Doctrine concepts and applications

Doctrine

a) Neoplatonism;

Neoplatonism has its roots in the writings and beliefs for Plato from ancient

Greece. These included beliefs on whether the Creator of the world was in fact made of matter, of substance. Furthermore, given the fact that Plato himself, along with his disciples were pagans, they considered a single means through which goodness can be represented. In reference to the good vs. evil debate, which Plato so often tackled in his philosophical work, it was believed that these two concepts are inevitable in the sense that evil eventually represents the absence of good. This line of thought is typical for the logics of platonic philosophy.

Plotinus however was one of the most important supporters of Neo-Platonism and the one that translated into a full fledged subject of study. From the initial beliefs that man was made of matter and soul, he translated these into the belief that man, in order to reach God, must aim to improve his soul so that it would be returned to God where as the matter is of no relevance for the after-life. These concepts further influenced the Christian Church as well as the gnostic beliefs later on.

b) dualism,

Dualism takes into account the difference between state and church especially with consideration to the period of the first great Orthodox Emperor, Constantine the Great. During the 13th century, the emperor was greatly preoccupied with defending the state as the empire started to be subject to external sources. Moreover, it must be pointed out that in fact Constantine adopted a religion precisely in order to provide more unity to the empire. However, politics and religion came to be associated with one single person.

In this sense, Constantine saw the unity between the state and the Church as essential for the rebuilt of the empire. More precisely, "without questioning Constantine's sincerity as a Christian, it seems apparent that he saw this new Christian faith as a foundation on which to rebuild the Roman Empire after the chaos of the third century" (Boojamra, 1981, p190). However, with the conversion of Constantine, the idea of dualism meaning the separation of the state and church was not necessarily valid any more. More precisely, "before the conversion of Constantine there was no question about the relations of ecclesiastical structure of the Roman state; they were clearly separate and all the Church could hope was a benign toleration (…) Constantine's conversion came as a surprise and necessitated a rethinking of the traditional relationship between the two institutions" (Boojamra, 1981, p191).

c) Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a religious belief in deep contrast with the Trinitarianism belief that states that God is a single person. Unlike modalism, Unitarianism does not view Jesus as part of God, but rather as a prophet of God. By contrast, Trinitarianism views God as one being created from three elements. Therefore both Unitarianism and modalism are in deep contrast with Trinitarianism.