectures, Eerdmans ed. pp. 4, 32, 5. This strictness with regard to the revelation of the Christian Mysteries (Sacraments) to outsiders is no longer preserved to such a degree in the Orthodox Church. The exclamation, "Catechumens depart!" before the Liturgy of the Faithful is still proclaimed, it is true, but hardly anywhere in the Orthodox world are catechumens or the non-Orthodox actually told to leave the church at this time. (In some churches they are only asked to stand in the back part of the church, in the narthex, but can still observe the service). The full point of such an action is lost in our times, when all the "secrets" of the Christian Mysteries are readily available to anyone who can read, and the text of St. Cyril's Catechetical Lectures has been published in many languages and editions. However, the great reverence which the ancient Church showed for the Christian Mysteries, carefully preserving them from the gaze of those who were merely curious, or those who, being outside the Church and uncommitted to Christianity, might easily misunderstand or mistrust them — is still kept by Orthodox Christians today who are serious about their faith. Even today we are not to "cast our pearls before swine" — to speak much of the Mysteries of the Orthodox Faith to those who are merely curious about them but do not to seek to join themselves to the Church.)

In the following words St. Basil the Great gives us a clear understanding of the Sacred Apostolic Tradition: "Of the dogmas and sermons preserved in the Church, certain ones we have from written instruction, and certain ones we have received from the Apostolic Tradition, handed down in secret. Both the one and the other have one and the same authority for piety, and no one who is even the least informed in the decrees of the Church will contradict this. For if we dare to overthrow the unwritten customs as if they did not have great importance, we shall thereby imperceptively do harm to the Gospel in its most important points. And even more, we shall be left with the empty name of the Apostolic preaching without content. For example, let us especially make note of the first and commonest thing: that those who hope in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ should sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross. Who taught this in Scripture? Which Scripture instructed us that we should turn to the east in prayer? Which of the saints left us in written form the words of invocation during the transformation of the bread of the Eucharist and the Chalice of blessing? For we are not satisfied with the words which are mentioned in the Epistles or the Gospels, but both before them and after them we pronounce others also as having great authority for the Mystery, having received them from the unwritten teaching. By what Scripture, likewise, do we bless the water of Baptism and the oil of anointing and, indeed, the one being baptized himself. Is this not the silent and secret tradition? And what more? What written word has taught us this anointing with oil itself? (That is, anointing of those being baptized; the anointing of the Sacrament of Unction, on the other hand, is clearly indicated in Scripture (James 5:14).) Where is the triple immersion and all the rest that has to do with Baptism, the renunciation of Satan and his angels to be found? What Scripture are these taken from? Is it not from this unpublished and unspoken teaching which our Fathers have preserved in a silence inaccessible to curiosity and scrutiny, because they were thoroughly instructed to preserve in silence the sanctity of the Mysteries? For what propriety would there be to proclaim in writing a teaching concerning that which it is not allowed for the unbaptized even to behold?" (On the Holy Spirit, ch. 27).

From these words of St. Basil the Great we may conclude: first, that the Sacred Tradition of the teaching of faith is that which may be traced back to the earliest period of the Church, and, second, that it was carefully preserved and unanimously acknowledged among the Fathers and teachers of the Church during the epoch of the great Fathers and the beginning of the Ecumenical Councils.

Although St. Basil has given here a series of examples of the "oral tradition," he himself in this very text has taken a step towards the "recording" of this oral word. During the era of the freedom and triumph of the Church in the fourth century, almost all of the tradition in general received a written form and is now preserved in the literature of the Church, which comprises a supplement to the Holy Scripture.

We find this sacred ancient Tradition

• in the most ancient record of the Church, the Canons of the Holy Apostles; (See above note on the Canons of the Holy Apostles)
• in the Symbols of Faith of the ancient local churches;
• in the ancient Liturgies, in the rite of Baptism, and in other ancient prayers;
• in the ancient Acts of the Christian martyrs. The Acts of the martyrs did not enter into use by the faithful until they had been examined and approved by the local bishops; and they were read at the public gatherings of Christians under the supervision of the leaders of the churches. In them we see the confession of the Most Holy Trinity, the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, examples of the invocation of the saints, of belief in the conscious life of those who had reposed in Christ, and much else;
• in the ancient records of the history of the Church, especially in the book of Eusebius Pamphilus, Bishop of Caesarea, (English translation: Eusebius: The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, tr. by G.A. Williamson, Penguin Books, Baltimore, 1965) where there are gathered many ancient traditions of rite and dogma — in particular, there is given the canon of the sacred books of the Old and New Testaments;
• in the works of the ancient Fathers and teachers of the Church;
• and, finally, in the very spirit of the Church's life, in the preservation of faithfulness to all her foundations which come from the Holy Apostles.

The Apostolic Tradition which has been preserved and guarded by the Church, by the very fact that it has been kept by the Church, becomes the Tradition of the Church herself, it "belongs" to her, it testifies to her; and, in parallel to Sacred Scripture it is called by her, "Sacred Tradition."

The witness of Sacred Tradition is indispensable for our certainty that all the books of Sacred Scripture have been handed down to us from Apostolic times and are of Apostolic origin. Sacred Tradition is necessary for the correct understanding of separate passages of Sacred Scripture, and for refuting heretical reinterpretations of it, and, in general, so as to avoid superficial, one-sided, and sometimes even prejudiced and false interpretations of it.

Finally, Sacred Tradition is also necessary because some truths of the faith are expressed in a completely definite form in Scripture, while others are not entirely clear and precise and therefore demand confirmation by the Sacred Apostolic Tradition.

The Apostle commands, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" (2 Thess. 2:15).

Besides all this, Sacred Scripture is valuable because from it we see how the whole order of Church organization, the canons, the Divine Services and rites are rooted in and founded upon the way of life of the ancient Church. Thus, the preservation of "Tradition" expresses the succession of the very essence of the Church.

The orthodox church of Christ is the Body of Christ, a spiritual organism whose Head is Christ. It has a single spirit, a single common faith, a single and common catholic consciousness, guided by the Holy Spirit; and its reasonings are based on the concrete, definite foundations of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Apostolic Tradition. This catholic consciousness is always with the Church, but, in a more definite fashion, this consciousness is expressed in the Ecumenical Councils of the Church. From profound Christian antiquity, local councils of separate Orthodox Churches gathered twice a year, in accordance with the 37th Canon of the Holy Apostles. Likewise, often in the history of the Church there were councils of regional bishops representing a wider area than individual Churches and, finally, councils of bishops of the whole Orthodox Church of both East and West. Such Ecumenical Councils the Church recognizes as seven in number. The Ecumenical Councils formulated precisely and confirmed a number of the fundamental truths of the Orthodox Christian Faith, defending the ancient teaching of the Church against the distortions of heretics. The Ecumenical Councils likewise formulated numerous laws and rules governing public and private Christian church life, which are called the Church canons, and required the universal and uniform observance of them. Finally, the Ecumenical Councils confirmed the dogmatic decrees of a number of local councils, and also the dogmatic statements composed by certain Fathers of the Church — for example, the confession of faith of St. Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neo-Caesarea (For the text of St. Gregory's "Canonical Epistle," see the Eerdmans Seven Ecumenical Councils, p. 602.), the canons of St. Basil the Great (The text of St. Basil's canons may be found in the Eerdmans Seven Ecumenical Councils, pp. 604-611.), and so forth.

When in the history of the Church it happened that councils of bishops permitted heretical views to be expressed in their decrees, the catholic consciousness of the Church was disturbed and was not pacified until authentic Christian truth was restored and confirmed by means of another council. (True councils — those which express Orthodox truth — are accepted by the Church's catholic consciousness; false councils — those which teach heresy or reject some aspect of the Church's Tradition — are rejected by the same catholic consciousness. The Orthodox Church is the Church, not of "councils" as such, but only of the true councils, inspired by the Holy Spirit, which conform to the Church's catholic consciousness.) One must remember that the councils of the Church made their dogmatic decrees a) after a careful, thorough and complete examination of all those places in Sacred Scripture which touch a given question, b) thus testifying that the Ecumenical Church has understood the cited passages of Sacred Scripture in precisely this way. In this way the decrees of the councils concerning faith express the harmony of Sacred Scripture and the catholic Tradition of the Church. For this reason these decrees became themselves, in their turn, an authentic, inviolable, authoritative, Ecumenical and Sacred Tradition of the Church, founded upon the facts of Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition.

Of course, many truths of the Faith are so immediately clear from Sacred Scripture that they were not subjected to heretical reinterpretations; therefore, concerning them there are no specific decrees of councils. Other truths, however, were confirmed by councils.

Among all the dogmatic decrees of councils, the Ecumenical Councils themselves acknowledge as primary and fundamental the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith (This is the "Creed" ("I believe in One God…") which is sung at every Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church and read at several other places in the daily Divine services.) and they forbade any change whatsoever in it, not only in its ideas, but also in its words, either by addition or subtraction (decree of the Third Ecumenical Council, repeated by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Councils).

The decrees regarding faith which were made by a number of local councils, and also certain expositions of the Faith by the holy Fathers of the Church, are acknowledged as a guide for the Whole Church and are numbered in the second Canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council (in Trullo). (The "Quinsext" Council in Trullo (692) was actually held eleven years after the Sixth Ecumenical Council, but its decrees are accepted in the Orthodox Church as a continuation of those of the Sixth Council. The text of this Canon may be read in the Eerdmans Seven Ecumenical Councils, p. 361, and the canons of the local councils and Holy Fathers which were approved in this Canon are printed elsewhere in the same volume (pp. 409-519, 589-615).)

In ecclesiastical terminology dogmas are the truths of Christian teaching, the truths of faith, and canons are the prescriptions: relating to church order, church government, the obligations of the church hierarchy and clergy and of every Christian, which flow from the moral foundations of the evangelical and Apostolic teaching. Canon is a Greek word which literally means "a straight rod, a measure of precise direction."

For guidance in questions of faith, for the correct understanding of Sacred Scripture, and in order to distinguish the authentic Tradition of the Church from false teachings, we appeal to the works of the holy Fathers of the Church, acknowledging that the unanimous agreement of all of the Fathers and teachers of the Church in teaching of the Faith is an undoubted sign of truth. The holy Fathers stood for the truth, fearing neither threats nor persecutions nor death itself. The Patristic explanations of the truths of the Faith 1) gave precision to the expression of the truths of Christian teaching and created a unity of dogmatic language; 2) added testimonies of these truths from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and also brought forth for them arguments based on reason. In theology, attention is also given to certain private opinions (In Greek: theologoumena) of the holy Fathers or teachers of the Church on questions which have not been precisely defined and accepted by the whole Church. However, these opinions are not to be confused with dogmas, in the precise meaning of the word. There are some private opinions of certain Fathers and teachers which are not recognized as being in agreement with the general catholic faith of the Church, and are not accepted as a guide to faith. (As an example of such "private opinions," one may take the mistaken opinion of St. Gregory of Nyssa that hell is not everlasting and that all — including the demons — are to be saved in the end. This opinion was rejected decisively at the Fifth Ecumenical Council as contradicting the Church's "catholic consciousness," but St. Gregory himself is still accepted as a saint and as a Holy Father in the Orthodox Church and his other teachings are not questioned. On the Orthodox attitude toward such mistaken "private opinions" of the Fathers, and specifically, concerning the teaching on this subject of such Fathers as St. Photius the Great and St. Mark of Ephesus, see the article "The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church" in The Orthodox Word, 1978, nos. 79 and 80, printed also as a separate booklet, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1983.)

The catholic consciousness of the Church, where it concerns the teaching of faith, is also expressed in the Orthodox Divine Services which have been handed down to us by the Ecumenical Church. By entering deeply into the content of the Divine service books we make ourselves firmer in the dogmatic teaching of the Orthodox Church. (It should be noted that the composers and compilers of the Divine services were often great theologians in their own right. For example, the Octoechos or book of daily services in the Eight Tones, is essentially the work of St. John Damascene, the 8^th century Holy Father who summed up the Orthodox theology of the great patristic age.)

The content of the Orthodox Divine services is the culminating expression of the teaching of the holy Apostles and Fathers of the Church, both in the sphere of dogma and of morals. This is splendidly expressed in the hymn (the kontakion) which is sung on the day of the commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils: "The preaching of the Apostles and the dogmas of the Fathers have imprinted upon the Church a single faith which, bearing the garment of truth woven of the theology from above, rightly dispenseth and glorifieth the great mystery of piety."

The interpretations of the Symbol of Faith, or the "Symbolic Guides" (from the Greek symballo, meaning "to unite;" symbolon, a uniting or conditional sign) of the Orthodox Faith, in the common meaning of this term, are those expositions of Christian faith which are given in the Book of Canons of the Holy Apostles, the Holy Local and Ecumenical Councils, and the Holy Fathers. The theology of the Russian Church also makes use, as symbolical books, of those two expositions of the Faith which in more recent times were evoked by the need to present the Orthodox Christian teaching against the teaching of the unorthodox confessions of the second millennium. These books are: The Confession of the Orthodox Faith compiled by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Dositheus, which was read and approved at the Council of Jerusalem in 1672 and, fifty years later, in answer to the inquiry received from the Anglican Church, was sent to that church in the name of all the Eastern Patriarchs and is therefore more widely known under the name of "The Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs on the Orthodox Faith." Also included in this category is The Orthodox Confession of Peter Mogila, Metropolitan of Kiev, which was examined and corrected at two local councils, that of Kiev in 1640 and Jassy in 1643, and then approved by four Ecumenical Patriarchs and the Russian Patriarchs Joachim and Adrian. The Orthodox Christian Catechism of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow enjoys a similar importance in the Russian Church, particularly the part which contains an exposition of the Symbol of Faith. This Catechism was "examined and approved by the Holy Synod and published for instruction in schools and for the use of all Orthodox Christians."

The attempt at a comprehensive exposition of the whole Christian teaching we call a "system of dogmatic theology." A complete dogmatic system, very valuable for Orthodox theology, was compiled in the eighth century by St. John Damascene under the title Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. In this work, one may say, St. Damascene summed up the whole of the theological thought of the Eastern Fathers and teachers of the Church up to the eighth century.

Among Russian theologians, the most complete works of dogmatic theology were written in the nineteenth century by Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow (Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, two volumes), by Philaret, Archbishop of Chernigov (Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, in two parts), by Bishop Sylvester, rector of the Kiev Theological Academy (Essay in Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, With an Historical Exposition of the Dogmas, five volumes), by Archpriest N. Malinovsky (Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, four volumes, and A Sketch of Orthodox Dogmatic Theology in two parts), and by Archpriest P. Svietlov (The Christian Teaching of Faith, an Apologetic Exposition). (These 19^th century Russian "systems" of theology have been out of fashion among Orthodox academic theologians in recent years, and some have criticized them for supposed "Western influences" which they show. This criticism, while to a certain extent justified, has for the most part been one-sided and unfair, and has led some to a blind trust in today's Orthodox theologians as being untainted by "Western influence." The truth of the matter is that the division of theology into "categories," its "systematization" (which the present book itself follows) is a rather modern device borrowed from the West, but as a solely external organization of the subject-matter of theology. Father Michael himself has elsewhere defended these systems of theology for their usefulness in teaching theology in the schools against accusations of "scholasticism," which are totally unfair. In intent, these systems are only a 19^th century attempt to do what St. John Damascene did in the 8^th century, and no one can deny that the basic content of these works is Orthodox.)

The dogmatic labor of the Church has always been directed towards the confirmation in the consciousness of the faithful of the truths of the Faith, which have been confessed by the Church from the beginning. This labor consists of indicating which way of thinking is the one that follows the Ecumenical Tradition. The Church’s labor of instructing in the Faith has been, in battling against heresies: to find a precise form for the expression of the truths of the Faith as handed down from antiquity, and to confirm the correctness of the Church's teaching, founding it on Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. In the teaching of the Faith, it is the thinking of the holy Apostles that was and remains the standard of the fullness and wholeness of the Christian world view. A Christian of the twentieth century cannot develop more completely or go deeper into the truths of the Faith than the Apostles. Therefore, any attempt that is made — whether by individuals or in the name of dogmatic theology itself — to reveal new Christian truths, or new aspects of the dogmas handed down to us, or a new understanding of them, is completely out of place. The aim of dogmatic theology as a branch of learning is to set forth, with firm foundation and proof, the Orthodox Christian teaching which has been handed down.

