Learning area
Belief and Scripture
Doctrine, the Holy Trinity, Scripture, and Holy Tradition — what Orthodox Christians believe and how God reveals Himself.
Available lessons
The Cross and Resurrection
Christ was crucified for us and rose on the third day — a real death and a real resurrection, the victory of God's love over sin and death.
About 11 min
Jesus Christ and the Incarnation
Jesus Christ is Lord — the divine Son of God who became a real, complete man, born of the Virgin Mary, without ceasing to be God.
About 11 min
The Holy Trinity
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three divine Persons, one God — known not by speculation but by living experience.
About 11 min
Scripture and Holy Tradition
Holy Tradition is the ongoing life of God's people, and the Bible holds the first place within it — not a place apart from it.
About 10 min
How God Reveals Himself
God is beyond all grasp, yet he has truly shown himself — gradually through Israel, and fully in his Son, Jesus Christ.
About 10 min
Welcome: Belief, Worship, and Life Together
An invitation to the course: how Orthodox belief, worship, history, and daily life form a single living whole, and what this independent resource is and is not.
About 10 min
Related glossary entries
Almsgiving
Mercy made practical: giving to the poor and sharing what one has. In Christ’s teaching it belongs together with prayer and fasting, and is to be done in secret. The Fathers taught that our possessions are gifts held in trust rather than simply our own.
Apophatic theology
The "negative" way of speaking about God, which describes what God is not in order to guard the truth that God is beyond all human concepts and words.
Apostolic succession
The unbroken handing on of the apostles’ ministry through the laying on of hands, by which the Church’s bishops stand in continuity with the apostles themselves.
Beatitudes
The nine blessings with which Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5.3–12), beginning “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” They are chanted in the Divine Liturgy as the Gospel book is carried in, and are held to be the most concise summary of the spiritual life.
Chrismation
The sacrament that immediately follows Baptism, in which the newly baptised is anointed with holy chrism and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. It corresponds to what the West calls confirmation.
Communion of saints
The unity of all the faithful in Christ — on earth and in heaven. Because the Church is one body, the saints are near, and we ask their prayers.
Source information
Lessons in this area draw on identified Orthodox Christian sources, especially the four-volume series The Orthodox Faith by Thomas Hopko. Full bibliographic details and rights status are available on the Sources page.
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