What is the Church, and how
does it act in the
formulation of dogmas?
We shall speak more of the
Church in the respective
chapter, but as far as the
dogmas are concerned, we can
make note of the following:
-
“Church”
means the communion and
the community through
which -and within which-
the new existential
relations between God,
mankind and the world
(as manifested and
realized in the person
of Christ) are revealed
and realized. In other
words, in the Church,
the entire world, with
the new Adam (Christ) at
its head, acknowledges
God as “Father” and is
thus “saved” from
alienation and
deterioration. The
cognizance and the
revelation of God is
thus an empirical
reality within the body
of the Church, which
has the form of a
paternal-filial
association wherein the
entire world is
embodied, thus
constituting the “body
of Christ”.
Consequently, the Church
– as the body of Christ
– is, in this sense, the
only proper and complete
existential form of
cognizance of God,
through the lattice of
relations that are
realized within the
community.
-
In order for the Church
to comprise the full
revelation of this
existential form of
cognizance of God, it
must have the following
elements, which arise
from the aforementioned
definition:
A.
It must be a
community-congregation that
consists of all the
Church members. All of the
baptized members of the
Church (who continue to
preserve the association
between God-mankind-people,
as manifested and realized
in Christ) are necessary,
for the constituting of the
body that will reveal
Christ. Consequently, the
lay people who remain
faithful to the baptismal
relationship between God and
the world are of an
opportune significance to
the revelation of the truth
of the Son as the new
association between God and
the world.
B.
It must have at the head
of the community a ministry
that will express the
presence of Christ and the
Apostles as the ones who
will constantly judge the
community’s preservation of
the original form of the
body of Christ as revealed
and experienced in the Old
Testament era (see above).
This ministry cannot be
anything other than the
prelate bishop of the
Eucharist community as an
image of Christ, surrounded
by the presbyters, as images
of the Apostles. This
prevailed from the 2nd
century A.D. onward
(Ignatius of Antioch)
without interruption (until
the Reform in the West),
because in the Eucharist,
the community of the Church
exceptionally lives and
reveals this Christ-centered
association-revelation
between God and the world.
The cognizance of God there
is experienced as the
revealing of the new,
salvatory association
between God and the world as
manifested in Christ (more
in the respective chapter).
Consequently, the leadership
of the Eucharist community,
in the person of the bishop,
expresses the faith of that
community “with one mouth
and one heart”, as cited
during the Divine Eucharist;
in other words, it is
expressed as a unanimity
and not a dissent.
C.
Given that the Church is not
comprised of one only
community but of many, the
expressing of the entire
Church’s faith “throughout
the world” becomes a
reality, when all of the
communities –through their
prelate bishops- coincide
in the same faith; or, as
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
says: “when the bishops in
every corner of the world
are of the (same) opinion as
Jesus Christ”. It was thus,
that the synods
(councils) of the prelate
bishops -as the means of
expressing the unanimity of
their communities- came to
be the most comprehensive
expression of the proper
faith of the Church.
Therefore, the dogmas of the
Church that are expressed by
such synods (councils) – and
especially when these synods
include or represent all of
the prelate bishops (these
are the ecumenical councils)
– are those that express the
faith of the Church and
reveal the cognizance of God
within His association to
the world through Christ, in
the fullest manner.
D.
In order for the dogma to be
a living reality and not a
simple logical or expressive
formulation, it must
continuously be filtered
through the community of the
Church, to all of its
members, as a perpetual confirmation and
reception of it, in
the conscience of the entire
body of the Church. This
reception does not have any
legal status in the Orthodox
Church (that is, no specific
procedures for the
reception of dogmas by
church members are
foreseen), instead,
reception acts in a positive
way as the liturgical “Amen”
of the laity, without which
the bishops cannot
authentically perform
anything liturgically, or
proclaim and express
anything dogmatically. It
also acts negatively, in
cases where there is a
disagreement between bishops
and the crew of the Church
(for example, the Council of
Florence). But, above all,
the passing, the
“circulation” of the dogma
within the body, inside the
veins of the entire
community, is effected
through the experiencing
of the dogma, which we
referred to above (with the
variety of
charismas).
Thus, the
entire church, the clergy
with the bishops at the
head, and the populace, all
participate in the shaping
of the dogmas as living and
empirical truths that reveal
God as the Father of Jesus
Christ, and through Him, of
the entire world, with Jesus
Christ – the God-man – at
its head. Bishops have the
special ministry-charisma
(and responsibility) of
convening synods (councils),
through which the
faith-dogma can be confessed
as a common and unanimous
“cognizance” of God for all the Churches. That
is why it is up to them to
formulate the dogmas.
But,
the
completion of a dogma
demands the circulation, the
reception and the
experiencing of it by the
entire body of the Church.