The Church: The Ark of Salvation

A Catechetical Lecture on the Nature of the Church.

The following is the basis of a catechetical lecture I gave at our parish. It’s the fifth lesson in the series (two lessons after The Condition of Man). It focuses largely on how we understand the Church and the biblical imagery of the Church.

Introduction

“The Church is the supernatural grace-filled joining of men reborn by the God-man into a union of love.” —New Hieromartyr Hilarion Troitsky

What is the Church? St. Philaret of Moscow tells us that “the Church is a divinely instituted community of men, united by the Orthodox Faith, the Law of God, the hierarchy, and the Sacraments.”¹

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev says of this definition that “for all the formal correctness of this definition, it is neither patristic, nor based on Holy Scripture, nor conclusive. The Church is not simply a society of people, united around one faith, one ‘ideology’; the Church is not simply the totality of clergy and laity, participating in liturgical services and the sacraments. The Church is a reality, the nature of which does not easily lend itself to a verbal definition.”²

If the Church were just a human organization or sociological phenomenon, we would have no trouble in defining it as we do any other. But the Church is a great mystery of God and for this reason does not lend itself to the short, simplistic definitions we so love in modern society. It is impossible, then, to understand the Church without first understanding who God is (so far as this is humanly possible), why He created man and how man fell, and what Christ has done for salvation. It is for this reason that we have waited until the fifth lesson to speak of the Church beyond the marks of the Church which we described in Lesson I.

The Church is itself an article of faith. As we say in the Creed “I believe in One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church,” and certainly we know many—even some who profess to be Christians—who themselves do not believe in the Church. But as Saint Cyprian of Carthage (c.258ad) says “he cannot have God for his father who has not the Church for his mother.” The Church is described in a number of images in the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, through these images we can learn what the Church is and how we are saved in it.

Spiritual Hospital

One of the most common images used by the Fathers and modern teachers alike is the image of the Church as a spiritual hospital. Christ is the great Physician of souls [Mk. 2:17], “by whose stripes ye were healed.” [1 Pe. 2:24] In the Church we have access to the Eucharist, which St. Ignatius of Antioch calls the medicine of immortality. Everything we do in the Church is for the purpose of treating the sickness of sin and becoming spiritually healthy so that we may be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Mt. 5:24) For this purpose we have the mysteries of the church (or sacraments), spiritual counsel and ascetic exercises. What may seem like legal requirements to the outsider are in reality a psychotherapeutic treatment method by which the Church heals us.

We see this, for example, with fasting: “Fasting is not something we do to earn merits or brownie points with God. Our fasting does nothing for God. Fasting is for our benefit.”³

What is this benefit? As we have discussed, the essence of the fall—both for man and angels—was pride, or self-will. Pride can only be defeated by God-like humility, for which Christ is the chief example, and humility comes about by obedience. The Monastic Fathers in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine were illumined by the Holy Spirit through their ascetic endeavors, opening the human soul in ways which leave even modern psychiatrists and psychotherapists in awe, and here they are our guide. Saint Diadochos of Photiki says that “By not eating too much or too richly we can to some extent keep in check the excitable parts of our body. In addition, we can give to the poor what remains over, for this is the mark of sincere love.”⁴

Fr. Turbo Qualls says bluntly “show me a man struggling with pornography, and I’ll show you a man who isn’t fasting.” The reality is that if we can’t control little desires, such as those for food, we will not be able to resist much stronger desires, such as lustful desires. “In short, therefore, the Church gives us fasting guidelines as well as the advice of spiritual fathers and mothers so that we might be able to gain control over our own desires. In this way, we are able to submit our will to the will of God and receive His grace into our lives.”⁵

We can speak similarly of our prayer rules. Our prayer doesn’t benefit God, but us. The morning and evening prayers have as their goal the softening of the heart, to bring it to repentance. These prayers, written by the saints, are highly effective and have made innumerable saints over their many centuries of use. But these prayers are only effective and can only accomplish their task if they are prayed with attentiveness. Attentiveness is attained through the discipline of the Jesus Prayer. If one can’t say seven to nine words with attention, they cannot pray attentively for fifteen to thirty minutes. By contrast, if one can learn to pray with attention for seven to nine words, and focus all of their energy on remaining attentive as the prayer is repeated for a set number of repetitions, then the soul gains the discipline necessary for true prayer.

These two forms of prayer work together, training the sober and attentive mind to descend into the heart. It is the united heart and mind, the restored nous, in which Christ says He and His Father will make their home [Jn. 14:23], out of which the Spirit cries out Abba, Father! [Gal. 4:6]. Two of the great saints of the modern age, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov and St. Theophan the Recluse, wrote extensively on true prayer and are great guiding lights for Christians of our own time learning to pray.⁶

Through participation in the therapeutic program of the Church, the grace of baptism is actualized in our lives “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” [Eph. 4:13] Like all therapeutic programs, it takes great effort and a willingness to confront and push through pain, to be in uncomfortable positions, but it is through this struggle that we are healed.

The Ark or Ship as an image of the Church

“The Holy Fathers represented [the church] by the image of a ship sailing on the sea of life. Its lot is such that even when the sea is calm, the vessel must move against the current. What then is to be said about the moments of storm? The Church is forced always to maintain a resistance against the sinful world.” —Fr. Michael Pomazansky⁷

The Church Fathers describe the Church as the Ark of Salvation. This is not an image they invented, but which is drawn from the Holy Scriptures, seeing the Ark of Noah as a type of the Church. What can we say about the Church based on the story of Noah’s Ark? We can draw a few conclusions. Christ says that “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” [Matt. 24:27-29 KJV] For many decades Noah built the ark and the people of the land mocked him, continuing to live as if tomorrow was assured. Likewise, as the Second Coming of Christ approaches like a thief in the night, the Church prepares herself for His coming and exhorts the world towards repentance and to seek refuge within her walls.

We know from Genesis that in the flood God “blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.” [Gen. 7:21-24 RSV] All those who were outside of the ark were killed, “But God remembered Noah,” [Gen. 8:1 RSV], likewise, those who refuse to heed to call of the Gospel and enter the Church, the true Ark, have no assurance of salvation. There was no second ark, nor little ships or floating boards by which one man here and there was able to escape God’s wrath, and likewise there is no Christianity without or outside of the Church by which we can cling to for salvation. This is why being cast out of the Church or turning from her is such a grievous thing, and why we pray each morning that the Lord would reconcile “the apostates from the Orthodox faith and those blinded by pernicious heresies”⁸ to His Holy Church.

Inside the Ark was “every sort of food that is eaten” [Gen. 6:21 RSV], teaching us that within the Church is everything we will need to successfully navigate the storm of life and enter into the rest of God. Once the Ark had come to rest on Mt. Ararat, the dove returned with an olive leaf (the symbol of God’s peace and promise) and descended on Noah. This image reflects the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Church’s own assurance of God’s peace and promise that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” [Matt 16:18 KJV]. It is in the Ark that we weather the storms of life, and in which God’s people weather the trials and tribulations of history. These storms can be trying, but we must remain faithful and remember who the captain of the ship is.

In the Gospels we see two interesting images of the Apostles weathering storms in a boat and the Lord’s care for them. In Luke’s Gospel, he relates “But as they sailed He fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind on the lake; and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said unto them, ‘Where is your faith?’” [Lk. 8:23-25]. Here we see that the Apostles are struggling to keep the ship afloat against the shifting winds of the world, the Church is being battered and all seems lost. In this moment, when all seems lost, they cry out to Christ, and with a word the storm ceases. And so it has been for the whole history of the Church. For most of the last century, our Church prayed in every liturgy for an end to the brutal repression of the Church of Russia and their reunion with our own Church Abroad. The Lord heard our prayers. As Fr. Michael Pomazansky reminds us, and as we must remember in the midst of our own storms today, “The Lord protects as well the little vessel which is called the Russian Church Outside of Russia.”⁹

After the winds and waves subsided, Christ asked, “where is your faith?” Oftentimes we look at the storms in our own lives or those which the ship is sailing through and forget that Christ is guiding the ship—not us—and that He will see it through, He can command the storm to cease. It is not on us to take unilateral action to “save the Church.” This is demonic delusion. Instead, we must realize that trials come to bring us to repentance, to a greater reliance on Him and His will.

