Topics

The unbroken transmission of the apostolic faith and ministry from the Twelve to the bishops of each church through ordination. From the earliest fathers — Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Cyprian — succession in the chair (cathedra) of each apostolic see was the surety that the church there held the apostolic Tradition. The bishop is the centre of the church's unity, the celebrant of the one Eucharist, and the guarantor of the deposit of faith.

Messianic prophecies and Christological types in the Septuagint, as identified by the apostles and the church fathers — the protoevangelium, the seed of Abraham, the suffering servant, the priest after the order of Melchizedek, the Son of Man.

The Orthodox doctrine of the Eucharist from the apostolic age forward — that the bread and the cup, blessed by the Word and the Spirit through the prayers of the bishop, are the very Body and Blood of the incarnate Lord; that this offering is the one sacrifice of Christ made present, not a new sacrifice; that participation in it unites the faithful to God and to one another; and that no schism, no false belief, no breaking from the bishop can have part in it.

The doctrine that the goal of the Christian life is union with God by participation in the divine life — that the Word became flesh, as St Athanasius wrote, "that we might be made God" (Inc 54). The Greek Fathers articulate this as participation in the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4) through the energies of the Holy Spirit, never confusing the creature with the uncreated essence.

The Orthodox veneration of Mary as Theotokos — the one through whom the eternal Son took flesh — confessed at Ephesus in 431 against Nestorius. The Fathers read her as the new Eve who, by her free "yes," undoes the disobedience of the first Eve (St Irenaeus, St Justin); as the ark and temple foretold in the Old Testament (St Gregory the Theologian, St John of Damascus); as ever-virgin (aeiparthenos); and as the foremost intercessor for the Church.

The Orthodox theology of the holy icons: that since the eternal Word became flesh, the image of the invisible God can and must be depicted; that the veneration (proskynesis) given to the icon passes to the prototype, while the worship of latria belongs to God alone; that the icon participates in the reality it represents and is therefore a means of grace. Foundationally established at the Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea II, 787) against the iconoclast emperors, and articulated most fully by St John of Damascus.

Passages from the Septuagint where the early church fathers discerned the revelation of the Holy Trinity — the plural divine speech in Genesis, the visitation at Mamre, the Spirit moving over the waters, and the worship of the thrice-holy God in Isaiah.