In this particular article I have been presenting thoughts of the Greek Fathers of Our Church. I have been trying to highlight the struggle that the Church has had over the centuries to come to a true understanding of Who Jesus Is and the true content of our faith. In essence I have been presenting what I call the “theology” of our Church.

I know that some may ask which there is a need for theology. Why can’t we simply preserve and proclaim the simplicity of the Good News, the Gospel? Indeed as you my readers have seen, theology seems only to add complexities to what we believe about the Trinity, and, especially, our understanding of Jesus. Our Church’s beliefs about Jesus, for example, are based on the idea of the “hypostatic union” that makes Him fully God and Man. The question is: Doesn’t theology only complicate our faith?

Theology, I believe, helps us come to a true understanding of these great mysteries. What I have been presenting in this article has highlighted how priests and bishops, in an attempt to promote their understanding of these great mysteries, have promoted what the Church has come to believe is truly heresy – a wrong understanding of them. Thus, theology has been the tool that the Church has used to come to a realistic and genuine understanding of these mysteries.

Because religion deals with mysteries and complex ideas, theology, which is the study of God, gives us the language to express what we really believe.

For example, the Church struggled for centuries to understand how Jesus could truly be a human being and, at the same time, truly God. He needed to be both in order for us to say that what He taught about how to live as a human being is what God intended when He created us. To come to this conclusion, however, required that the Church find a way to express Who God Is – He is a Trinity of separate Persons joined in one Godhead – so that we could also say that Jesus is both fully God and fully Man.

I, for one, find that what we believe about Jesus is, based on also Who God Is, the very reason why I believe in Him. Because Jesus is also truly God, while remaining truly Man, I can truly say that what He taught is truth.