Likewise, we see an instructive image in Matthew’s Gospel:

“But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a spirit’; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.’ And Peter answered him and said, ‘Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.’ And he said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, ‘Lord, save me.’ And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, ‘Of a truth thou art the Son of God.’”¹⁰

Here, St. Peter, brave and eager as always, calls out to the Lord to let him come out to Him. He walks on water in the midst of the storm by the power of God, and yet, he doubts, and as a result he begins to sink. This is such a perfect image of our own spiritual life, in which God works great things, we see that He has us in His grasp and we are safe, and yet we doubt. Like St. Peter, we forget that it is God’s power which sustains us and knowing ourselves too weak—but still trusting in our own power—we fall and begin to slip under the troubled waters of life. And like Saint Peter, if we just call out to Christ, He will take us by the hand and lift us out of the water.

Putting the various biblical images of the ark or boat together we see an explanation of our own journey towards salvation in the Church. With Christ piloting the boat, we are secure in the midst of the chaos of the world—symbolized by the storm and waves on the sea. But being on a boat requires us to follow the commands of the captain and his officers—Christ and the clergy appointed over us. Carrying out these orders carelessly, especially in the midst of a storm, could result in us falling overboard. Until we reach the shore—the Kingdom of Heaven—we are safe, but our final condition is not yet assured. We must struggle, then, to carry out the commands of our captain, to remain sober and attentive so that we may reach the kingdom across the sea. If we fall overboard, Christ will lift us out of the water and return us to the ship if we call out to Him.

The Mountain of God

The Church is often described in Scripture as a Mountain. Throughout history man has ascended the heights of the mountains of the world in an attempt to communicate with God. We likewise see this occurring in the Sacred History of the Old Testament; Paradise was situated atop a mountain, and the temple in Jerusalem is often referred to as the mount of the House of God. And if Paradise is wherever the Lord dwells, then there is an explicit connection between the mountain of God, Paradise, and the Church—where God dwells in His Holy Spirit, and which is His Body. St. David, the Prophet and King, affirms this in the Psalms: “The mountain of God is a butter mountain, a curdled mountain, a butter mountain. Why suppose ye that there be other curdled mountains? This is the mountain wherein God is pleased to dwell, yea, for the Lord will dwell therein to the end.”¹¹

Saint David here states that just as there is but one ark, there is only one Mountain of God. Afterall, St. David is not here speaking of a singular physical, earthly mountain on which God dwells—as Moses spoke to God on both Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai. Instead, he is speaking of the Mountain of God, the Holy Church in which God dwells in both Body and Spirit. This is further confirmed by the remaining verses of Psalm 67, which speak plainly of the resurrection, the Ascension, of the bloodless sacrifice in which God dwells among men. Just as we saw in the image of the Ark being filled with all that is necessary for salvation, so too does David speak of the Church as a place of plenty, a butter mountain, a curdled mountain, in which are God’s good things.

Israel as an Image of the Church?

Most instructive of the Biblical types of the Church is that of Israel in the Old Testament. However, it is perhaps more proper to call Israel the Old Testament Church than it is to call Israel a type of the Church. We should say at the outset then that the Church is Israel. All of the prophecies of the Old Testament affirm this, and history has born it out to be true. Among the so-called Abrahamic Faiths and the innumerable sectarian groups bearing the name of Christ, only the Orthodox Church has fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, retained the priesthood and ritual order ordained by God Himself, and maintained the faith of the Apostles. Only in the Orthodox Church, for example, do we see the faithful confessing their sins in the midst of the assembly, [2 Ez. 9:1-5], the psalms of David chanted in liturgical-sacrificial worship [2 Chron. 29], the dedication/presentation of children in the temple, [Exo. 13:12; Luke 2:21-24] the purification of women after childbirth [Lev. 12] and many other practices.

