KNOWN AND UNKNOWN DOGMAS IN THE DAILY LIFE OF CHRISTIANS ON THE WAY TO GLORIFICATION

Laurentiu Albu

Dogmatic Theology

Fr. Dr. Timothy Chrapko

St. Andrew's College

Nov 16, 2023

[Deadline: December 12, 2023]

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Last summer I took on an expedition to the highest cross in the world, manually built on

Caraiman Peak, Bucegi Mountains. I invited my sons as well and, since the challenge was of a

lifetime, they accepted. The cross was not far from our place, only a bit over 1200 meters…up. I

knew it was marked as a black walking trail but it was in July, with nature on our side. I also

knew that on the way, there were crosses of people who found their earthly end and could not

reach their destination. I instructed my sons to look and follow carefully for the blue cross sign

that, for many years, show people the way and they did, most of the time, except when they were

getting distracted by the pristine surroundings or by who leads the way. A couple of times it took

just a few steps away from the marked or missing boundaries to get into the areas where one

move could have been fatal. I noticed that in those areas there were crosses of people…

The Dogmatic Theology course taught us that Dogmas are boundaries for Christians not to lose

their way from the sacred traditional path to glorification. The quest and purpose of this essay is

to unveil a glimpse of how dogmas are the incontrovertible truth revealed by God, with a crucial

role in the ecclesial and personal way towards union with God. The focus will be on the

empirical, personal and therapeutical nature of dogmas.

I would mainly source my work from the dogmatic theology of Father John Romanides and

Metropolitan of Nafpaktos Hierotheos to highlight the therapeutical purpose of dogmas and draw

also from Father Dumitru Staniloae experience of God on the personal experience touch of

dogmas.

Since before the beginning of time, God’s will for man has been to partake of His divinity.

Truly like a loving father, despite our disobedience, God has embraced humanity unconditionally

and infinitely towards establishing a personal and loving relationship with each individual. Never

imposing His Love, the Lord awaits for our souls to open the door of the heart and enters it only
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when invited. “If they open to Him He enters in, but if they delay and will not, He departs from them. ”

(St. Athanasius the Great).

In the “primordial state” our proto-parents Adam and Eve were in communion with God, until,

from lack of wisdom or “αβουλία”, per Saint Basil the Great, they chose to disobey God. Fr.

John Romanides in his thesis “Ancestral Sin” explains how Adam and Eve's disobedience in the

Garden of Eden introduced a distortion into human nature, particularly in the “nous” and the

human will. This spiritual ailment, often referred to as the "ancestral sin" or the Fall, is seen as a

state of estrangement from God and a propensity toward self-centeredness and sinful

inclinations. The “nous” became darkened, clouded and lost its direct connection with God. As a

result, the human condition was marked by spiritual blindness and a distorted perception of

reality. All humans that followed our ancestor’s disobedience, inherited this spiritual sickness as

a state in which we were born.

The agony that followed for humanity after the Fall and God’s providence or "οικονομία" is

also quickly revealed to us in the Acts of the Apostle (7:1-60) by Saint Stephane, witnessing to

the glory of God in His Son, Jesus Christ: “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly

into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” Acts (7:55).

The only way to fully restore the communion of man with God was thru His Son, the
incarnated Jesus Christ, Who took our fallen nature, back into Heavan and sent us the Holy
Spirit, to show us the Way to the Father. By His coming and works among us, Jesus Christ, fully
man and fully God, established the covenant of Love: “A new commandment I give to you: Love one
another. As I have loved you so you must love one another.” John 13:34. The many chosen and who
were unconditionally obedient to this new covenant until their earthly end, the saints, who have
lived holy and righteous lives, often martyred for their faith, by God’s grace, became partakers of
the “Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This is the ultimate goal of orthodox theology: “theosis” or the
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glorification of humans, at which humans arrive after the process of purification and illumination
of the intellect. As per Fr. Romanides:

“Since the aim of theology is purification and illumination of the “nous”, and dogma is the expression of
this experience of glorification, dogma is infallible in the Orthodox Church, because it is the expression
of the experience of glorification of the Prophets, Apostles and Fathers of the Church .”

