DOGMA

DOGMA. Originally signifying “that which seems good” in a philosophical school or in a public decree, the word is used in the latter sense in both the Septuagint (q.v.) and New Testament. Following the first definition regarding philosophical good and truth, it has come to mean a necessary truth of Orthodox faith and experience, inaugurated by divine revelation and solemnly defined by the Church. The definitions occur not only in Scripture, but in the Seven Ecumenical Councils (qq.v.), or in a local council subsequently accepted as having ecumenical significance, e.g., the local councils held at Constantinople (q.v.) in 1341, 1347, and 1351, which declared that the teaching of Gregory Palamas (q.v.) on the distinction between the essence and energies of God was the faith of the Church.