Certain complete works of dogmatic theology set forth the thinking of the Fathers of the Church in an historical sequence. Thus, for example, the above-mentioned Essay in Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Bishop Sylvester is arranged in this way. One must understand that such a method of exposition in Orthodox theology does not have the aim of investigating the "gradual development of Christian teaching"; its aim is a different one: it is to show that the complete setting forth, in historical sequence, of the ideas of the holy Fathers of the Church on every subject confirms most clearly that the Holy Fathers in all ages thought the same about the truths of the Faith. But, since some of them viewed the subject from one side, and others from another side, and since some of them brought forth arguments of one kind, and others of another kind, therefore the historical sequence of the teaching of the Fathers gives a complete view of the dogmas of the Faith and the fullness of the proofs of their truth.

This does not mean that the theological exposition of dogmas must take an unalterable form. Each epoch puts forth its own views, ways of understanding, questions, heresies and protests against Christian truth, or else repeats ancient ones which had been forgotten. Theology naturally takes into consideration the inquiries of each age, answers them, and sets forth the dogmatic truths accordingly. In this sense, one may speak about the development of dogmatic theology as a branch of learning. But there are no sufficient grounds for speaking about the development of the Christian teaching of faith itself.

Dogmatic theology is for the believing Christian. In itself it does not inspire faith, but presupposes that faith already exists in the heart. "I believed, wherefore I spake," says a righteous man of the Old Testament (Ps. 115:1). And the Lord Jesus Christ revealed the mysteries of the Kingdom of God to His disciples after they had believed in Him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God" (John 6:68-69). Faith, and more precisely faith in the Son of God Who has come into the world, is the cornerstone of Sacred Scripture; it is the cornerstone of one's personal salvation; and it is the cornerstone of theology. "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God- and that believing ye might have life through His Name" (John 20:31), writes the Apostle John at the end of his Gospel, and he repeats the same thought many times in his epistles; and these words of his express the chief idea of all of the writings of the holy Apostles: I believe. All Christian theologizing must begin with this confession. Under this condition theologizing is not an abstract mental exercise, not an intellectual dialectics, but a dwelling of one's thought in Divine truths, a directing of the mind and heart towards God, and a recognition of Gods love. For an unbeliever theologizing is without effect, because Christ Himself, for unbelievers, is "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense" (1 Peter 2:7-8; see Matt. 21:44).

The difference between theology and the natural sciences, which are founded upon observation or experiment, is made clear by the fact that dogmatic theology is founded upon living and holy faith. Here the starting point is faith, and there, experience. However, the manners and methods of study are one and the same in both spheres; the study of facts, and deductions drawn from them. Only, with natural science the deductions are derived from facts collected through the observation of nature, the study of the life of peoples, and human creativity; while in theology the deductions come from the study of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. The natural sciences are empirical and technical, while our study is theological.

This clarifies the difference also between theology and philosophy. Philosophy is erected upon purely rational foundations and upon the deductions of the experimental sciences, to the- extent that the latter are capable of being used for the higher questions of life; while theology is founded upon Divine Revelation. They must not be confused; theology is not philosophy even when it plunges our thinking into profound or elevated subjects of Christian faith which are difficult to understand.

Theology does not deny either the experimental sciences or philosophy. St. Gregory the Theologian considered it the merit of St. Basil the Great that he mastered dialectic to perfection, with the help of which he overthrew the philosophical constructs of the enemies of Christianity. In general, St. Gregory did not sympathize with those who expressed a lack of respect for outward learning. However, in his renowned homilies on the Holy Trinity, after setting forth the profoundly contemplative teaching of Triunity, he thus remarks of himself "Thus, as briefly as possible I have set forth for you our love of wisdom, which is dogmatical and not dialectical, in the manner of the fishermen and not of Aristotle, spiritually and not cleverly woven, according to the rules of the Church and not of the marketplace" (Homily 22).

The course of dogmatic theology is divided into two basic parts: into the teaching 1) about God in Himself and 2) about God in His manifestation of Himself as Creator, Providence, Savior of the world, and Perfector of the destiny of the world.

The dogma of faith. Belief or faith as an attribute of the soul. The power of faith. The source of faith. The nature of our knowledge of God. The essence of God. The attributes of God. Sacred Scripture concerning the attributes of God. God is Spirit. Eternal. All-Good. Omniscient. All-Righteous. Almighty (Omnipotent). Omnipresent. Unchangeable. Self-Sufficing and All-Blessed. The unity of God.

The first word of our Christian Symbol of Faith is "I believe." All of our Christian confession is based upon faith. God is the first object of Christian belief. Thus, our Christian acknowledgment of the existence of God is founded not upon rational grounds, not on proofs taken from reason or received from the experience of our outward senses, but upon an inward, higher conviction which has a moral foundation.

In the Christian understanding, to believe in God signifies not only to acknowledge God with the mind, but also to strive towards Him with the heart.

We believe that which is inaccessible to outward experience, to scientific investigation, to being received by our outward organs of sense. St. Gregory the Theologian distinguishes between religious belief — "I believe in someone, in something" — and a simple personal belief — "I believe someone, I believe something." He writes: "It is not one and the same thing ‘to believe in something' and ‘to believe something.' We believe in the Divinity, but we simply believe any ordinary thing" ("On the Holy Spirit," Part III, p. 88 in the Russian edition of his Complete Works; p. 319 in the Eerdmans English text).

Christian faith is a mystical revelation in the human soul. It is broader, more powerful, closer to reality than thought. It is more complex than separate feelings. It contains within itself the feelings of love, fear, veneration, reverence, and humility. Likewise, it cannot be called a manifestation of the will, for although it moves mountains, the Christian renounces his own will when he believes, and entirely gives himself over to the will of God: "May Thy will be done in me, a sinner." The path to faith lies in the heart; it is inseparable from pure, sacrificial love, "working through love" (Gal. 5:6).

Of course, Christianity is bound up also with knowledge of the mind, it gives a world view. But if it remained only a world view, its power to move would vanish. Without faith it would not be the living bond between heaven and earth. Christian belief is something much greater than the "persuasive hypothesis" which is the kind of belief usually encountered in life.

The Church of Christ is founded upon faith as upon a rock which does not shake beneath it. By faith the saints conquered kingdoms, performed righteous deeds, closed the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the sharp sword, were strengthened in infirmity (Heb. 11:33-38). Being inspired by faith, Christians went to torture and death with joy. Faith is a rock, but a rock that is impalpable, free of heaviness and weight, that draws one upward and not downward.

"He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," said the Lord (John 7:38); and the preaching of the Apostles, a preaching in the power of the word, in the power of the Spirit, in the power of signs and wonders, was a living testimony of the truth of the words of the Lord. Such is the mystery of living Christian faith.

"If ye have faith, and doubt not... if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea — it shall be done" (Matt. 21:21). The history of the Church of Christ is filled with the miracles of the saints of all ages. However, miracles are not performed by faith in general, but by Christian faith. Faith is a reality not by the power of imagination and not by self-hypnosis, but by the fact that it binds one with the source of all life and power — with God. In the expression of the Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, faith is a vessel by which water is scooped up; but one must be next to this water and must put the vessel into it: this water is the grace of God. "Faith is the key to the treasure-house of God," writes St. John of Kronstadt (My Life in Christ, Vol. I, p. 242 in the Russian edition).

Faith is strengthened and its truth is confirmed by the benefits of its spiritual fruits which are known by experience. Therefore the Apostle instructs us, saying, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor. 13:5).

Yet, it is difficult to give a definition of what faith is. When the Apostle says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1), without touching here on the nature of faith, he indicates only what its gaze is directed towards: towards that which is awaited, towards the invisible; and thus he indicates precisely that faith is the penetration of the soul into the future ("the substance of things hoped for") or into the invisible ("the evidence of things not seen"). This testifies to the mystical character of Christian faith.

God in His essence is incomprehensible. God dwells "in the light which no man can approach unto; Whom no man hath seen, nor can see," instructs the Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 6:16).

In his Catechetical Lectures St. Cyril of Jerusalem instructs us: We explain not what God is, but candidly confess that we have not exact knowledge concerning Him. For in what concerns God, to confess our ignorance is the best knowledge" (Sixth Catechetical Lecture, Eerdmans tr., p. 33).

