We explain what is something orthodox, the origin of the term and various meanings.Also, what are religious and economic orthodoxy?
What is something orthodox?
The orthodox term is widely used in different areas of knowledge, always with the same general meaning: that which follows what is established, that adheres to the rules or who plays according to rules given, and therefore is considered "correct". The set of norms to which the orthodox adheres, or the set of opinions or views considered “correct”, at the same time, is known as orthodoxy.
The word orthodox comes from the Greek, and is the result of the union of the voices orthos ("Correct", as in orthography) Y doxa ("opinion"). In this way, someone orthodox would become someone who professes the "correct opinion."
In fact, this word was used for the first time in history in the 4th century AD. C., by the four Greek Fathers of the Church, to differentiate between those who followed the doctrine Christian central, and those others ("heterodox") who raised or adhered to different interpretations and versions ("heretical") of Christian worship.
Of course, this does not mean that "orthodox" is synonymous with "correct" or "good", but rather with "traditional". An orthodox thought, for example, is one that starts from what is already established, that respects what is given in advance: it can be innovative, but it always does so in relation to what was previously accepted, without getting out of the way.
In this it differs from the heterodox, which would be the opposite: that which rejects the established and proposes new perspectives or new paths.
This term is widely used in the fields of politics, the religion and the economy, areas of knowledge in which, precisely, there are many conflicting points of view and many doctrines that aspire to the truth.
Religious orthodoxy
In the religious field, they are known as orthodox to those religions or slopes of a religion that adhere to the traditions old and reject the more modern versions or reinterpretations of the worship, preferring to stick to the "original" religious tradition.
Thus, it is common to speak of Judaism Orthodox, for example, to call the most conservative and strict variants of Jewish religion and culture, which adhere to the ancient injunctions as much as possible, even going so far as to reject the advantages of modern life.
There is also talk of Christianity Orthodox, although in this case to refer to the Eastern Christian Church, that is, the Orthodox Apostolic Catholic Church, a variant of Christianity that definitively separated from Western Catholicism during the East-West Schism of July 16, 1054, an event that meant a great change in the political, social and religious configuration of the Christian world.
This church considers itself uninterrupted heir to the cult professed by Jesus of Nazareth in ancient times, and has between 225 and 300 million faithful in the world, mostly in Eastern Europe and the former territories of the Byzantine Empire, being thus, only one of the 14 or 15 Eastern Orthodox Churches, which do not recognize any other religious authority except their own.
Economic orthodoxy
For its part, in economics orthodoxy (also called "traditional economics") is understood as the traditional way of teaching economics, which responds to the precepts microeconomic of the Neoclassical School and the proposals macroeconomic by John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), in what is known as the Neoclassical Synthesis.
It differs from heterodox economics, which pursues different approaches to the economic fact, in their very ways of understanding the subject and in the basic philosophy they profess.
Thus, orthodox economics understands economics as a exact science, whose rules can be understood, measured and formulated, betting on the rationalization of people's behavior to achieve a Balance (rationality-individualism-balance).
Instead, heterodox economics thinks of economics as a social science, whose actors present a subjective and unpredictable behavior, and that deserves to be understood from the history (institutions-history-social structure).