Dogmas are theophanies revealed to the God-seeing saints, who, when needed, expressed them

in writing, in order to deal with heretics and keep the Church on its path “to Emmaus”, that is to

continue leading its members to glorification. The seven Ecumenical Councils that established

the definition of the dogmas did it prescriptively, not prophylactically. As per Fr Romanides we

have to be careful not to perceive that by knowing and accepting the dogmas of the Church only,

we can be free and have salvation:

In the Orthodox faith dogma ought to be lived. Dogma ought to be experience. Dogma should be learnt
empirically. Initially we accept dogma intellectually, like a lesson, and once we accept it, the lesson ought
to be converted into experience. Dogma must become experience…And when the dogmas become
experiences, one becomes a theologian and a spiritual physician, and is correctly placed within the
framework of the Church and the theological science of therapeutic treatment.

Saint Symeon the Theologian teachings, show us a profound understanding of the relationship

between personal mystical experience, theological doctrine (dogma), and the transformative

power of encountering God, a concept known as “experience-dogma-experience”. A Christian

should have a direct, personal encounter with God through contemplative prayer and ascetic

practices. This mystical experience, which he refers to as “Divine Illumination” or “the Vision of

God,” is the highest goal of the Christian life. However, this could not exist in isolation from the

doctrinal teachings of the Church. Dogmas articulated into language and theological concepts the

mystical encounters of saints with God. Saint Symeon explained that genuine mystical
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experiences have a transformative effect on the person. Encounters with God are meant to bring

about profound changes in one’s ethics and virtues. These experiences are not only about

acquiring knowledge but more importantly about becoming more Christ-like and participating in

the Divine Nature through theosis.

Metropolitan Hierotheos describes this concept as a circle:

”This means that Orthodox Theology forms a circle: it starts from the revelation granted to the God-
seers, then this experience of the vision of God is put into words, as far as this is humanly possible, in
order to guide those who accept it to an experience of the revelation. It is in this sense that we say that
dogmas are closely linked with man’s cure.”

On the same note, furthermore, Fr Romanides continues: “Dogmas and theology are medicines.
When we become well, we stop taking medicines. We take medicines when we are ill. Man is ill because
he is not in a position to see God. He is not ready, because he does not have love. The fact that he does
not have love means that he is ill.”

How are we to understand what love is? Let’s try to have some glimpses of that from Fr.

Dumitru Staniloae’s dogmatic theology. He explains that our Trinitarian God, as revealed to us,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons within the one Godhead who eternally is in a

relationship of perfect Love and Unity. Since we were made in the image of God, we were given

the potential to participate in the life of the Holy Trinity. Through the indwelling of the Holy

Spirit, humans can experience the Love and communion that exists within the Trinity. The

experience of God’s Love in the context of the Holy Trinity transforms the human person making

him more Christ-like and thus, increasingly conformed to the image of God. This transformation

is marked by greater humility, unity, love and willingness to serve others. Continuing about love

within Love, Fr Dumitru Staniloae says:

“Love is the gift of oneself to another, and the waiting for the full return of that gift from the other in
response. Only in a complete and immediate response to the offer of love is love fully realised and full
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communion attained between the two. The interval of waiting for the response is time. As such, time
represents a spiritual distance between persons, while eternity is beyond all distance or separation. St
Maximus the Confessor says: ‘The mystery of Pentecost is thus the direct union of those who are in the
providence of God, with the Providence of God himself. That is to say, the union of our created nature
with the Word of God by the operation of God's goodness is a union in which there is no longer time or
becoming.’ Within the Holy Trinity the interval of waiting for response is reduced to nothing, because the
gift of one to the other is immediate. The Divine Love between the three Persons is thus always complete
and perfect.”

Fr Staniloae gives a theological definition of time at personal level: the interval, in our earthly

life, in which we could grow in love and fully respond yes to Love. That means that each and

every moment of our daily life is important towards becoming more Christ-like by continuingly

choosing to remain and grow in the Way. For us Christians, who encountered Christ, salvation is

now.

The “safe” way for our progress towards union with God, proven by the Church thru Her
continuous “birth” of Saints, is to follow the sacred tradition of those who reached “theosis” and
left us signpost, that is dogmas and dogmatic “checkpoints”. Orthodox Christians, who are
actively engaged in the Church life, are continuously exposed to the boundaries of dogmas
whether they attend Church services or read the Creed or the daily prayers of the saints.
However, this will not “guarantee” that, even by God’s grace, we will reach glorification. Being
a Church member should lead us into understanding the purpose of what She does, assuming it
and make it our way of life. St Augustine of Hippo tells us that we go to the Church to find
spiritual healing, forgiveness and transformation much like how the sick goes to a hospital for
physical healing: “The Church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners.”

Coming back to Fr. Romanides theology, he argues that Orthodoxy is not just another religion

as most people would understand it from the context of Western Scholasticism, alas if they heard

about Orthodoxy, but primarily a therapeutic and transformative path. He emphasized the crucial

idea that the goal of the Christian life is “theosis” or glorification. In his view, Orthodox

Christianity is not primarily about adhering to a set of doctrines or rituals, but about inner
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healing and transformation of the human person. Following St Gregory Palamas’s theology of

distinction between the essence and energies of God, Fr Romanides articulates that Orthodoxy is

rooted in the direct experience of God’s energies, which are accessible to Christians, as opposed

to a mere intellectual understanding of the definitions of God’s essence. This experience is seen

as the heart of Orthodoxy and the only way to live it, by God’s grace, is thru the process of

purification and illumination within the Church.

Since I emigrated to Canada I had the privilege to participate at many of the Sunday of

Orthodoxy with Christians from the Greek, Serbian, Antiochian, Carpatho-Russian Diocese,

Romanian, Bulgarian and Russian cultural background coming together for the Vesperal service,

which, without any “rehearsal” was as organic as of one nation and tradition. I believe that this is

possible, mainly, because orthodox worship and liturgy are steeped in the dogmas of the faith.

The liturgical life of the Church, with its prayers, hymns and sacraments is a way of experiencing

and living out the dogmas. It is through the liturgical life that the Orthodox Christians partake of

God and are reminded of the truths contained in the dogmas, which in turn, have been providing

the unity of faith ecclesiastically and personally.

In conclusion, in the theology of Fr. Dumitru Staniloae and Fr. John Romanides, dogmas are

not static or lifeless doctrines but dynamic expressions of the Orthodox Christian faith that play a

crucial role in the daily journey to purification, illumination and glorification. The Church is the

community of the believers with Christ the Physician called to heal our fallen nature so we can

become vessels of the Holy Spirit. Dogmas provide the foundation for understanding, unity,

transformation and communion within the Church, guiding believers towards a deeper

relationship with God and the realization of “theosis”, by God’s grace and mercy.
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“The naming of parts” 1 for some of the words used which might need to be explained in the

context of dogmatic theology:

Dogma is that which one knows is true. But “What is truth?” as Pontius Pilate once,

unknowingly, asked. Truth is not an intellectual percept but a lived, transformative encounter

with the Divine Reality of God. Truth involves an ongoing process in faith, knowledge and virtue

leading to a closer relationship with the Trinitarian God, Who is the only Source of Truth. The

Holy Spirit leads us into Truth and reveals us Christ, in the “shadow of the law” thru the

prophets: “Those who trust in Him will understand truth, And the faithfull shall continue with

Him in love, Because grace and mercy are upon His elect.” Solomon (3:9) and “..when the

fulness of time had come” Galatians (4:4), “Jesus answered, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the

Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John (4:16).

Doctrine is the teaching of the Church based on dogmas.

Glorification or theosis or deification or salvation is the process by which human beings are

transformed and become fully united with God and share in His glory.

Nous is the highest faculty of human consciousness, capable of spiritual perception and direct

communion with God. It is not merely the intellectual mind but a deeper, intuitive and

contemplative aspect of human consciousness. It is the part of the soul that can perceive Divine

truths and understands spiritual realities in a way that transcends intellectual reasoning. The

purified and enlightened “nous” is the means through which the human person participates in

God’s life and experiences union with Him.

Religion from the latin “re-ligare” to reconnect oneself to the Divine.

1. As Father John Anthony McGuckin began his “The Eastern Orthodox Church” book.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Metropolitan of Nafpaktos, Hierotheos, Empirical Dogmatics of the Orthodox Catholic Church

According to the Spoken Teaching of Father John Romanides”, Volume 1, Dogma-Ethics-Revelation,
Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Greece, 2012

Staniloae, D., The Experience of God, Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline, 2000

Staniloae, D., Eternity and Time, Sisters of The Love of God, Fairacres, 2001

Romanides, J.,Patristic Theology - The University Lectures, Uncut Mountain Press, The Dalles, 2008
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Errata

I ask for your forgiveness for I have written about things that are a long way beyond my living

experience. When Saint Iustin Popovic compared the teachings of Saint Silouan with those of

Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Nikolai Velimirovic thought about St Silouan the

Athonite that he is “greater” than St Symeon the New Theologian for his teachings are healing.
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