The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Orientation

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An orientation for inquirers: what Orthodoxy is, how it is learned, and what this archive can and cannot do for you.

  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.
  • Pastoral applicationHow a teaching is ordinarily applied in practice, under the guidance of a priest and bishop. Never a substitute for that guidance.

Awaiting official-source verification Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

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  • Confirm this orientation against the OCA's own material for inquirers.

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If you are new to Orthodox Christianity, this page is the shortest useful account of what you are looking at.

What the Orthodox Church is

The Orthodox Church understands itself as the Church founded by Christ and continuing without interruption: worshipping, teaching, and handing on what it received. Its faith is confessed in the Creed, defined at seven ecumenical councils, expressed in its worship, and lived in parishes under bishops who stand in succession from the apostles.

Unless a page says otherwise, Orthodox on this site means the canonical Eastern Orthodox Church, and the catechetical baseline is the Orthodox Church in America.

Five things worth knowing first

Scripture is the Church's book
The Bible was written, recognised and is read within the Church's life. Orthodoxy does not set Scripture and Holy Tradition against each other as competing authorities.
Worship is where the faith is held
Orthodox theology is carried in hymns, prayers and rites as much as in treatises. Basil argued for the divinity of the Holy Spirit from the way the Church prays.
Councils settle disputes, and reception settles councils
A council is authoritative because the Church received what it confessed — not because an emperor called it or many bishops attended.
The Fathers are read together, not individually
No single Father is infallible. What carries weight is what the Church has received from them together.
Salvation is healing
Orthodox theology speaks of a nature made mortal and disordered being healed and brought into communion with God, rather than primarily of a legal settlement.

What this site is

A source-transparent archive. Every substantive claim names its sources beside it, states when it was last reviewed, and carries a link to report an error. The conciliar texts, canons and patristic works here are transcribed in full from public-domain editions, and quotations are checked mechanically against them before the site can be built.

It also tells you where it stops. The methodology page explains the four authority tiers and the verification routes, and states plainly that this build could not reach the official Orthodox sources it is designed to cite. Nothing here has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.

Where to go from here

Where to go next

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) The Seven Ecumenical Councils annotated edition of conciliar texts The councils and canons this page points to are archived from this edition. Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.