The prophecies of the Old Testament spoke of the Messiah regathering the tribes of Israel into the Assembly (Gr. εκκλησια or ecclesia) of God. By the time these prophecies were made, however, the ten northern tribes had been dispersed among the Neo-Assyrian Empire, interbred and become indistinguishable from them. This implies, then, the coming of the Gentiles into the assembly, into Israel [Is. 66:18-21; Mic. 4:1-5:5; Acts 15:16-18]; it is even said that gentiles shall serve as priests and levites to the Lord and offer incense and a pure offering [Mal. 1:11, Is. 61:1-6].

This coming of the Gentiles into Israel is precisely what St. Paul was trying to explain to the Judaizers in his epistles. The Jews in the early Church thought that because the Gentiles were entering into Israel, they were required to follow the Law of Moses. Saint Paul tells them that this is not the case, and Gentiles are only bound to that which applied to sojourners and foreigners living in Israel. This is taken up at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. To understand Acts 15, and by extension the Epistle to the Romans, one must understand the Law of Moses; the Pentateuch states that even sojourners in Israel are prohibited from sacrificing to idols (remember, sacrifices are eaten), from eating the blood of animals, and engaging in sexual depravity, and this continues to apply to Gentiles in the Church according to the Council’s decisions. Thus, the Council of Jerusalem does not abolish the Law or its application to Gentile members of the Church but affirms it. The Gentiles were being grafted into the tree of Israel by their faith in Christ. Paul tries to explain to the Jewish Christians that this is not a novelty, and that their own part in this tree is based on faith, because it was by faith that Abraham had believed God’s call, departed from his homeland, sacrificed Isaac, etc…

Saint Paul is explicit that the Church is Israel, and answers rhetorically those who would say that God had rejected His people on account of the Jews rejection of Christ, stating that believing Jews being in the Church proves God’s faithfulness:

“I ask then, has God rejected His people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew… But what is God’s reply to [Elijah]? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba’al.’ So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace… What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened… By unbelief they [Israel] they were broken off.. [and] by their falling away, salvation is come to the nations.” —Rom. 11:1-7, 20, 11 RSV, ONT

“It is not as though the word of God hath failed. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel; nor because they are Abraham’s seed, are they all children, but ‘in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee’; that is, the children of the flesh, these are not children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for a seed.” —Rom. 9:6-9 ONT

Thus, the Church is Israel, the people of God. It is the shining city of the Lord, the mountain on which He has placed His throne and in which He rules in the midst of His enemies. That Jews came to Christ—and continue to do so—shows that God is faithful to the Jewish people and that “dual covenant" theology is a rejection of the work of Christ.

In the life of Israel we see the foundations of Christian life and worship, and we see our own struggle towards piety played out in the Sacred History of the Old Testament. Just as God was guiding Israel and Judah, so too does He guide the Church. Beyond this, the journey of the life of Israel is revealed as our own: we are bound in the bondage of Egypt (sin and death), Christ leads us out of Egypt through the Red Sea (baptism), and, like Israel, we each struggle through the desert, being led into battle against the enemies of Israel (the demons, powers and principalities of the world). Sometimes, our faith is weak and as a result, we are chastised and defeated by our passions and sins, as Israel was defeated by its enemies for doubting God’s protection. If we remain faithful, if we allow the Lord to lead us out into battle, we will cross over into the promised land, eternity with God and the Church Triumphant in the Age to Come.

Ecclesia (εκκλησια)

Throughout the Scriptures, the Church, like Israel, is referred to as an Ecclesia, or Assembly. In American Christianity, this is most often said to depict a community or generic society of people; and while the Church is certainly a community, community is not a synonym of ecclesia. St. Hilarion Troitsky in his essay The New Testament Doctrine of the Church has a half a page note on the topic which is rather illuminating.

Not every ‘society’ or ‘assembly’ may be called an εκκλησια, but rather only an assembly of people who are united by something. In the classic use of the word, εκκλησια signified an assembly of citizens: εκκλησια = οί εκκλητοί [those called forth], which was convened by a special κήρυς [herald]. The ecclesia was an assembly constituted by law. Hence, an ecclesia has two attributes: structured unity and convention (κλήσις, εκκαλεΐν).”¹²

The Church then, is a concrete assembly of those called to participate, their call being proclaimed by the heralds. Saint Paul speaks of himself not as one who persecuted an ideology or people who adhere to it, but that he “persecuted the Church (εκκλησια) of God” [Gal. 1:13]. Saint Hilarion further notes that “it is quite noteworthy that in Latin the word εκκλησια was not translated, but merely transliterated as ecclesia, although there are several Latin words for denoting a community. Clearly, not one Latin word was found to fully and precisely convey the meaning of the Greek εκκλησια, which expresses the idea that God set a portion of mankind apart and called them into a special community.”¹³

The Kingdom of Heaven

It is not insignificant that the Lord chose to call his heralds Apostles (Gr. Απόστολος). In the context of the time, an apostle was a herald who went before a conquering general into the towns of the conquered territory to announce that the prior ruler of the land had been defeated, the territory was now under the control of the victor, and the inhabitants could submit and live, or rebel and die. This message of military victory and its implications were called an Evangelio (Gr. Ευαγγέλιο) or in English, a Gospel.

That Christ chose these terms was no mistake and gives us a fairly profound understanding of how He and His disciples viewed His work and ministry. Christ is not asking us to accept him into your heart pretty please. No. He cast down the ruler of this world, He has sent out His heralds to announce to us His victory and to inform us that we can submit, enter into the assembly and live, or we can remain loyal to our former master (the Devil) and die in our rebellion.

Is it any wonder then, that in Matthew’s Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ mentions the Kingdom of Heaven/Kingdom of God more than fifty times? A kingdom has borders, it has laws, and the king appoints governors and ministers to carry out his orders and rule in His name. To live in a kingdom, one must be born into it or pledge fealty to the King. One’s freedom to remain in a kingdom is based on his loyalty to the King and his obedience to the King’s laws. The same is true in God’s Kingdom.

We see here a number of overlapping themes with ecclesia. Likewise, the image of the Kingdom of God and that of the Nation of Israel go hand in hand, and both are realities just as much as they are images of the Church. As Catechumens, you are learning what citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven requires and training for the moment in which you will pledge fealty to our King and God Jesus Christ the Righteous. Catechism is similar to the training young knights would undergo prior to being granted their lands and titles by the king. This training ensured that when their lord eventually called them to fulfill their vows, they were well drilled and ready to fight.

The Church as the Body of Christ

One of the most common ways in which the Church is described in Scripture is as the Body of Christ. A surface level reading may lead us to believe that the Apostles simply wanted us to understand the need for members of the Church to be close, to work together, to take seriously the charge of unity. This is not a type or image however, but the metaphysical reality of the Church. The Church is the community of human persons received into Christ’s person or hypostasis. Just as our spirit animates us, Christ’s Spirit animates His own Body, extended out to all those who believe in Him.

This comes to be through the mysteries of the Church. During the baptismal service we sing: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Baptism initiates a metaphysical change in the human person at the ontological level. In other words, when a person is baptized, the very fabric of their being is altered, they are restored to the state from which our first ancestors fell in the beginning; they put off the old man and take on the new man: the deified humanity of Christ. Likewise, when we partake of the Eucharist, we are partaking of the deified Body and Blood of Christ, and these are mingled with our own.

“The sacrament of the body and the blood is a realization of the unity of our nature both with Christ and, at the same time, with all the members of the Church…. In the Church and through the sacraments, our nature enters into union with the divine nature in the hypostasis of the Son, the Head of His mystical body. Our humanity becomes consubstantial with the deified humanity, united with the person of Christ; but our person has not yet attained its perfection.” —Vladimir Lossky¹⁴

Prior to the work of Christ, the Spirit was only communicated to man externally, but through the work of Christ and His assumption of our humanity into His divine person, we now have direct access to the Holy Spirit through Him.

“Through the incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, Christ lays the foundation of the Church in His body. The descent of the Holy Spirit is thus the act of transition from Christ’s saving work in His personal humanity to the extension of this work within other human beings.” —St. Dimitru Staniloae¹⁵

As His final act prior to His Ascension, Christ restores man’s priestly vocation. Christ breathes on the Apostles and tells them “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained,” [Jn. 20:23 KJV]. In doing so Christ restores man’s priestly function. This is, again, a work of Christ relating to our nature, to the Church insofar as it is His Body. “Here the Spirit is bestowed upon all in common as a bond of unity and as sacerdotal power: He (the Spirit) remains unknown to persons and imparts to them no personal holiness.”¹⁶ Human nature restored to its prelapsarian state, its vocation restored, what remained was the descent and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers. This is why Christ says He came “to cast fire upon the earth” [Lk. 12:49].

