As far back as the earliest
Apostolic times, Christ’s disciples were known as those who “call on the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 1:2; cf. Acts 9:14, 21). From
the very beginning, the Holy Apostles were persecuted as those who “teach in the
name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18; cf. 5:28). They rejoiced when they suffered from
persecution and violations “for His Name’s sake” (Acts 5:41). In consequence of
this, by the end of the first decade after the foundation of Christ’s Church,
“the disciples were called Christians” (Acts 11:26). This appellation
was given to them first at Antioch, and probably by the local Gentiles, which
implies that Christianity was no longer recognized as a Judaic sect, but as a
distinct religious teaching. [1] Later, St. Cyril of Jerusalem observes, in his
Tenth Catechetical Homily (Chapter XVI): “Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
honored us to call ourselves Christians,” [2] whereas St. Athanasios the Great,
in his First Homily against the Arians (Chapter II), states that
“through Christ we are, and call ourselves, Christians.” [3]
It seems that this name quickly
acquired public recognition, since even in the last half of the first century,
the Roman historian Tacitus, in his work The Annals (Book XV, Chapter
XLIV), when discussing Rome’s destruction by fire under the Emperor Nero, tells
us that the Emperor blamed for this those “called by the people Christians [christianos].”
Further on, he explains: “...the originator of that name, Christ [Christus],
was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, the procurator, under the reign of
Tiberius.” [4]
Thus, all subsequent persecutions
by the pagan authorities against the disciples of Christ were under the banner
of the struggle against Christianity as such. Referring to this fact,
St. Peter the Apostle writes: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,
happy are ye; ...yet if any man suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed;
but let him glorify God on this behalf” (I St. Peter 4:14, 16). As we see from
the extant testimonies of the Martyrs, Christ’s Martyrs, when summoned to
court, were accused specifically as Christians, which they professed themselves
to be. The instance of the Holy Martyr Lukian of Antioch is rather typical. He
suffered in one of the last persecutions of the early fourth century. Before
breathing his last, he cried three times: “I am a Christian.” [5]
However, as is well known, along
with the external enemies of Christianity—Jews and pagans—various internal
enemies—false teachers and heretics—appeared as early as the Apostolic times.
They considered themselves Christians and surreptitiously replaced the Truth of
Christ with an heretical fallacy. St. Paul refers to these people as “having a
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (II St. Timothy 3:5), and
advises his disciple Timothy to turn away from such people. Likewise, St. John
the Theologian writes: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong
to us: for if they had belonged to us, they would no doubt have remained with
us” (I St. John 2:19). He explicitly calls these people “antichrists” (2:18)
and commands True Christians not to greet them or to receive them in
their houses (II St. John 10-11).
During subsequent centuries, we
observe the same clear-cut line of demarcation between authentic Christianity
and false Christianity. For example, St. Justin the Philosopher (†166),
a Christian apologist of the second century, notes in his Dialogue with
Trypho the Jew that, “there are such men confessing themselves to be
Christians, and confessing the crucified Jesus to be the Lord and Christ, yet
not teaching His doctrine, but that of the spirits of error.” St. Justin
contrasts these false Christians with the “disciples of the true and pure
doctrine of Jesus Christ” (Chapter XXXV). [6]
In the third century, the
ecclesiastical writer, Clement of Alexandria, states that, unlike beasts of
burden, which labor out of fear, “those who call themselves orthodox (ὀρθοδοξασταί)
should do good deeds in full consciousness of what they do” (Stromata,
I, 9). [7] This is the first occasion in ancient Christian writings that we
encounter the term “orthodox,” whereby we specifically denote our Holy Faith
today. [Incidentally, let us point out that the Slavonic word for “Orthodoxy,”
“Православие,” does not convey precisely the meaning of the Greek word “ὀρθοδοξία.”
The Greek word consists of the adjective “ὀρθός” (“right” or “true”), the root
“δοξ” and the ending “ία.” The noun with the same root, “δόξα,” derives from
the verb “δοκέω” (to “think,” “consider,” or “look upon”). It is for this
reason that the primary meaning of δόξα is “thought” or “opinion”; hence, the
secondary meaning: “to hold a good or bad opinion of somebody,” “fame,” or “ill
will.” (See M. Bailly, Dictionnaire Grec-Français, Paris, 1910, pp. 528,
531-532). Therefore, in view of the primacy and original meaning of the word
“δόξα,” “ὀρθοδοξία” is properly translated as “right thinking” or “right
opinion,” not “true glory,” as the Slavonic would suggest.]
After the fourth century, the
term “Orthodoxy” is most often used in the writings of the Holy Fathers of the
Church to signify the true doctrine of Christ, as opposed to heretical
teachings. St. Athanasios of Alexandria, who is frequently called the “Father
of Orthodoxy,” writes in his History of the Arians (Chapter LXXVIII):
“The Arians, usurping the magnificent name of the Saviour, like pagans
desecrated the whole of Egypt by forcibly introducing there the heresy of
Arios. For Egypt was the only place at that time which had preserved the
competency of Orthodox doctrine (τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας).” [8] In another of his
writings, On Definitions, St. Athanasios defines the true Christian as
one of orthodox or “correct” belief: “The Christian is a true spiritual home of
Christ, which is built on good deeds and right doctrines (δογμάτων ὀρθῶν).”
[9]
According to the historian
Gelasios of Cyzicus (Church History, II, 33), the First Ecumenical Synod
in Nicæa, which condemned the heresy of Arios, circulated in 325 A.D. “a
Synodal Epistle...to the Holy Churches of God in the whole subcelestial
world—to the clergymen and laymen of the Orthodox Faith (τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου
πίστεως).” [10] In reference to the same Synod in Nicæa, St. Germanos,
Patriarch of Constantinople, observes, in his treatise On the Heresies and
the Synods (Chapter XIV), that “...after the detailed dogmatic elucidation
and investigations that took place there, the doctrine of the Orthodox (τὸ
δόγμα τῶν ὀρθοδόξων) was reconfirmed with even greater power.” [11]
In reference to the Second
Ecumenical Synod (381), Blessed Theodoret explicitly cites, in his Church
History (V, 9), the title of the Synodal Epistle sent by the “Holy Synod of
the Orthodox Bishops (τῶν ὀρθοδόξων ἐπισκόπων) who had assembled in the
great city of Constantinople....” [12]
The great defender of Orthodoxy
against the Nestorian heresy in the fifth century, St. Cyril of Alexandria, in
one of his epistles to Nestorios, exhorts the latter to call the Holy Virgin
the “Mother of God” and thus, by the “preservation of right thinking (ὀρθὴν...δόξαν),
to serve the common faith in peace and concord.” [13] Likewise, in a letter of
defense against his accusers, St. Cyril writes: “I have set forth the doctrine
of the true faith (τῆς ὀρθῆς πίστεως) to those who were tempted by the
interpretations of Nestorios.” [14] Similarly, in the eighth century, the great
Church hymnographer, St. John of Damascus, in his dogmatic Theotokion
(in the third tone) against the heresy of Nestorios, beseeches the Most Holy
Virgin to intercede before Jesus Christ our Lord and “...to save the souls of
those who confess her as Mother of God in an Orthodox way (ὀρθοδόξως).”
St. Flavian, Patriarch of
Constantinople, a great Confessor and a champion against the Eutychian heresy
of the Monophysites, writes to St. Leo, Pope of Rome: “...As we witnessed the
way that the Orthodox faith was violated and the heresies of Apollinaris
and Valentinus were revived by Eutyches, it became necessary to declare this in
order to preserve the people.” [15]
At the Fourth Ecumenical Synod in
Chalcedon (451), as witnessed by the Acts of the Synod, when the epistle of St.
Leo the Pope against the teaching of the Monophysites was read, the honorable
Bishops exclaimed: “This is the Faith of the Fathers, this is the Faith of the
Apostles.... This is the way the Orthodox (οἱ ὀρθόδοξοι) believe.
Anathema to those who do not believe in this way.... We, the Orthodox,
think thus....” [16]
The Fathers of the Sixth
Ecumenical Synod, convened in Constantinople in 680 against the Monothelite
heresy, stated: “For a long period of time, this Synod has investigated the
issue of our pure Christian faith..., and the dissension regarding Orthodoxy
(περὶ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας) that had somehow arisen was overcome by relying on the
dogmas of truth” [17] (“τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως τὴν ἀλήθειαν...τὴν ὑγιῆ ὀρθότητα
τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως”).