This is why there is no dogmatic value to be found in the various types of vast and all-encompassing conceptions and rational searching on the subject of the inward life in God, and likewise in concepts fabricated by analogy with the life of the human soul. Concerning the "fellow-inquirers" of his time, St. Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of St Basil the Great, writes: "Men, having left off "delighting themselves in the Lord" (Ps. 36:4) and rejoicing in the peace of the Church, undertake refined researches regarding some kind of essences, and measure magnitudes, measuring the Son in comparison with the Father, and granting a greater measure to the Father. Who will say to them, `that which is not subject to number cannot be measured; what is invisible cannot be valued; that which is fleshless cannot be weighed; that which is infinite cannot be compared; that which is incomparable cannot be understood as greater or less, because we know something as "greater" by comparing it with other things, but with something which has no end, the idea of "greater" is unthinkable.' "Great is our Lord, and great is His strength, and of His understanding there is no measure" (Ps. 146:5). What does this mean? Number what has been said, and you will understand the mystery."

The same hierarch further writes: "If someone is making a journey in the middle of the day, when the sun with its hot rays scorches the head and by its heat dries up everything liquid in the body, and under one's feet is the hard earth which is difficult for walking and waterless; and then such a man encounters a spring with splendid, transparent, pleasing and refreshing streams pouring out abundantly — will he sit down by the water and begin to reason about its nature, seeking out from whence it comes, how, from what, and all such things which idle speakers are wont to judge about, for example: is it a certain moisture which exists in the depths of the earth that comes to the surface under pressure and becomes water, or is it canals going through long desert places that discharge water as soon as they find an opening for themselves? Will he not rather, saying farewell to all rational deliberations, bend down his head to the stream and press his lips to it, quench his thirst, refresh his tongue, satisfy his desire, and give thanks to the One Who gave this grace? Therefore, let you also imitate this thirsting one" (St. Gregory of Nyssa, "Homily On His Ordination," from his works in Russian, vol. IV).

Nevertheless, to a certain extent we do have knowledge of God, knowledge to the extent that He Himself has revealed it to men. One must distinguish between the comprehension of God, which in essence is impossible, and the knowledge of Him, even though incomplete, of which the Apostle Paul says, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; and I know in part" (1 Cor. 13:12). The degree of this knowledge depends upon the ability of man himself to know (This distinction between what one might call the "absolute" unknowability of God and the "relative" knowability of Him is set forth by St. John Damascene in Book 1, ch. 1 of the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.).

From whence do we derive knowledge of God?

a) It is revealed to men from the knowledge of nature, the knowledge of oneself, and the knowledge of all of God's creation in general. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead" (Romans 1:20); that is, what is invisible in Him, His eternal power and Godhead, is made visible from the creation of the world through observing the created things. Therefore, those men are without excuse who, having known God, did not glorify Him as God and did not give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning (Rom. 1:21). "The world is the kingdom of the Divine thought" (St. John of Kronstadt).

b) God has manifested Himself yet more in supernatural revelation and through the Incarnation of the Son of God, the God, "who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time-past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1:18).

Thus, did the Savior Himself teach concerning the knowledge of God? Having said, "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son," the Savior added, "and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (Matt. 11:27). And the Apostle John the Theologian writes in his epistle: "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us light and understanding that we may know the true God" (1 John 5:20).

Divine Revelation is given to us in the whole of Sacred Scripture and in Sacred Tradition, the preservation, instruction, and true interpretation of which are the duty and concern of the holy Church of Christ.

But even within the boundaries which are given us in the light of Divine Revelation, we must follow the guidance of those who have purified their minds by an elevated Christian life and made their minds capable of contemplating exalted truths; that is, we must follow the guidance of the Fathers of the Church, while watching ourselves morally. About this, St. Gregory the Theologian instructs us: "If you wish to be a theologian and worthy of the Divine, keep the laws; by means of the Divine laws go towards the high aim; for activity is the ascent to vision" ("Activity" here is a technical term often encountered in Orthodox ascetic texts; it refers to the means (keeping the commandments, ascetic discipline, etc). which lead one to the end of spiritual life ("vision" or "contemplation" of God).)

That is, strive and attain moral perfection, for only this path will give the possibility of ascending to the heights from whence Divine Truths are contemplated. (Homily 20 of St. Gregory the Theologian).

The Savior Himself has uttered, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).

The powerlessness of our mind to comprehend God is expressed by the Church, in the Divine Services: "At a loss for words to express the meaning of Thine incomprehensible Thrice-radiant Godhead, we praise Thee, O Lord." That is, having no power to understand the mystical Names of Thy three-rayed Divinity, with our hearts we glorify Thee, O Lord. (From the Canon of the Sunday Midnight Office, Tone VII, Fourth Canticle).

In antiquity certain of the heretics introduced the idea that God is entirely comprehensible, accessible to the understanding. They built their affirmations upon the idea that God is a simple Essence, and from this the false conclusion, being a simple Essence, Who has no inward content or qualities. Therefore, it was sufficient, they said, to name the Names of God — for example Theos (God — "He Who Sees"), or Jehovah ("He Who Is"), or to indicate His single characteristic, His "unoriginateness," in order to say everything that can be said about God. (Some of the Gnostics reasoned in this way — for example, Valentinus in the second century and Eunomius and the Anomoeans in the fourth century, thought this way). The Holy Fathers replied to this heresy with a fervent protest, seeing in it an overthrowing of the essence of religion. Answering the heretics, they clarified and proved, both from the Scripture and by means of reason: 1) that the simplicity of God's essence is united to the fullness of His attributes, the fullness of the content of the Divine Life, and 2) that the very Names of God in the Divine Scripture — Jehovah, Elohim, Adonai, and others — express not the very essence of God, but primarily show the relation of God to the world and to man.

Other heretics in antiquity, for example the Marcionites, fell into the opposite extreme, affirming that God is completely unknown and inaccessible to our understanding. For this reason, the Fathers of the Church showed that there is a degree of the knowledge of God, which is possible, useful, and needful for us. St Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catechetical Lectures, teaches: "If someone says that the essence of God is incomprehensible, then why do we speak about Him? However, is it true that because I cannot drink the whole river I will not take water from it in moderation for my benefit? Is it true that because my eyes are not in a condition to take in the whole sun, I am therefore unable to behold as much as is needed for me? If, when going into some great garden, I cannot eat all the fruits, would you wish that I go away from it completely hungry?" (Catechetical Lectures, VI, 5).

It is well known how Blessed Augustine, when he was walking along the seashore thinking about God, saw a boy sitting at the seaside scooping water from the sea with a seashell and pouring it into a pit in the sand. This scene inspired him to think of the disproportion between our shallow minds and the greatness of God. It is just as impossible for our mind to hold a conception of God in all His greatness, as it is impossible to scoop up the sea with a seashell.

"If you wish to speak or hear about God," St. Basil the Great theologizes, "renounce your own body, renounce your bodily senses, abandon the earth, abandon the sea, make the air to be beneath you; pass over the seasons of the year, their orderly arrangement, the adornments of the earth; stand above the ether, traverse the stars, their splendor, grandeur, the profit which they provide for the whole world, their good order, brightness, arrangement, movement, and the bond or distance between them. Having passed through all of this in your mind, go about heaven and, standing above it, with your thought alone, observe the beauties which are there: the armies of angels which are above the heavens, the chiefs of the archangels, the glory of the Dominions, the presiding of the Thrones, the Powers, Principalities, Authorities. Having gone past all this and left below the whole of creation in your thoughts, raising your mind beyond the boundaries of it, present to your mind the essence of God, unmoving, unchanging, unalterable, dispassionate, simple, complex, indivisible, unapproachable light, unutterable power, infinite magnitude, resplendent glory, most desired goodness, immeasurable beauty that powerfully strikes the wounded soul, but cannot worthily be depicted in words."

Such exaltation of spirit is demanded in order for one to speak of God! Nevertheless, under this condition the thoughts of man are capable only of dwelling on the attributes of the Divinity, not upon the very essence of the Divinity.

There are in Sacred Scripture words concerning God which "touch on" or "come close" to the idea of His very essence. These are expressions that are composed grammatically in such a way that, in their form, they answer not only the question "what kind?" — that is, what are the attributes of God but they seem also to answer the question "who" — that is, "Who is God?" Such expressions are,

"I Am He That Is" (in Hebrew, Jehovah; Ex. 3:14).

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending with the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8).

However, these expressions also must not be understood as indications of the very essence of God. Only as concerns the name "He That Is" did the Fathers of the Church say that it "in some fashion" (the expression of St. Gregory the Theologian) or, "as it seems" (St. John Damascene) is a naming of the essence. Although more rarely, this same significance has been given to the names "good" and "God" in the Greek language — Theos, meaning "He Who Sees." As distinct from everything" existing" and created, the Fathers of the Church applied to the existence of God the term "He Who is above all being," as in the kontakion, "The Virgin now giveth birth to Him Who is above all being." The Old Testament "Jehovah," "He That Is," which was revealed by God to the Prophet Moses, has just such a profound meaning. (That is to say: When we say that God is "He that Is," we mean that He "is" in a superlative sense and not in the way that all of His creation "is"; and this is the same as saying that He is the One "Who is above all being" (Kontakion of the Nativity of Christ).).

