Orthodox Religion flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Septuagint

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made in Alexandria (3rd–2nd c. BC); it is the Old Testament of the Orthodox Church and includes the Deuterocanonical books.

Theotokos

Greek for "God-bearer"; the title of the Virgin Mary affirmed by the Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus, 431) against Nestorius, who preferred Christotokos.

Homoousios

Greek for "of the same essence"; the term used by the First Ecumenical Council (Nicaea, 325) to affirm that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, against Arius.

Filioque

Latin for "and the Son"; the Western addition to the Creed stating that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, rejected by the Orthodox as an unauthorized innovation.

Epiklesis

The invocation of the Holy Spirit in the Anaphora of the Divine Liturgy, by which the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ in Orthodox theology.

Chrismation

The sacrament of confirmation, administered immediately after baptism by anointing with holy chrism; it seals the gift of the Holy Spirit and is performed by a priest using chrism consecrated by a bishop.

Presanctified Gifts

The Liturgy celebrated on weekdays of Great Lent, in which the faithful receive the Eucharist consecrated on the previous Sunday; it has no consecration and is attributed to St. Gregory the Dialogist.

Pentarchy

The ideal order of the five ancient patriarchates-Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem-established by Justinian and ratified by the Quinisext Council (692).

Edict of Milan

The agreement of 313 between Constantine and Licinius granting toleration to Christianity and restoring confiscated property; it ended the Great Persecution and paved the way for imperial favor.

Great Schism

The rupture of 1054 between the Roman and Constantinopolitan churches, marked by mutual excommunications over papal primacy and the Filioque; it became permanent after the Fourth Crusade (1204).

Autocephaly

The self-governing status of a local church that elects its own head and is not subject to another church; it is granted by a mother church and recognized by the others.

Millet System

The Ottoman administrative system that recognized the Ecumenical Patriarch as the civil and religious head of Orthodox subjects, giving the Church internal autonomy under Islamic rule.

Council of Crete

The Great and Holy Council convened in Crete in 2016 by the Ecumenical Patriarch; four patriarchates did not attend, and its documents are not universally accepted.

Theosis

Deification; the goal of Christian life, in which the person participates in the divine energies and becomes by grace what God is by nature, as taught by St. Athanasius and St. Gregory Palamas.

Hesychasm

The ascetic tradition of stillness and inner prayer, centered on the Jesus Prayer; defended by St. Gregory Palamas in the 14th century and affirmed by the Palamite councils.

Jesus Prayer

The short prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner"; practiced continuously by hesychasts and recommended to all the faithful as a means of unceasing prayer.

St. John Chrysostom

Archbishop of Constantinople (398–404), famous for his preaching and the Liturgy bearing his name; exiled for criticizing the empress Eudoxia, he is a Doctor of the Church.

Economia

The pastoral principle by which a bishop may relax the strict application of a canon for the salvation of a soul; it is an exception to akribeia (strictness), not a repeal of the canon.

Canon 28 of Chalcedon

The canon granting the See of Constantinople privileges equal to Rome and jurisdiction over Pontus, Asia, and Thrace; Rome rejected it, and it remains a source of the primacy dispute.

Apostolic Canons

A collection of 85 canons attributed to the apostles but compiled in the 4th century; they regulate clerical discipline, ordination, and moral conduct and are part of the canonical corpus.

Iconostasis

The screen of icons separating the nave from the sanctuary in Orthodox churches; it has three doors and tiers of icons and developed from the earlier templon.

Proskynesis

Veneration, the honor given to icons, the Cross, and saints; distinguished from latreia (worship), which is due to God alone, by the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787).

Pantocrator

Greek for "Almighty"; the central icon of Christ in the dome of Orthodox churches, showing Him holding the Gospel and blessing, with the halo inscribed with the cross.

Reverse Perspective

The iconographic technique in which lines converge toward the viewer rather than away, creating the sense that the icon opens into the viewer's space; it symbolizes the icon as a window into heaven.

Oriental Orthodox Churches

The churches that separated after the Council of Chalcedon (451) over the two natures of Christ; they include the Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Indian churches.

Balamand Statement

The 1993 document of the Joint International Commission for Orthodox–Catholic Dialogue rejecting uniatism as a method of union and proposing a new path of dialogue.

Sola Scriptura

The Protestant principle that Scripture alone is the authority in matters of faith and practice; the Orthodox reject it, affirming Scripture and Tradition as inseparable.

World Council of Churches

The ecumenical body founded in 1948; most Orthodox churches participate but do not recognize it as a church and reject intercommunion without unity in faith.

Synergeia

Greek for "cooperation"; the principle that divine grace and human freedom work together in salvation, central to Orthodox ethics and ascetic theology.

Great Lent

The forty-day fast before Pascha, beginning on Clean Monday and ending on Lazarus Saturday; it is the strictest fasting period, with additional services and the Presanctified Liturgy.

Anointing of the Sick

The mystery of unction, celebrated for the healing of soul and body; it may be repeated and is not reserved for the dying, in contrast to the Western practice.

Akribeia

Strictness; the normal application of the canons without relaxation, contrasted with economia, which may be applied by a bishop for the salvation of a soul.