Pentecost: The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Church

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon the individual members of the Church in a personal manner, imparting holiness and through His presence sealing each one in a unique, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. St. Simeon the New Theologian waxed eloquently on what this descent and relationship with the Holy Spirit means at the level of the person in one of his many hymns to the Trinity. He calls the Spirit “the resplendent vesture which covers me and protects me and which destroys the demons; the purification which washed me from every stain through these holy and perpetual tears that Thy presence accords to those who Thou visitest.”¹⁷

Each Christian participates in Pentecost during their baptism. Rising from the waters of death to life, the Spirit descends upon the person. The Grace of Baptism is the Holy Spirit, sealed by Chrism and the prayers of the Church. The grace of this event is both the goal of spiritual life, and its starting point. Upon initiation into the Church, the superabundance of God’s Grace is immediately planted in the hearts of the faithful. But this grace must be actualized in our lives, it is not immediately actualized on account of the passions and sinful habits which have accumulated over the course of our lives. It is both the strength by which we overcome sins and passions, and the fulness of divine life which we come into through our struggle. Lossky says that “Baptismal grace, the presence within us of the Holy Spirit—inalienable and personal to each one of us—is the foundation of all Christian life.”¹⁸

As this divine fire comes to fill us ever more through our struggles, we become increasingly conformed to the image of Christ, we become, in a sense, two natured like Christ, fully human, and filled with the fire of divinity—though not in essence, but through participation in the divine energies. The work of Christ then, had as its goal the refashioning of human nature so that it could be Spirit-bearing once more. Only by becoming Spirit-bearing (ie., bearing He who is Life) could man avoid falling back into his former state. It is for this reason that Christ says, “it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” [Jn. 16:7 KJV]. Through the coming of the Spirit, we are fully conformed to the Body of Christ, in His likeness.

“the Holy Spirit communicates Himself to each person. He opens to each member of the body of Christ the fullness of the divine inheritance; but human persons, the created hypostases of the Church, cannot become ‘two-natured’ if they do not rise up freely towards the perfect union with God; if they do not realize that union in themselves through the Holy Spirit and their own will.” —Vladimir Lossky¹⁹

The communication of the Holy Spirit in the mystery of ordination likewise strengthens our priests and hierarchs to guide the Church both in pastoral and doctrinal struggles. This bestowal of the Spirit is, as we have said, impersonal, and therefore bestows upon the theurgic actions of the clergy an objective nature which is independent of their individual holiness or intentions. This is reaffirmed in many of the prayers the priests pray during the administration of the sacraments. In the Liturgy, for example, the priests ask the Lord not to deprive the people of His benefactions on account of their personal unworthiness. In the administration of the Church’s mysteries the Divine and human wills work synergistically to bring about the sanctification of the assembly as Body of Christ. In this we see the Christological and Pneumatological aspects of the Church manifested clearly.

The Church as Body of Christ is a theandric organism into which all things will be recapitulated at the fullness of time when Christ will become all in all. In the Body of Christ, we enter into a dialogical relationship with God not as someone exterior to us, but within us, truly participating in the Life of God and all who are united in Him.

“[The Church] is the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan: the unity of all… The Church is a human communitarian ‘I’ in Christ as a ‘Thou,’ but at the same time the Church’s ‘I’ is Christ… In the Church all pray in me and for me, and I pray in all and for all. In the Church all things are united but unconfused in this unity, united to [Christ] and distinct from Him.” —St. Dimitru Staniloae²⁰

The Holy Spirit unifies and guides the Church through space and time, and this life of the Holy Spirit in the Church is what we call Tradition.

Holy Tradition

During the Reformation, the two parties sparred over the nature and authority of Tradition and Scripture as two separate authorities. As a result, a sharp distinction between the two remains to this day in Western Christianity. Tradition in the West is viewed, broadly speaking, as a series of oral teachings and decisions developed by the Church for doctrinal and pedagogical purposes. But this view of tradition is foreign to the Orthodox Church.

"The notion of Tradition is richer than we habitually think. Tradition does not merely consist of an oral transmission of facts capable of supplementing the Scriptural narrative. Tradition tells us not only what we must hear but, still more importantly, how we must keep what we hear. In this general sense, Tradition implies an incessant operation of the Holy Spirit, who could have his full outpouring and bear his fruits only in the Church, after the Day of Pentecost. It is only in the Church that we find ourselves capable of tracing the inner connections between the sacred texts which make the Old Testament and the New Testament into a single living body of truth, wherein Christ is present in each word. It is only in the Church that the seed sown by the word is not barren, but brings forth fruit; and this fruition of Truth, as well as the power to make it bear fruit, is called Tradition." —Vladimir Lossky²¹

What Lossky is drawing out is that tradition is not merely a set of oral teachings passed down or an interpretive framework, but the Life of the Holy Spirit manifested in the living Tradition of the Church, and this is the immutable consciousness of the Church which connects the Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and Venerable ones with us and our hierarchs today, and to those yet to come. That individual members of the Church pass on from the earthly Church to the Church in Paradise does not create a break in this continuity any more than the death of a skin cell causes my body to cease being Ben’s body, the millions of cell deaths of my body do not create a new Ben, because my consciousness remains—and in the same physical body.

The Life of the Church is internally structured in a coherent and consistent manner based on the revelation she has received, how she has received it and lived it across space and time. It is exceedingly difficult (if it's possible at all) to understand why the Church’s internal life is structured the way it is from the outside; furthermore, it is impossible to try to isolate just one part and understand it in a coherent way divorced from the rest.

This is precisely what Evangelicals and the “spiritual, not religious” crowd does when they try to take the writings of the Church, the result of her own life and direct experience of God and interpret them through the hyper-individualistic lens of Modernity. To believe this is even possible would be to believe that if one found, read, and agreed with the Constitution of Athens, then they can genuinely recreate ancient Athens in all of its glory here and now, or even worse, that they have become an authentic, living, breathing Athenian at the height of its golden age. It is patently absurd.

What most Protestants fail to understand is that the Church predates the Bible, it was the Church who proclaimed certain texts to be authoritative or non-authoritative, based on its own experience of God through His direct revelation of Himself to it, its internal life, witness, and authority.

“Before the authority of the written word ever came to be, there was the authority of communal leaders, priests, prophets, apostles, and teachers who communicated and interpreted God’s word with the living voice. Prior to the collection of the Scriptural books into a canon, and yet reflected in the canon, there was the dynamic reality of the religious community in which oral teachings, the writing and editing of texts, and the fluid use and transmission of oral and written traditions were at work according to the changing circumstances and needs of the people of God. —Theodore Stylianopoulos²²

The Scriptures are contained within the Tradition of the Church, a record of her direct experiences with our God and the moral, historical, spiritual, and relational truths which God has related to His people through His Word. And while we can say Scripture is the keystone of Tradition (and therefore inseparable from it) we must also state that the primary and proper use of Scripture is liturgical. At a foundational level, the Scriptures were written to be spoken aloud, and we witness them being proclaimed in a liturgical setting repeatedly in the Scriptures [2 Chron 29:28-30, 34:29-33; Ezra 9:37-53; Neh. 8]. It is in the Church’s liturgical life and cycles which the Scriptures are proclaimed, meditated, interpreted and expounded upon, and made effectual in the lives of the community of faith.

These cycles of prayer and worship, inseparably united with the Sacramental life of Grace and ascetical-therapeutic practices of the Church comprise much of the substance of the Church’s Tradition. These “components” work together in a synergistic unity, indivisibly united as a single, organic expression of the life in Christ, the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” [Jude 1:3].

Tradition, or Systematic Theologies?