Thus, one may speak only of the attributes of God, but not of the very essence of God. The Fathers express themselves only indirectly concerning the nature of the Divinity, saying that the essence of God is "one, simple, incomplex." However, this simplicity is not something without distinguishing characteristics or content; it contains within itself the fullness of the qualities of existence. "God is a sea of being, immeasurable and limitless" (St. Gregory the Theologian); "God is the fullness of all qualities and perfection in their highest and infinite form" (St. Basil the Great); "God is simple and incomplex; He is entirely feeling, entirely spirit, entirely thought, entirely mind, entirely source of all good things" (St. Irenaeus of Lyons).

Speaking of the attributes of God, the Holy Fathers indicate that their multiplicity, considering the simplicity of the essence, is a result of our own inability to find a mystical and single means of viewing the Divinity. In God, one attribute is an aspect of another. God is righteous: this implies that He is also blessed and good and Spirit. The multiple simplicity in God is like the light of the sun, which reveals itself in the various colors that are received by bodies on the earth, for example, by plants.

In the enumeration of the attributes of God in the Holy Fathers and in the texts of the Divine services, there is a preponderance of expressions that are grammatically in a negative form, that is, with the prefixes "a-" or "un-." However, one must keep in view, that this negative form indicates a "negation of limits," as for example: "not unknowing" actually signifies "knowing." Thus, the negative form is really an affirmation of attributes that are without limit. We may find a model of such expressions in the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith by St. John Damascene: "God is unoriginate, unending, eternal, constant, uncreated, unchanging, unalterable, simple, uncomplicated, bodiless, invisible, intangible, indescribable, without bounds, inaccessible to the mind, uncontainable, incomprehensible, good, righteous, the Creator of all creatures, the Almighty Pantocrator, He who looketh down upon all, whose Providence is over everything, Who has dominion over all, the judge."

Our thoughts about God in general speak: 1) either about His distinction from the created world (for example, God is unoriginate, while the world has an origin; He is endless, while the world has an end; He is eternal, while the world exists in time); or 2) about the activities of God in the world and the relation of the Creator to His creations (Creator, Providence, Merciful, Righteous Judge).

In indicating the attributes of God, we do not thereby give a "definition" of the concept of God. Such a definition is essentially impossible, because every definition is an indication of" finiteness" (In Russian, Father Michael is indicating here the derivation of the word opredeleniye ("definition") from predel ("limit" or "boundary"). In English the same thing is true: "definition" derives from the Latin finis, "limit.") and signifies, incompleteness. However, in God there are no limits, and therefore there cannot be a definition of the concept of the Divinity: "For a concept is itself a form of limitation" (St. Gregory the Theologian, Homily 28, his Second Theological Oration).

Our reason demands the acknowledgement in God of a whole series of essential attributes. Reason tells us that God has a rational, free, and personal existence. If in the imperfect world we see free and rational personal beings, we cannot fail to recognize a free and rational personal existence in God Himself, who is the Source, Cause, and Creator of all life

Reason tells us that God is a most perfect Being. Every lack and imperfection are incompatible with the concept of "God."

Reason tells us that the most perfect Being can be only singular: God is One. There cannot be two perfect beings, since one would limit the other.

Reason tells us that God is a self-existing Being, since nothing can be the cause or condition of the existence of God.

The attributes of God, taken directly from the Word of God, are set forth in Metropolitan Philaret's Longer Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Church (English translation (reprinted from the 1901 translation) in The Catechism of the Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Books, Willits, California, 1971, p. 19). Here we read "Question: What idea of the essence and essential attributes of God may be derived from Divine revelation? Answer: That God is a Spirit, eternal, all-good, omniscient, righteous, almighty, omnipresent, unchangeable, all sufficing to Himself, all-blessed." Let us stop to think about these attributes set forth in the catechism.

"God is a Spirit" (John 4:24; the words of the Savior in the conversation with the Samaritan woman). "The Lord is a Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17). God is foreign to every kind of bodily nature or materiality. At the same time the spirituality of God is higher, more perfect, than the spirituality which belongs to the created spiritual beings and the soul of man, which manifest in themselves only an "image" of the spiritual nature of God. God is a Spirit Who is most high, most pure, most perfect. It is true that in Sacred Scripture we find many, many places where something bodily is symbolically ascribed to God, however, concerning the spiritual nature of God, the Scripture speaks beginning with the very first words of the book of Genesis, and to the Prophet Moses, God revealed Himself as He That Is, as the pure, spiritual, most high Existence. Therefore, by bodily symbols the Scripture teaches us to understand the spiritual attributes and actions of God.

Let us quote here the words of St. Gregory the Theologian. He says: "According to the Scriptures God sleeps, He awakens, He grows angry, He walks, and He has the Cherubim as His throne, but when did He ever have infirmity? Moreover, have you ever heard that God is a body? Something is presented here, which does not exist in reality. In accordance with our own understanding, we have given names to the characteristics of God, which are derived from ourselves. When God, for reasons known to Him alone, ceases His care, as it were, and takes no more concern for us, this means that He is "sleeping" ¾ because our sleep is a similar lack of activity and care. When, on the contrary, He suddenly begins to do good, this means He "awakens." He chastises, and for this, we have made it out that He is "angry" because chastisement among us is with anger. He acts sometimes here, sometimes there-and so, in our way of thinking, He walks, because walking is a going from one place to another. He reposes and as it were dwells in the holy powers-and we have called this a "sitting," and a "sitting on a throne," which is likewise characteristic of us, for the Divinity does not repose in any place as well as in the Saints. A swift movement we call "flying." If there is a beholding, we speak of a "face"; if there is a giving and a receiving, we speak of a "hand." Likewise, every other power and every other action of God are depicted among us by something taken from bodily things" (Homily 31, Fifth Theological Oration, "On the Holy Spirit," ch. 22; Eerdmans Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series Two, vol. VII, pp. 324-325.).

In connection with the accounts of God’s actions, in the second and third Chapters of the book of Genesis, Chrysostom instructs us: "Let us not pass over without attention, beloved, what is said by the Divine Scripture, and let us not look only at the words; but let us think that such simple words are used for the sake of our infirmity, and that everything is done in a most fitting way for our salvation. After all, tell me, if we wish to accept the words in a literal sense and do not understand what is communicated in a way befitting God, would not much then turn out to be strange? Let us look at the very beginning of the present reading. It says: "And they heard the voice of God walking in paradise in the cool of the day, and they were afraid" (Gen. 3:8). What do you say: God walks? Do you then ascribe feet to Him? In addition, are we not to understand by this anything higher? No, God does not walk ¾ let us not think thus! How, in fact, could He Who is everywhere and fills all things, Whose throne is heaven and the earth the footstool of His feet ¾ how could He walk in paradise? What rational person would say this? However, what then does it mean: "They heard the voice of God walking in Paradise in the cool of the day?" He wished to arouse in them such a feeling (of God's closeness) that it might make them upset-which in fact is what happened. They felt this and strove to conceal themselves from God Who was approaching them. Sin had occurred, and a transgression and shame fell upon them. The unhypocritical judge, that is the conscience, having been aroused, called out with a loud voice, reproached them, and showed and, as it were, exhibited before their eyes the weight of the transgression. The Master created man in the beginning and placed in him the conscience as a never-silent accuser which cannot be seduced or deceived."

Concerning the image of the creation of woman, Chrysostom teaches: "It is said, `And He took one of his ribs' (Gen. 2:21). Do not understand these words in a human way, but understand that the crude utterances used are adapted to human weakness. After all, if Scripture had not used these words, how could we understand such unutterable mysteries? Let us not look only at the words, but let us receive everything in a fitting manner, as referring to God. This expression `took' and all similar expressions are used for the sake of our weakness." In a similar way Chrysostom expresses himself regarding the words: "God formed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into him" (Gen. 2:7; Works of St. John Chrysostom, Vol. IV, Part One; It should not be thought that Father Michael is here stating that St. Chrysostom was in general opposed to "literal interpretations" of Scripture; when the literal sense was required, St. Chrysostom was quite "literal" in his interpretation. His point, and Father Michael's, is that all interpretations of Scripture should be as "befitting God" and this sometimes requires a "literal" interpretation, and sometimes a metaphorical. In this same Commentary on the book of Genesis, for example, St. Chrysostom writes: "When you hear that `God planted Paradise in Eden in the East' understand the word `planted befittingly of God: that is, that He commanded; but concerning the words that follow, believe precisely that Paradise was created and in that very place where the Scripture has assigned it" (Homilies on Genesis, XIII, 3). He also forbade an allegorical interpretation of the "rivers" and "waters" of Paradise, insisting that "the rivers are actually rivers and the waters are precisely waters" (XIII, 4). Thus, when St. Chrysostom states that the word "take" in Genesis must be understood in a God-befitting way (i.e., it must not be understood literally, because God has no "hands"), he does not mean to deny that Eve was actually created from one of Adam's ribs, even though precisely how this was done remains a mystery to us (Homilies on Genesis, XV, 2-3).)

St. John Damascene devotes one chapter to this theme in his Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. This chapter is called "On the things that are affirmed of God as if He had a body," and here he writes: "Since we find that in the Divine Scripture much is said symbolically about God as if He had a body, we must know that it is impossible for us who are men clothed in this crude flesh to think or speak about the Divine, lofty and immaterial actions of the Godhead, unless we use similarity, images and symbols that correspond to our nature." Furthermore, the expressions concerning the eyes, ears, hands, and other similar expressions of God, he concludes, "To say it simply, everything that is affirmed of God as if He had a body contains a certain hidden meaning" (Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Part One, Chapter 11; The Fathers of the Church translation, pp. 191-193).

We today have become quite accustomed to the idea of God as pure Spirit. However, the philosophy of Pantheism ("God is all"), that is very widespread in our times, seeks to contradict this truth. Therefore, even now in the Rite of Orthodoxy sung on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the first Sunday of Lent, we hear "To those who say that God is not Spirit but flesh-Anathema (The Rite of Orthodoxy is celebrated after the Liturgy on the first Sunday of Lent in cathedral churches wherever a bishop presides. At this, service anathemas are proclaimed against the heretics of ancient and modern times who have tried to overturn the dogmatic foundations of Orthodoxy. In many Orthodox jurisdictions today, however, under the influence of "ecumenical" ideas, this service has been abolished and replaced by a "pan-Orthodox" or "ecumenical" service.).

The existence of God is outside time, for time is only a form of limited being, changeable being. For God there is neither past nor future; there is only the present. "In the beginning, O Lord, Thou didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou abidest, and all like a garment shall grow old, and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them, and they shall be changed, - but Thou art the same and Thy years shall not fail" (Psalm 101:26-28).

Certain Holy Fathers indicate a difference between the concepts of "eternity" and "immortality." "Eternity is ever existent life, and this concept is applied usually to the one unoriginal nature, in which everything is always one and the same. The concept of immortality, on the other hand, can be ascribed to one who has been brought into being and does not die, as, for example, an angel or a soul. Eternal in its precise meaning belongs to the Divine Essence, which is why it is applied usually only to the Worshipful and Reigning Trinity" (St. Isidore of Pelusium). In this regard even more expressive is the phrase "the pre-eternal God" (As in the Kontakion for the Nativity of Christ).

"Compassionate and merciful is the Lord, long suffering and plenteous in mercy" (Psalm 102:8). "God is love" (1 John 4:16). The Goodness of God extends not to some limited region in the world, which is characteristic of love in limited beings, but to the whole world and all the beings that exist in it. He is lovingly concerned over the life and needs of each creature, no matter how small and, it might seem to us, insignificant. St. Gregory the Theologian writes: "If someone were to ask us what it is that we honor, and what we worship, we have a ready reply: we honor love" (Homily 23).

God gives to His creatures as many good things as each of them can receive according to its nature and condition, and as much as corresponds with the general harmony of the world, but it is to man that God reveals a particular goodness. "God is like a mother bird who, having seen her baby fall out of the nest, flies down herself to raise it up, and when she sees it in danger of being devoured by a serpent, with a pitiful cry she flies around it and all the other baby birds, not capable of being indifferent to the loss of a single one of them" (Clement of Alexandria, "Exhortation to the Pagans," Chapter 10). "God loves us more than a father or a mother or a friend, or anyone else can love, and even more than we can love ourselves, because He is concerned more for our salvation than even for His own glory. A testimony of this is the fact that He sent into the world for suffering and death (in human flesh) His Only-begotten Son, solely in order to reveal to us the path of salvation and eternal life" (St. Chrysostom, Commentary on Psalm 113). If man often does not understand the whole power of God's Goodness, this occurs because man concentrates his thoughts and desires too much on his earthly well being. Nevertheless, God's Providence unites the giving to us of temporal, earthly goods together with the call to acquire for oneself, for one's soul, eternal good things.

"All Things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him" (Heb. 4:13). "My being while it was still unformed Thine eyes did see" (Psalm 138:16). The knowledge of God is vision and immediate understanding of everything, both that which exists and that which is possible, the present, the past, and the future. Foreknowledge of the future is, strictly speaking, a spiritual vision, because for God the future is as the present. The foreknowledge of God does not violate the free will of creatures, just as the freedom of our neighbor is not violated by the fact that we see what he does. The foreknowledge of God regarding evil in the world and the acts of free beings is as it were crowned by the foreknowledge of the salvation of the world, when "God will be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).

Another aspect of the omniscience of God is manifested in the wisdom of God. "Great is our Lord and great is His strength, and there is no measure of His understanding" (Psalm 146:5). The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church, following the word of God, have always indicated with great reverence the greatness of God's wisdom in the ordering of the visible world, dedicating to this subject whole works, as for example the Homilies on the Six Days (Hexaemeron), that is, the history of the creation of the world, written by such Fathers as Sts. Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nyssa. "One blade of grass or one speck of dust is enough to occupy your entire mind, in beholding the art with which it has been made" (Basil the Great). Even more have the Fathers reflected on God's wisdom in the economy of our salvation, in the Incarnation of the Son of God. The Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament concentrates its attention primarily on the wisdom of God in the orderly arrangement of the world: "In wisdom hast Thou made them all" (Psalm 103:26). In the New Testament, on the other hand, attention is concentrated on the economy of our salvation, in connection with which the Apostle Paul cries out: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God" (Rom. 11:33). For it is by the wisdom of God that the whole existence of the world is directed to a single aim ¾ to perfection and transfiguration for the glory of God.

Righteousness is understood in the word of God and in its general usage as having two meanings: a) holiness, and b) justice.

Holiness consists not only in the absence of evil or sin: holiness is the presence of higher spiritual values, joined to purity from sin. Holiness is like the light, and the holiness of God is like the purest light. God is the "one alone holy" by nature. He is the Source of holiness for angels and men. Men can attain to holiness only in God, "not by nature, but by participation, by struggle and prayer" (St. Cyril of Jerusalem). The Scripture testifies that the angels who surround the throne of God ceaselessly declare the holiness of God, crying out to each other, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3). As depicted in Scripture, the light of holiness fills everything that comes from God or serves God: "His holy name" (Ps. 32:21; 102:1; 104:3; 105:46); "His holy word" (Ps. 104:41); "the law is holy" (Rom. 7:12); "His holy arm" (Ps. 97:2); "O God, in the holy place is Thy way" (Ps. 76:13); "His holy throne" (Ps. 46:9); holy is the footstool of His feet (Ps. 98:5); righteous is the Lord in all His ways, and "holy in all His works" (Ps. 144:17); "holy is the Lord our God" (Ps. 98:9).

The justice of God is the other aspect of God's all-righteousness; "He will judge the peoples in uprightness" (Ps. 9:9). "The Lord wall render to every man according to his deeds, for there is no respect of persons with God" (Rom. 2:6, 11).

How can one harmonize the Divine Love with God's justice, which judges strictly for sins and punishes the guilty? On this question many Fathers have spoken. They liken the anger of God to the anger of a father, who, with the aim of bringing a disobedient son to his senses, resorts to a father's means of punishing, at the same time himself grieving, simultaneously being sad at the senselessness of his son and sympathizing with him in the pain he is causing him. This is why God's justice is always mercy also, and His mercy is justice, according to the words: "Mercy and truth are met together, justice and peace have kissed each other" (Ps. 84:10).

