THE COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH & THE DOGMAS

ALEXANDRIA AND CHRISTIAN DOGMAS

By: Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty, Bishoy Boshra Behnam

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Dogmas are the interpretation of our experience of God, in the Crucified and Risen Jesus Christ. This experience through the ages does not alter, for Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8). The disciples and apostles (and bishops afterwards) did not sit around a table and agree to teach new dogmas, but rather they preached their Christian experience. As St. John says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (1 John 1:3). Thus, all Christian dogmas produced are the church's experience of the Crucified and Risen Christ. "Truth" and "Love" at the same time. We receive these dogmas as the unchangeable truth that we must hold fast, with "love." The Alexandrian Popes (Bishops) as theologians and pastors at the same time looked to dogma as an expression of evangelic truth correlated to love. They were very zealous in defending the orthodox faith and dogma against any heresy, not only in Egypt but also in all Christendom, offering their lives as sacrifices on behalf of the church. They were very firm and strict concerning the faith they had received (2 Tim. 1:12, 14), and some historians described them with violence, but in fact, they were genuinely loving and kind men. St. Cyril wrote to Nestorius telling him that he would never find a person who loved him like Cyril but never would this love be at the expense of his faith . He hated heresy and error but loved the soul of the heretic and desired his salvation. Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty