It is essential to make a distinction between dogma and mystery. The mystery of the Holy Trinity
is experienced, to the extent that this is possible, by the glorified human
being and is different from the dogma, which is the rational formulation
concerning the mystery of the Holy Trinity or the revelation. This distinction
is fundamental to Orthodox theology.
”God is always a
mystery. The mystery of the Holy Trinity must be separated from the dogma of
the Holy Trinity. The dogma is not the same as the mystery.”
This means that the dogma can
be understood rationally, but not the mystery. There is confusion on this issue
in some contemporary theologians and a serious problem arises. For instance,
when we speak about the Holy Trinity, we are referring to the dogma, the
terminology concerning the Holy Trinity, as formulated by the holy Fathers of
the Church (essence, hypostases, hypostatic property, and so on) and not to the
mystery of the Holy Trinity.