‘A theologian is one who prays’
Evagrius of Pontus, 4th century
How the Church ‘understands’ the task of Theology
Theology in the Orthodox Church is not merely understood as an intellectual pursuit nor as the acquisition of ‘facts’ or ‘knowledge’ about God, but is the pursuit of a relationship with God, the knowledge of a ‘Person’. So what we might think about God cannot be separated from what we say to Him, and what we know about God can not be separated from our communion with Him.
Because of this the Orthodox Church does not make a distinction between Theology and Worship, since words of prayer are the primary expression of our knowledge of the God who engages with us personally. For this reason, if one seeks to know what the Church ‘teaches’, then one will need to understand the nature of the life of worship in the Church, since it is the liturgical texts which form a sort of ‘canon’ of agreed theological thought albeit of a different nature to the more doctrinally systematic systems of the western churches. But one cannot simply approach these texts as an impassive observer, for if knowledge about God comes through the experience of God in prayer, then to fully understand the ‘mind’ of the Church one must personally participate in her experience of worship.
Within such worship one finds the reading of Scripture, the reciting of Conciliar Creeds, the singing of theological hymns and songs all woven together into a complex whole and all occurring within a ‘space’ constructed to facilitate the understanding and experience of God. This complex ‘whole’ is what the Church understands by ‘Tradition’, not something opposed to (or competing with) history or scripture, but as the matrix within which history and scripture is to be understood - and within which each part lends to the interpretation of the rest. It is precisely this ‘context’ of theological inquiry which differs from the approach of Western Christians where content has so often been removed from context, often to the reduction of the historical and Apostolic Faith.
Where do I go from here?
To start to understand the nature of Liturgy in the Church then follow the side link
to explore further. On the next page there is a list of resources which one can use
to start to explore the Theology of the Orthodox Church.