The holiness and justice of God are closely bound to each other. God calls everyone to eternal life in Him, in His Kingdom, and this means in His Holiness. However, into the Kingdom of God nothing unclean can enter. The Lord cleanses us by His chastisements, as by providential acts, which forewarn and correct, for the sake of His love towards His creation. For we must undergo the judgment of justice, a judgment which for us is terrible: how can we enter into the kingdom of holiness and light, and how would we feel there, being unclean, dark, and not having in ourselves any seeds of holiness, not having in ourselves any kind of positive spiritual or moral value?

"He spake, and they came into being. He commanded, and they were created" ¾ thus the Psalmist expressed God's almightiness (Ps. 32:9). God is the Creator of the world. It is He Who cares for the world in His Providence. He is the Pantocrator. He is the one "Who alone doeth wonders" (Ps. 71:19). However, if God tolerates evil and evil people in the world, this is not because He cannot annihilate evil, but because he has given freedom to spiritual beings and directs them so that they might freely, of their own free will, reject evil and turn to good.

With regard to casuistical questions concerning what God "cannot" do, one must answer that the omnipotence of God is extended to everything which is pleasing to His thought, to His goodness, to His will.

"Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? In addition, from Thy presence whither shall I flee? If I go up into heaven, Thou art there: if I go down into Hades, Thou are present there. If I take up my wings toward the dawn, make mine abode in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand guide me, and Thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 138:7-9).

God is not subject to any limitation in space, but he fills everything. Filling everything, God, as a simple Being, is present in every place, not as it were in some part of Him, or by merely sending down some power from Himself, but in all His Being; and He is not confused with that in which He is present. "The Divinity penetrates everything without being mingled with anything, but nothing can penetrate Him" (St. John Damascene). "That God is present everywhere we know, but how, we do not understand, because we can understand only a sensuous presence, and it is not given to us to understand fully the nature of God" (St. John Chrysostom).

In "the Father of lights" there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). God is perfection, and every change is a sign of imperfection and therefore is unthinkable in the most perfect Being, in God. Concerning God one cannot say that any kind of process is being performed in Him, whether of growth, change of appearance, evolution, progress or anything of the like.

However, unchangeability in God is not some kind of immovability; it is not a being closed up within Himself. Even while He is unchanging, His Being is life, filled with power and activity. God in Himself is life, and life is His Being.

The unchangeability of God is not violated by the begetting of the Son and the procession of the Spirit, for to God the Father, there belongs fatherliness, and to His Son, sonship, and to the Holy Spirit, procession which is "eternal, unending, and unceasing" (St. John Damascene). The words, filled with mystery, "the begetting of the Son" and "the procession of the Spirit," do not express any kind of change in the Divine life or any kind of process; for our limited minds, "begetting" and "procession" are simply placed in opposition to the idea of "creation" and speak of the single Essence of the Persons or Hypostases in God. The creation is something outward in relation to the one who creates, whereas the "sonship" of God is an inward unity, a unity of the nature of the Father and the Son; such also is the "procession" from the Essence of God, the procession of the Spirit from the Father Who causes it.

The Incarnation and becoming man of the Word, the Son of God, does not violate the unchangeability of God. Only creatures in their limitations lose what they had or acquire what they did not have; but the Divinity of the Son of God remained after the Incarnation the same as it was before the Incarnation. It received in its Hypostasis, in the oneness of the Divine Hypostasis, human nature from the Virgin Mary, but it did not form from this any new, mixed nature, but preserved Its Divine Nature unchanged.

The unchangeability of God is not contradicted, likewise, by the creation of the world. The world is an existence, which is outward with relation to the nature of God. Therefore, it does not change either the essence or the attributes of God, as the origin of the world is only a manifestation of the power and thought of God. The power and thought of God are eternal and are eternally active, but our creature-like mind cannot understand the concept of this activity in the eternity of God. The world is not co-eternal with God; it is created. Nevertheless, the creation of the world is the realization of the eternal thought of God (Blessed Augustine). The world is not like God in its essence, and therefore it has to be changeable and is not without a beginning; but these attributes of the world do not contradict the fact that its Creator is unchangeable and without beginning (St. John Damascene).

These two expressions are close to one another in meaning.

Self-Sufficing must not be understood in the sense of "satisfied with oneself." Rather, it signifies the fullness of possession, complete blessedness, the fullness of all good things. Thus, in the prayers before Communion we read: "I know that I am not worthy or sufficient that Thou shouldest come under the roof of the house of my soul" (Second Prayer). Again, "I am not worthy or sufficient to behold and see the heights of heaven" (Prayer of Symeon the Translator). "Sufficient" signifies here "spiritually adequate," "spiritually wealthy." In God is the sufficiency of all good things. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Exclaims the Apostle Paul, "for of Him and through Him, and to Him are all things" (Rom. 11:33, 36). God has no need for anything, since "He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25). Thus God is Himself the source of all life and of every good thing; from Him all creatures derive their sufficiency.

All blessed. The Apostle Paul twice calls God in his epistles "blessed": "According to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God" (1 Tim. 1:11); "which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords" (1 Tim. 6:15). The word "all-blessed" must be understood not in the sense that God, having everything within Himself, would be indifferent to the sufferings of the world created by Him; but in this sense: that from Him and in Him, His creatures derive their blessedness. God does not "suffer," but He is "merciful." Christ "suffereth as mortal" (Canon of Pascha) not in His Divinity, but in His humanity. God is the source of blessedness. In Him is the fullness of joy, sweetness, rejoicing for those who love Him, as it says in the Psalm, "Thou wilt fill me with gladness with Thy countenance; delights are in Thy right hand forever" (Ps. 15:11).

The blessedness of God has its reflection in the unceasing praise, glorification, and thanksgiving, which fill the universe, which come from the higher powers ¾ the Cherubim and Seraphim, who surround the throne of God, flaming it with fragrant love for God. These praises are offered up from the whole angelic world and every creature in God's world: "The sun sings Thy praises; the moon glorifies Thee; the stars supplicate before Thee; the light obeys Thee; the deeps are afraid at Thy presence; the fountains are Thy servants" (Prayer of the Great Blessing of Water, Menaion, Jan. 5; Festal Menaion, p. 356).

"Therefore, we believe in one God: one principle, without beginning, uncreated, unbegotten, indestructible and immortal, eternal, unlimited, uncircumscribed, unbounded, infinite in power, simple, uncompounded, incorporeal, unchanging, dispassionate, constant, unchangeable, invisible, source of goodness and justice, light intellectual and inaccessible; power which is not subject to any measure, but which is measured only by His own will, for He can do all things whatsoever He pleases; one Essence, one Godhead, one power, one will, one operation, one principality, one authority, one dominion, one kingdom, known in three perfect Hypostases, and known and worshipped with one worship" (St. John Damascene, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 1:8; English translation, p. 177).

The truth of the oneness of God is so evident now to human awareness that it needs no proofs from the word of God or simply from reason. It was a little different in the early Christian Church, when this truth had to be set forth against the idea of dualism ¾ the acknowledgement of two gods, good and evil ¾ and against the polytheism of the pagans, which was popular at the time.

I believe in one God. These are the first words of the Symbol of Faith (the Creed). God possesses all the fullness of perfect being. The idea of fullness, perfection, infinity, omnipotence of God does not allow us to think of Him other than as One, that is, as singular and having one Essence in Himself. This demand of our awareness is expressed by one of the ancient Church writers in the words "If God is not one, there is no God" (Tertullian). In other words, a divinity limited by another being loses his divine dignity.

The whole of the New Testament Sacred Scripture is filled with the teaching of the one God. "Our Father which art in heaven," we pray in the words of the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:9). "There is none other God but one," as the Apostle Paul expressed this fundamental truth of faith (1 Cor. 8:4).

The Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament is entirely penetrated with monotheism. The history of the Old Testament is the history of the battle for faith in the one true God against pagan polytheism. The desire of some historians of religion to find traces of a supposed "original polytheism" in the Hebrew people in certain Biblical expressions, for example, the plural number in the name of God, "Elohim" — or to find a faith in a "national God" in such phrases as "the God of gods," "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" — does not correspond to the authentic meaning of these expressions.

1. Elohim. For a simple Jew this is a form of reverence and respect (an example of this may be seen in the Russian and other European languages, where the second person plural, "you" as opposed to "thou," is used to express respect). For the divinely inspired writer, the Prophet Moses, the plural number of the word without doubt contains, in addition, the profound mystical meaning of an insight into the Three Persons in God. No one can doubt that Moses was a pure monotheist, knowing the spirit of the Hebrew language. He would not use a name that contradicted his faith in the one God.