In like manner, the Fathers of
the last, the Seventh, Ecumenical Synod, which was assembled in Nicæa, in 787,
against the heresy of the Iconoclasts, after confirming the decisions of the
six previous Ecumenical Synods, stated, in the first act of the Synod, that
according to ancient tradition, delivered through the Holy Apostles and their
successors, the Holy Fathers, “...those who are converted from some heresy to
the Orthodox (ὀρθόδοξον) confession and the Tradition of the Ecumenical
Church should deny in writing their [former] heresy and confess in writing the Orthodox
Faith (τὴν ὀρθόδοξον πίστιν).” [18]
A liturgical service for the
recanting of their heresies by those “who come back to the Orthodox (ὀρθόδοξον)
and true faith” was composed in the ninth century by St. Methodios, the
Patriarch of Constantinople. During his time, a perfect peace settled over the
Church of Christ, after the reign of tumultuous heresies, over which Orthodoxy
finally triumphed. An anonymous hagiographer, himself St. Methodios’
contemporary, cites the restless labors of the latter, by which he struggled
“to abolish heresy from his flock as a plague and to implant a firm and Orthodox
faith (ὀρθόδοξον πίστιν) in every soul.” [19] It is thus quite natural that
the feast of the triumph of Orthodoxy over heresy, which was introduced into
the Church in 842 through the initiative of St. Methodios the Patriarch, was
called the “Feast of Orthodoxy,” “ἑορτὴ τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας,” which has been
celebrated annually, even to the present day, on the First Sunday of Great
Lent: The Sunday of Orthodoxy.
Therefore, the Feast of Orthodoxy
is like a stamp that seals and confirms the dogmatic activity of the Church of
Christ as Orthodox, in her struggle against heresy. It was, furthermore, during
the epoch that led up to this feast that St. John of Damascus wrote a famous
treatise, in which he systematically presents the doctrine of the Church,
expressed in her struggle against heresy during the age of the Ecumenical
Synods and as it was clarified by the Holy Fathers. He has rightly called this
major treatise of his “A Precise Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (τῆς ὀρθοδόξου
πίστεως).” [20]
In this way, the Church of Christ
that struggled for the triumph of Orthodoxy against heresy came to be called
the Orthodox Church. This accentuates the fact that it is the lawful
inheritor and faithful protector—both in letter and in spirit—of the true
teachings of Christ and the Apostles; i.e., of the Orthodox faith, elucidated
by the Holy Fathers and confirmed by the Seven Ecumenical Synods. Since the
truth is only one, just as only one straight line connects two points—man and
God—, all other religious communities, which have deviated from the Orthodox
Church of Christ, must not be called “Orthodox,” but should be characterized as
“heterodox” (“thinking differently”), by virtue of having distorted the Gospel
of Christ and joined to it “another gospel” (see Galatians 1:6). Such is the
confession of the Roman Catholics, who fell away from Orthodoxy, initially,
because of the arbitrary act of adding the expression “and from the Son” (Filioque)
to the eighth article of the Nicæan-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith (Creed)
and, later, on account of a number of innovations of more or less importance,
introduced throughout the centuries and even up to our own time.
By the same token, the Protestant
confession, encompassing all of its innumerable denominations, also betrayed
Orthodoxy, following still a different path. It denies, in principle, the
authority of Holy Tradition, of the Ecumenical Synods, and of the Holy Fathers,
acknowledging, instead, the ascendency of the human mind and personal
interpretation. [21]
Attempts to minimize the
apostasies of the heretics by dismissing them as deviations motivated by human
ambition, or “mistakes on both sides,” are entirely irrelevant. In fact, there
may well have been some practical and tactical mistakes on both sides, caused
by human pride and a craving for power. However, such human weaknesses and acts
neither justify false teachings nor obfuscate the objective truth of Orthodoxy.
