The Unity between the Dogma, Spirituality and Cult and the Relevance of this One for the Orthodox Gnosiology
The Unity between the Dogma, Spirituality and Cult and the Relevance of this One for the Orthodox Gnosiology

Summary/Abstract: In Orthodoxy, the dogma has been born in the cult of the Church. The dogmas reveal the truthand show us towards the knowledge of God and towards the salvation of the soul, while anyheresy remove us away from the truth, and close up our way. The liturgical songs, through theircontent, wake up within the soul the longing after God and the impulse to know God. Throughthe participation at the Holy Services the believer enters into a spiritual atmosphere into whichhe easier feels the presence of God, and has the conscience of the presence of God in the dwelling place of the Church. There is a close relation between the dogma confessed by the Churchand the fruits of the spiritual life. The inward experience of the Christians is fulfi lled within theframe established by the Churchʼs dogma. Without dogmas, the religious experience would bedeprived of a sure leading, and this lack gives birth to the doubt and the zeal for knowledge andconsummation diminishes. The spirituality means the experiencing of the dogmaʼs content, itsliving in the life of the believers. Between dogma and cult there is a reciprocal connection; it isa known principle that “lex orandi, lex credendi” („the rule of the prayer determines therule of the faith”), but also the rule of the faith determines the rule of the prayer. Theinterior connection between dogma and cult it is highlighted also in the seal left uponthe cult by the doctrinal fi ghts from the life of the Church, the cult helping especiallythe simple believers to know the teaching of faith and to defend themselves against thehereticʼs teachings. The cult has provided along the time an equilibrium of the Christian life, has guarded the Church of slide-slips from the right faith, against the heresiesthat have taken place within the Churchʼs history.

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