What Is a Dogma? What Dogmas Exist in Christianity? #

According to the explanatory dictionary of S.I. Ozhegov, a dogma is “a fundamental principle in religious doctrine, regarded (by the Church) as immutable truth and not subject to criticism.” It is often said that the only reason for breaking church communion can be dogmatic distortions, i.e., distortions in the foundations of the faith. This argument is used by New Rite missionaries when accusing followers of the uncorrupted Orthodox faith (Old Believers) of separating from Nikonianism without sufficient grounds. They assert that changes made by the New Rite, such as alterations in liturgical rules, the sign of the cross, the direction of processions, and similar matters, are not dogmatic distortions. The same claim applies to changes in church books, which the New Rite calls “corrections,” but which, in essence, amount to corruption of the texts.

Followers of the original Orthodoxy have a different perspective on dogmas, dogmatic questions, and heretical changes requiring the breaking of prayer and Eucharistic communion. In particular, they do not divide Sacred Tradition into dogmatic and non-dogmatic categories. Everything handed down to us by the holy fathers and sanctified by church tradition is Sacred Tradition and must be preserved inviolate. This approach is equally observed by the Popovtsy (Old Believers who retained the priesthood) and the Bezpopovtsy (Old Believers left without priests). For instance, in the Pomorian Answers (a well-known work of Bezpopovtsy apologetics), the two-finger sign of the cross is referred to as a “dogma of faith.” Furthermore, as the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council teach, every heresy distances a person from God. The corruption of Sacred Tradition is unacceptable, regardless of the matter in which it occurs: whether in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the rite of baptism, or the liturgical rules.

Thus, Christianity encompasses a wide array of dogmas of faith that cannot be altered at anyone’s discretion, as they contain the revelation of God, given in the Church and preserved to this day. These include dogmas in the area of doctrine, such as the teaching on the Trinity, the teaching on the dual nature of Jesus Christ, and the teaching on the resurrection of Christ; dogmas concerning moral purity, such as the prohibition of idolatry, fornication, and the consumption of blood; and dogmas related to worship, such as the veneration of holy icons, the two-finger sign of the cross, processions in a sunwise direction, and prayer facing east. To learn more about the dogmas of faith, one must study Sacred Scripture with the interpretations of the holy fathers, church canons, and the rules of church worship.

—Priest Mikhail Rodin