Many modern scholars have lamented how, unlike the Western confessions, the Orthodox Church does not have a systematic ecclesiology. Seeking to rectify this supposed problem, they have set out to define in scholastic terms what the Church is. The Church has never sat down and wrote out systematic theologies (of any kind) for the sake of having them. As we have seen, its life is well ordered and its teachings consistent across space and time. The need to dogmatize certain teachings (such as the Church’s doctrines on the Trinity, the Two Wills and Energies of Christ, and Iconography) arose as a direct result of an explicit challenge to the unity of the Church from charismatic heresiarchs. These were not developments or evolutions in doctrine, but the proclamation of the same faith delivered once for all to the saints.

The self-identity of the Church as a whole has never been seriously threatened, and for this reason we do not see among the Fathers systematic treatises defining the Church—not even in St. John of Damascus Exposition on the Orthodox Faith, the first systematic presentation of the Orthodox Faith. There were local instances in which this challenge was partially raised, such as by the Donatists in North Africa, against whom St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote a treatise on the Church. However, even here, this treatise deals more with akrivia (strictness or precision) and economia (leniency) in applying the canons in the reception of penitents and converts than anything else.

In the post-schism West, a different situation emerged entirely, in which ecclesiology became the primary battleground between Papists and Protestants. For the Reformers, ecclesiology is first in the order of theology, followed closely thereafter by soteriology. The same could be said for Rome, who has placed the ecclesiological doctrine of the Pope’s infallibility above all doctrines—even their doctrine of Christ and the Trinity. In these battles, the Ordo Theologiae (order of theology) of the Western confessions became confused. This was long a problem for Rome, as is seen in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, who begins his Summa Theologica not with the Person of God—neither Christ nor the Father—but with vain speculations about the essence of God according to Aristotelian categories and the speculations of Blessed Augustine. Likewise, the Protestants begin with ecclesiology and soteriology to refute Rome’s claims to ecclesial authority. In this scheme, who Christ is becomes an afterthought and the Holy Trinity is often forgotten altogether. In the latter case, they blaspheme the Holy Spirit and cease to worship the Christian God in any way, shape, or form.

From our analysis, we see that the Church has a rich understanding of herself. The Orthodox Ordo Theologiae has always begun with the Apostolic doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ, and from these flows naturally the rest of her teachings. The Church’s ontological foundations are based in the dual economy of the Son and Spirit, and her ecclesiology grows organically from her Christological and Pneumatological teachings. Perhaps we can say that the Church has no “systematic ecclesiology” in the Western sense of an independent school of theological thought. But we also see that for all of the logical coherence of Western systems, these have not prevented them from conforming themselves to the world generation after generation, constantly requiring new justifications for their abandonment of the landmarks of their fathers [Pro. 22:28].

For the Orthodox, the Church is, above all else, a living, breathing organism. It is the ark of salvation, piloted by the God-Man Himself. The mission of each member is to remain faithful to the fathers who came before us, and to trust in the Holy Spirit, which guides our little vessel towards the Kingdom to come.

1. St. Philaret of Moscow, Longer Catechism of the Eastern Orthodox Church

2. Met. Hilarion Alfeyev; Orthodox Christianity, Vol II., p. 388

3. Clark Carlton; The Life: An Orthodox Catechism, p. 95

4. St. Diadochos of Photiki, On Spiritual Knowledge, p.266

5. Clark Carlton; The Life, p. 97

6. Recommended Reading: The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology; compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valaam.

7. Fr. Michael Pomazansky, Selected Essays, p.53

8. Jordanville Prayer Book, Prayer for the Living, p. 32

9. Fr. Michael Pomazansky, Select Essays, p. 53

10. Matt. 8:24-33 KJV

11. Psalms 67:15-16 LXX, Boston Psalter, p. 99f

12. St. Hilarion Troitsky, the Dogma of the Church, p. 29

13. Ibid.

14. Vladimir Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, p. 180-181

15. St. Dimitru Staniloae, Experience of God, Vol. IV, p. 2

16. Lossky, Mystical Theology, p. 167

17. St. Simeon the New Theologian, Hymns of Divine Love

18. Lossky, Mystical Theology, p.178

19. Ibid., p.185

20. St. Dimitru Staniloae, Vol. IV, p. 13

21. Lossky, in the image and likeness of God, Tradition and traditions

22. Theodore Stylianopoulos; The New Testament: An Orthodox Perspective, Vol. I, p. 47