Glossary

In everyday English, apostolic mostly appears in titles connected with the papacy, or means vaguely missionary. In Orthodox understanding it means deriving from the apostles: the apostolic faith is the faith the apostles received from Christ and handed on, and apostolic succession is the unbroken continuity of that faith, worship and ordination from the apostles to today's bishops. The Church is apostolic because she keeps that faith and is sent, as they were, to preach it.

Often heard as harsh self-denial for its own sake. In Orthodox understanding, asceticism is training the soul, much as an athlete trains the body — fasting, prayer and vigil are exercises, and the goal is to love God and neighbour more fully.

In everyday English a blessing is a stroke of good luck. In Orthodox understanding it is God's life and favour bestowed on someone or something, setting it apart for holiness.

Commonly a building or an institution. In Orthodox understanding the Church is the Body of Christ — the communion of all those united to Him. The building is called a church only because the Church gathers there.

In everyday English, social fellowship. In Orthodox understanding, communion is participation in Christ Himself, above all in the Eucharist; fellowship among believers flows from that shared participation.

In modern English a cult is a sinister religious sect. In the older sense still used in Orthodox and historical writing, the cult of a saint is simply the established pattern of their veneration — the feast day, hymns, icons and devotion that grow up around them. To say that a saint's cult spread through the British Isles means nothing more alarming than that people loved and honoured them.

Commonly, ceasing to exist. In Orthodox understanding death is separation from God, the source of life — which is why spiritual death can exist while a person is physically alive, and why Christ's trampling down of death is the heart of the Gospel.

To modern ears, "liturgy" suggests formal ritual — words read from a book. The Divine Liturgy is the Church's eucharistic service, the heart of Orthodox worship. The Greek leitourgia means a common work undertaken by the people: the whole gathering, not the clergy alone, offers the bread and wine, and heaven and earth are joined in the offering.

In modern English, a rigid opinion held without evidence. In Orthodox understanding a dogma is a revealed truth defined by the Church because it is necessary for preserving the reality of salvation — a boundary that protects the mystery rather than a substitute for it.

Commonly taken to mean endless duration. In Orthodox understanding the eternal belongs to the age of God, outside ordinary time — eternal life is a quality of life in God, not merely life that goes on and on.

In everyday English, believing that something is true. In Orthodox understanding faith is trust, faithfulness and loyalty — a living communion with Christ.

The Greek word pistis carries the sense of trust and fidelity, not merely intellectual agreement. One can believe facts about Christ without having faith in the Orthodox sense: faith is keeping trust with a Person, as spouses keep faith with one another.

Not terror. In Orthodox understanding the fear of God is reverence, awe and loving respect before God's holiness — the instinct that makes one remove one's shoes on holy ground.

In everyday English, simply the body. In Orthodox usage "the flesh" names fallen human nature dominated by the passions. The body itself is good — God made it and took it on Himself; the flesh in this negative sense is a disordered way of living, not our physical nature.

Commonly, pretending nothing happened. In Orthodox understanding forgiveness is reconciliation and release from bondage to sin — the healing of a relationship, which takes the wrong seriously precisely in order to overcome it.

In modern English, doing whatever you want. In Orthodox understanding freedom is release from slavery to sin so that one can truly love. The person who can choose anything except the good is not yet free.

Often defined as undeserved favour. In Orthodox understanding grace is the uncreated energies of God — His actual presence and action, by which He shares His life with creation.

In much Western thought grace is understood primarily as God's favourable attitude. In Orthodox theology grace is God Himself acting in us: to receive grace is truly to participate in God's life, not merely to be looked upon kindly.

In everyday English, the seat of the emotions. In Orthodox anthropology the heart is the spiritual centre of the person, where intellect, will and desire meet — the place where God is encountered in prayer.

Commonly, being unusually religious. In Orthodox understanding holiness is sharing in God's life and being set apart for Him — it belongs to God first, and to people and things only by participation.

In modern English, wishful thinking. In Orthodox understanding hope is confident expectation rooted in God's promises — as firm as the faithfulness of the One who made them.

Often mistaken for low self-esteem. In Orthodox understanding humility is seeing reality truthfully — freedom from pride, the Christ-like self-emptying that makes room for God and neighbour.

In everyday English, religious artwork — or a celebrity. In Orthodox understanding an icon is a window into the Kingdom: a witness to the Incarnation and to the transfiguration of matter. Icons are venerated, never worshipped, and the honour shown to an icon passes to the one it depicts.

Commonly, condemnation. In Orthodox understanding judgment is the revealing of truth: God's light exposes what we have become. The same light is joy to the purified and fire to the unrepentant.

In modern English, fair punishment. In Orthodox understanding God's justice is His righteousness — His setting things right and restoring creation, closer to healing than to retribution.

Often imagined as heaven after death. In Orthodox understanding the Kingdom of God is God's reign and presence breaking into the world now — tasted already in the Divine Liturgy — and coming in fullness in the age to come.

In everyday English, information. In Orthodox understanding, knowledge of God is personal participation and experience: to "know God" is to be in communion with Him, as one knows a person rather than a fact.

Commonly, biological existence. In Orthodox understanding life is participation in the divine life. Eternal life is not a future reward but a present participation, begun now, that death cannot interrupt.

In modern English, an emotion or romance. In Orthodox understanding love is self-sacrificial communion reflecting God's own life — seeking the good of the other regardless of cost, of which the Cross is the measure.