Despite common human fallibilities of all kinds, the whole body of the
unorthodox denominations will prove false; while Orthodoxy will shine ever
brighter, and will attract, by this, all True Christians. For Orthodoxy
has from the very beginning preserved the Divine, soul-saving truths of
Christianity and was called by the Divinely inspired Apostle of the Nations,
“the pillar and ground of the truth” (I St. Timothy 3:15). St. Isidore the
Pelusian (fifth century), a man of wise and keen mind, after having proved that
the love of power is the cause of multifarious heresies, observed: “...but if
it were removed from men, then there would be good hope that all, unanimously
and in an orthodox way (ὀρθοδόξως), would gather around the Divine
Gospel” (Book IV, Letter 55). [22]
From our foregoing historical
review, it logically follows that Orthodoxy is not just one of the many
forms of Christianity, along with the legitimate existence of other,
non-Orthodox forms of Christianity; our Orthodox Faith is Christianity
itself, in its most pure and one and only authentic form. When juxtaposed
to Orthodoxy, all of the rest of the so-called Christian denominations are
essentially alien to true Christian—that is, Orthodox—spirituality and
the essence of the Faith.
Until this very day, the Orthodox
Church has remained the only lawful inheritor, protector, and confessor of the
true teachings of Christ, the Apostles, and the Holy Fathers, as they are
confirmed by the Seven Ecumenical Synods and sealed by the celebration of the
Feast of Orthodoxy. That is why the Patriarchs of the East wrote in 1723, in
their “Epistle on the Orthodox Faith,” the following words: “The dogmas and the
doctrines of our Eastern Church, examined already in ancient times, were
correctly and piously set forth and confirmed by the Holy and Ecumenical
Synods; we are not permitted to add or remove anything from them. Thus,
those who wish to be in concord with us on the Divine dogmas of the Orthodox
Faith need simply follow and humbly obey, without further examination or
inquiry, what is set forth and decreed by the ancient tradition of
the Fathers and confirmed by the Holy and Ecumenical Synods, since
the time of the Apostles and their successors, the Divine Fathers of
our Church.” [23]
That great Saint of our Bulgarian
Orthodox Church, the venerable Metropolitan Clement (Drumev) of
Tirnovo—Confessor, champion, and Martyr for Orthodoxy—, during the time of
Stambolov’s dictatorship, said, in a famous sermon delivered on the Sunday of
Orthodoxy in 1893: “The true Faith of Christ is not, and cannot be, anything
else but our pure, Holy Orthodox Faith.... Our Orthodox Faith is the
true word of God, the pure truth of God, the great power of God—power
that is both invincible and beneficial to all true believers.” [24]
NOTES
1. Bishop Michael, Commentary on the Epistles, Vol. I
(Kiev, 1897), p. 279 [in Russian].
2. Migne, Patrologia Graeca [PG], Vol.
XXXIII, Col. 681.
3. Ibid., Vol. XXVI, Col. 16.
4. This reference from Tacitus’ The Annals can in no
way be considered a subsequent Christian addition, since, as the citation
itself confirms, he was a pagan writer who expressed unrestrained hostility
towards Christians. He calls them “hateful because of their dishonor (per
flagitia invisos)” and characterizes Christianity as “a pernicious
superstition (exitiabilis superstitio).” Such expressions are typical of
the spirit of a hardened pagan and pessimist like Tacitus.
5. Lives of the Saints, October 15 (Old Style).
6. PG, Vol. VI, Col. 549.
7. Ibid., Vol. VIII, Col. 744.
8. Ibid., Vol. XXV, Col. 788.
9. Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, Col. 549
10. Ibid., Vol. LXXXV, Col. 1340.
11. Ibid., Vol. XCVIII, Col. 52.
12. Ibid., Vol. LXXXII, Col. 1212.
13. Ibid., Vol. LXXII, Col. 41.
14. Ibid., Vol. LXXVII, Col. 59.
15. Migne, Patrologia Latina, Vol. LIV, Col. 744.
16. Mansi, Amplissima Collectio Conciliorum
(Paris—Leipzig, 1901), Vol. VI, Col. 957.
17. Ibid., Vol. XI, Cols. 246, 280.
18. Ibid., Vol. XII, Actio prima.
19. PG, Vol. C, Cols. 1257, 1300.
20. “Ἀκριβὴς ἔκθεσις τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως.”
21. Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev), The Distortion of
Orthodox Truth in Russian Theological Thought (Sofia, 1943), p. 213 [in
Russian].
22. PG, Vol. LXXVIII, Col. 1108.
23. Orthodox Christian Catechism (Sofia, 1930), pp.
210-211 [in Bulgarian].
24. Spiritual Culture, Nos. 20-21 (1924), pp. 155,
163.
Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XV (1998), No. 4, pp.
3-8.