2. The God of gods is an expression that sets faith in the true God against the worship of idols; those who worshipped them called their idols "god," but for the Jews, these were false gods. This expression is used freely in the New Testament by the Apostle Paul; after saying that "there is none other God but one," he adds: "for though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many), but to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him" (1 Cor. 8:4-6).

3. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is an expression that expresses only the chosen Hebrew people as the "inheritor of the promises" given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The Christian truth of the oneness of God is deepened by the truth of the Tri-hypostatical unity.

Introduction. Indications of the Trinity in the Old Testament. The teaching of the Holy Trinity in the New Testament. The dogma of the Holy Trinity in the Ancient Church. The personal attributes of the Divine Persons. The name of the Second Person — the Word. On the procession of the Holy Spirit. The equality of Divinity of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Transition to the Second Part of Dogmatic Theology.

God is one in Essence and triple in Persons. The dogma of the Trinity is the second fundamental dogma of Christianity. A whole series of the great dogmas of the Church are founded immediately upon it, beginning first with the dogma of our Redemption. Because of its special importance, the doctrine of the All-Holy Trinity constitutes the content of all the Symbols of Faith which have been and are now used in the Orthodox Church, as well as all the private confessions of faith written on various occasions by the shepherds of the Church.

Because the dogma of the All-Holy Trinity is the most important of all Christian dogmas, it is the most difficult for the limited human mind to grasp. This is why no battle in the history of the ancient Church was as intense as that over this dogma and the truths that are immediately bound up with it.

The dogma of the Holy Trinity includes in itself two fundamental truths:

A. God is one in Essence, but triple in Person. In other words, God is a Tri-unity, is Tri-hypostatical, is a Trinity One in Essence.

B. The Hypostases have personal or hypostatic attributes: God is unbegotten; the Son is begotten from the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.

We worship the All-Holy Trinity with a single and inseparable worship. In the Church Fathers and the Divine services, the Trinity is often called a Unity in Trinity, a Tri-hypostatical Unity. In most cases, prayers addressed to one person of the Holy Trinity end with a glorification or doxology to all Three Persons (for example, in a Prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ: "For most glorious art Thou, together with Thine unoriginate Father, and the All-Holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen").

The Church, addressing the All-Holy Trinity in prayer, invokes It in the singular, not the plural, number. For example, "For Thee" (and not "you") "all the heavenly powers praise, and to Thee (not "to you") we send up glory, to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen."

Acknowledging the mystical nature of this dogma, the Church of Christ sees in it a great revelation that exalts the Christian faith incomparably above any confession of simple monotheism, such as may be found in non-Christian religions. The dogma of the Three Persons indicates the fullness of the mystical inward life in God, for God is love and the love of God cannot merely be extended to the world created by Him: in the Holy Trinity this love is directed within the Divine Life also. The dogma of the Three Persons indicates even more clearly for us the closeness of God to the world: God above us, God with us, God in us and in all creation.

Above us is God the Father, the ever-flowing Source, as it is expressed in the Church's prayer, the Foundation of all being, the Father of mercies Who loves and cares for us, His creation, for we are His children by grace.

With us is God the Son, begotten by Him, Who for the sake of Divine love has manifested Himself to men as Man so that we might know and see with our own eyes that God is with us most intimately, partaker of flesh and blood with us (Heb. 2:14) in the most perfect way.

In us and in all creation — by His power and grace — is the Holy Spirit, Who fills all things, is the Giver of Life, Life-creator, Comforter, Treasury and Source of good things. Having an eternal and pre-eternal existence, the Three Divine Persons were manifested to the world with the coming and Incarnation of the Son of God, being "one Power, one Essence, one Godhead" (Stichera for Pentecost, Glory on "Lord, I have cried").

Because God in His very Essence is wholly consciousness, thought, and self-awareness, each of these three eternal manifestations of Himself by the one God has self-awareness, and therefore each one is a Person. In addition, these Persons are not simply forms or isolated manifestations or attributes or activities; rather, the Three Persons are contained in the very Unity of God's Essence. Thus, when in Christian doctrine we speak of the Tri-unity of God, we speak of the mystical inward life hidden in the depths of the Divinity, revealed to the world in time, in the New Testament, by the sending down of the Son of God from the Father into the world and by the activity of the wonderworking, life-giving, saving power of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

The truth of the Tri-unity of God is only expressed in a veiled way in the Old Testament, only half-revealed. The Old Testament testimonies of the Trinity are revealed and explained in the light of Christian faith, as the Apostle Paul wrote concerning the Jews: "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away . . .It is taken away in Christ" (2 Cor. 3:15-16, 14).

The chief passages in the Old Testament which testify to the Trinity of God are the following:

Genesis 1:1 and the following verses: the name of God ("Elohim") in the Hebrew text has the grammatical form of the plural number.

Genesis 1:26: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The plural number here indicates that God is not one Person.

Genesis 3:22: "And the Lord God said, Behold, Adam is become as one of us, to know good and evil." (These are the words of God before the banishment of our ancestors from Paradise.)

Genesis 11:6-7: Prior to the confusion of tongues at the building of the tower of Babylon, the Lord said: "Let us go down, and there confound their language."

Genesis 18:1-3, concerning Abraham: "And the Lord appeared unto him at the oak of Mamre . . . And he (Abraham) lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him... and he bowed himself toward the ground and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in Thy sight, pass not away, I pray Thee, from Thy servant." Blessed Augustine says of this: "Do you see that Abraham meets Three but bows down to One . . . Having beheld Three, he understood the mystery of the Trinity, and having bowed down to One, he confessed One God in Three Persons."

In addition, the Fathers of the Church see an indirect reference to the Trinity in the following passages:

Numbers 6:24-26: The priestly blessing indicated by God through Moses is in a triple form: "The Lord bless thee... The Lord make His face shine on thee... The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee."

Isaiah 6:3: The doxology of the Seraphim who stand about the throne of God is in a triple form: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts."

Psalm 32:6: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens established and all the might of them by the Spirit of His mouth."

Finally, one may indicate those passages in the Old Testament Revelation where the Son of God and the Holy Spirit are referred to separately. For example, concerning the Son:

Psalm 2:7: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee."

Psalm 109:3: "From the womb before the morning star have I begotten Thee."

Concerning the Spirit:

Psalm 142:12: "Thy good Spirit shall lead me in the land of uprightness."

Isaiah 48:16: "The Lord God, and His Spirit, hath sent me."

The Trinity of Persons in God was revealed in the New Testament in the coming of the Son of God and in the sending down of the Holy Spirit. The sending to earth by the Father of God the Word and the Holy Spirit constitutes the content of all the New Testament writings. Of course, this manifestation to the world of the Triune God is given here not in a dogmatic formula, but in an account of the manifestations and deeds of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

The manifestation of God in Trinity was accomplished at the Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is why this Baptism itself is called the "Theophany" or "manifestation of God." The Son of God, having become man, accepted baptism by water; the Father testified of Him; and the Holy Spirit confirmed the truth spoken by the voice of God by His manifestation in the form of a dove, as is expressed in the troparion of this Feast: "When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest. For the voice of the Father bore witness unto Thee, calling Thee the beloved Son; and the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed His word as sure and steadfast. O Christ our God who hast appeared and enlightened the world, glory to Thee."

In the New Testament Scriptures there are expressions concerning the Triune God; and these in a most condensed but at the same time precise form express the truth of the Trinity:

Matthew 28:19: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Of this, St. Ambrose of Milan notes: "The Lord said, `In the name' and not `in the names,' because God is One. There are not many names; therefore there are not two gods, and not three gods."

2 Corinthians 13:14: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen."

John 15:26: "But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me."

1 John 5:7: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one." (This verse is missing in the ancient Greek manuscripts that have been preserved and is present only in Western [Latin] manuscripts).

In addition, St. Athanasius the Great interprets as a reference to the Trinity the following text of the epistle to the Ephesians (4:6): "One God and Father of all, Who is above all (God the Father), and through all (God the Son), and in you all (God the Holy Spirit)." Indeed, the whole epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians — especially the first three dogmatical chapters — is a revelation of the truth of the "Trinitarian economy" of our salvation.

The Church of Christ in all of its fullness and completeness has confessed the truth of the Holy Trinity from the very beginning. For example, St. Irenaeus of Lyon, a disciple of St. Polyca