Commonly, letting someone off. In Orthodox understanding mercy is God's compassionate healing and steadfast love. Mercy restores rather than merely excuses.

In everyday English, the brain or intellect. In Orthodox texts "mind" often translates nous — the spiritual eye of the soul, capable of knowing God — rather than the reasoning faculty.

In modern English, something unexplained. In Orthodox usage a mystery — what Western Christians call a sacrament — is a divine reality revealed and experienced through visible means: bread, wine, water, oil. It is entered rather than solved.

Usually glossed as "intellect", which misleads. The nous is the highest faculty of the soul, by which one perceives God directly. It is distinct from discursive reasoning: the nous sees, where reason argues.

Commonly, blind submission. In Orthodox understanding obedience is freely aligning one's will with God's will out of love — the obedience of a son, not of a slave.

In everyday English, orthodox means conventional or rigidly traditional. The Church's name for herself means something else: the Greek orthodoxia is both "right belief" and "right glory" — believing truly and worshipping rightly, the two inseparable. To be Orthodox is not to be old-fashioned but to keep the fullness of the apostolic faith and worship.

In everyday English, a strong feeling — and usually a good thing. In Orthodox ascetic vocabulary a passion is a disordered desire or habitual movement of the soul away from God: anger, greed, envy. The passions are treated as sicknesses to be healed rather than crimes to be punished.

Commonly, the absence of conflict. In Orthodox understanding peace is inner wholeness and reconciliation with God — the peace of Christ, which can be kept in the middle of a storm.

In modern English, never making mistakes. In Orthodox understanding perfection is spiritual maturity and fullness in Christ — the Gospel word means complete, arrived at the goal.

To modern ears, "praying to" a saint sounds like worshipping them. In Orthodox practice, to pray to a saint is simply to ask for their prayers — "pray" in the older English sense of "ask earnestly", as in "pray, tell me". The saints are alive in Christ, and asking their intercession is the same act as asking a friend to pray for you. Worship is offered to God alone.

Commonly, asking God for things. In Orthodox understanding prayer is communion and conversation with God — standing before Him. Petition is one small part of it.

In everyday English, logic — often treated as the highest human faculty. Orthodox writers distinguish reason (dianoia), the discursive intellect that works step by step, from the nous, which perceives God directly. Reason is useful and good, but it is not the organ of communion with God.

In everyday English, feeling sorry. In Orthodox understanding repentance (metanoia) is a complete change of mind and heart — turning one's whole life toward God.

The Greek metanoia literally means "a change of mind". Repentance is not primarily guilt: tears may accompany it, but they are not its essence. It is the reorientation of the entire person toward Christ — the daily climate of the Christian life, not an occasional crisis.

Commonly, moral perfection. In Orthodox understanding righteousness is living rightly with God — participation in His life, holiness — not a spotless record.

In modern English, an impossibly perfect person. In Orthodox understanding a saint is one sanctified by God's grace, living in communion with Him. Saints are not flawless; they are transparent to God.

Commonly, going to heaven after death. In Orthodox understanding salvation is healing — union with God and the restoration of the whole person, beginning now and continuing into eternity.

In everyday English, breaking the rules. In Orthodox understanding sin is missing the mark — separation from God, a spiritual sickness that wounds human nature. It calls for healing, not merely acquittal.

Commonly, being enticed by something forbidden. In Orthodox usage a temptation is a trial or testing that reveals the state of the heart — which is why the word covers afflictions as well as enticements.

In modern English, an academic discipline. In Orthodox understanding theology is true knowledge of God, gained through purification and communion — hence the ancient saying that a theologian is one who prays, and one who prays truly is a theologian.

Sometimes rendered "becoming a god", which alarms. Theosis is participation in God's life by grace: the human person is transfigured by the divine energies while never becoming God by nature. It is the Orthodox name for the goal of salvation.

In everyday English, an attitude or quality of voice. In Orthodox worship a tone is one of eight families of melody — the Octoechos — to which hymns are sung. The Church cycles through the eight tones week by week, so a day marked "Tone 4" tells the chanter which musical mode governs that week's hymns.

In everyday English, customs — the way things have always been done. In Orthodox understanding Holy Tradition is the living transmission of the Holy Spirit in the Church: the same life handed on from generation to generation, of which customs are only the outward wake.

Commonly, correct facts. In Orthodox understanding truth is ultimately a Person — Christ Himself. It is living reality to be encountered and inhabited, not only propositions to be affirmed.

In modern English, to admire greatly or respect deeply. In Orthodox practice, to venerate is to show honour to a holy person or thing because of God's work in them — bowing before an icon, kissing the Gospel. The honour passes to the prototype, not to the material object.

Commonly, great admiration. In Orthodox understanding veneration is a bodily and spiritual expression of honour, reverence and love given to saints, icons, relics, the Cross and the Gospel, because they belong to God. It is sharply distinct from worship, which is offered to God alone.

In everyday English, the planet. In Scripture and Orthodox ascetic writing "the world" often means fallen humanity organised apart from God — which is why the same tradition can say both that God so loved the world and that we must not love the world.

Commonly, singing or attending church. In Orthodox understanding worship is the offering of one's entire life to God, and the Divine Liturgy is that offering's highest expression. Worship belongs to God alone; saints and icons receive veneration, never worship.