Tradition In Eastern Orthodoxy

How do we know what a religion is? What it teaches? What it strives for? What it believes? One way is to get to know its followers, by building relationships with its tenants, we might come to understand a religion. Another way to know a religion is by looking at the words and actions of its followers throughout the course of history. The problem with this is that most religions’ followers are not wholly united in how they define their religion, and Christianity is no different. But, despite these differing internal views and denominations, every religion is built on a foundation, and for Christianity, that foundation is the bible, holy scripture. Eastern Orthodoxy falls right alongside Catholicism as one of the oldest Christian denominations
All the elements of tradition are smoothly bonded together in Eastern Orthodoxy, and this tradition serves to give the church a sense of direction and identity as followers of Christ (McGuckin 102). Scripture takes its place as one of the fundamental bulwarks of the Eastern Orthodox faith (McGuckin 100) and while scripture is the highest expression of tradition, Eastern Orthodoxy does not close itself off to the ever-flowing river of divine inspiration in the ways that other Christian traditions so often seem to do (McGuckin 102). Scripture stands at the head of Eastern Orthodox tradition because it was the first written and didactic form of tradition since the time of Jesus and His apostles, and also because the scriptures are far greater in “moment, and richness” (McGuckin 101) than any Christian work that has been written since. While Eastern Orthodoxy places scripture at a high place in its tradition, it does not go as far as some of the other Christian denominations. For example, rather than viewing
According to Cunningham and Theokritoff, “Doctrine has to do with the normative principles and teachings that define the dogmatic framework of the faith critical to the unity of the Church” (28). In Eastern Orthodoxy, as one might expect, doctrine was essentially pulled straight from scripture, it’s multiple formulations by the various church councils were essentially exegetical commentaries on scripture (McGuckin 102). It is impossible to read any text written in the patristic era without realizing that they are all of them constantly speaking of either scripture or worship. Some examples of biblically based Eastern Orthodox doctrine are that God the Father is the only true God and Creator of the universe; that the Old Testament, not just the new, is scripture; the Son of God took on flesh, died, and rose again in a transformed body, and that the human body, and everything else in creation, was created good and redeemable (Cunningham and Theokritoff 28). All of these central Eastern Orthodox teachings, most of which were disputed at one time or another by heretics, were the essential content of the church’s scriptural doctrine in the heat of