20.

 Briefly summarize in your own words what you consider to be the main points in sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 of this chapter of the textbook.

            Section 4: The definitions handed down by the Ecumenical Councils must be seen in the wider context of the Holy Fathers, the Church's great theologians. It is not enough simply to know and quote the Fathers; one must acquire a patristic mind. Among the Fathers, a special reverence is held for the Three Great Hierarchs: Saints John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzus. The textbook states that the age of the Fathers did not necessarily come to and end and that our age could possibly produce another Basil or Athanasius.

            Section 5: The Orthodox Church does not have the Latin Church's established preference for making formal dogmatic definitions. However, it would be false to conclude that because Orthodoxy has not proclaimed some belief to be dogma, it is therefore not a part of Tradition, but merely a matter of private opinion. Certain doctrines, although never formally defined, are still held by the Church with an unmistakable inner conviction and oneness of mind, and they are just as binding as an explicit formulation. As St. Basil explains, “Some things we have from written teaching, others we have received from the Apostolic Tradition handed down to us in a mystery; and both these things have the same force for piety.”

            Noteworthy in this connection are the observations of Fr. Theodore Pulcini, a convert from Roman Catholicism to Eastern Orthodoxy. Fr. Theodore says expressively:

Orthodoxy [views] theology less as an exercise in reason than as an attempt to express an ineffable mystery. Theology in the Catholic West [seems] to be largely a matter of precise definition and syllogistic deduction, highly philosophical and rationalistic in nature. In the Orthodox East, theology [seems] to be largely a matter of doxology, of bowing in reverent wonder before the ineffable; it [is] less concerned with philosophical precision than with experiencing the incomprehensible. This attitude finds expression in the unparalleled beauty and majesty of Orthodox worship.

It occurred to me that if Christianity may be likened to a pool, the Catholic West spent a great deal of time describing that pool and analyzing its waters. The Orthodox East preferred to dive in! I did not detect the sort of dryness in Orthodox theology that I had in the Scholasticism of the Catholic tradition [Orthodoxy and Catholicism: What are the Differences?, p. 19].

Orthodoxy's Tradition is preserved foremost in the prayers and hymns used in its services, which explain in part the Holy Eucharist and other mysteries, the next world, the Theotokos, the faithful departed and the saints, things of which the Church has made few explicit definitions. Also, it is not merely the words of the services that form a part of Tradition; all the gestures and actions have a special meaning as well — the three immersions and emersions in the waters of Baptism, the anointing with oil, the sign of the Cross, and so forth — all express in a symbolic way the truths of Christianity.

            Section 6: Canons (regulations) were drawn up by the Ecumenical Councils, by local councils, and by individual bishops. They deal with the Church's earthly life and are an attempt to apply dogma to the practical situations in the life of each Christian. Canons form a part of Tradition.

            Section 7: Tradition is also expressed in art, in iconography. Icons are one of the ways in which God is revealed to man. They are windows into Heaven, and through them, people gain a vision of the spiritual world. Because icons are a part of Tradition, an iconographer is not free to adapt or innovate as he pleases, but paints within certain prescribed rules so that his work reflects the mind of the Church. Most importantly, iconographers must be sincere Christians who life in the spirit of Tradition and who prepare for their task through the reception of the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments).