Eastern Orthodox Christianity

(Source: www.religiousfact.com)

Orthodox Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, or the Orthodox Church began as the eastern half of
Christendom, the site of the former Byzantine Empire. Today, the highest concentration of
Orthodox Christians remains in the former Byzantine Empire (Greece, Turkey, and nearby
countries) and in Russia. But Orthodoxy is found throughout the world, and approximately 225
million people are Orthodox Christians.

History of Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy arose as a distinct branch of Christianity after the 11th-century "Great Schism"
(the rift) between Eastern and Western Christendom. The Church from the 4th century onwards
had 5 patriarchs or heads, and each one governed a jurisdictional area or patriarchate. The
patriarchates were located in the west in Rome, which spoke Latin, and in the east in Antioch,
Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, which all spoke Greek. For centuries there had been
significant religious, cultural, and political differences between the Eastern and Western churches.

The political aspects of the split date back to the Emperor Constantine, who moved the capital of
the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium (renamed as Constantinople) in 324 AD. Upon the
death of Theodosius I in 395 AD, the empire was divided between his two sons, one of whom ruled
the western half of the empire from Rome while the other ruled the eastern region from
Constantinople (the Eastern Roman Empire is also known as the Byzantine Empire).

These various factors finally came to a head in 1054 AD, when Pope Leo IX excommunicated the
patriarch of Constantinople. In response, the patriarch of Constantinople condemned the Pope,
and the Christian Church has since then been divided into West ("Roman Catholic") and East
("Greek Orthodox" of “Eastern Orthodox”).

A glimmer of hope for reconciliation came at the onset of the Crusades later that century, when the
West came to the aid of the East against the Turks. But especially after the Fourth Crusade (1200-
1204), in which crusaders sacked and occupied Constantinople, the only result was an increase in
hostility between the two Churches.

During the rule of the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Orthodox Church had spread to and
flourished in neighboring regions. Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Anatolia (today’s Turkey)
had been converted to Sunni Islam although the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in
Istanbul today is still the highest and holiest center of the Eastern Orthodox Church of the world.

Attempts at reconciliation have been renewed in recent years. On December 7, 1965, the mutual
excommunication of 1054 was officially removed by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras.

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Organization and Religious Authority

Today, the Orthodox Church is organized into several regional, autocephalous churches (governed
by their own head bishops). The Patriarch of Constantinople has the honor of primacy, but does
not carry the same authority as the Pope does in Catholicism. Major Orthodox churches include
the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Church of Alexandria, the Church of Jerusalem, and the Orthodox
Church in America. The religious authority for Orthodox Christianity is the scriptures as interpreted
by the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Church.

The Greek Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church

The Romanian Orthodox Church The Bulgarian Orthodox Church

The Church of Alexandria, Egypt The Church of Jerusalem An Orthodox Church in Minnesota
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Distinctive Orthodox Beliefs

Orthodox Christians attach great importance to the Bible, the conclusions of the Seven Ecumenical
Councils, and right ("orthodox") belief. However, the Eastern Churches approach religious truth
differently than the Western Churches. For Orthodox Christians, truth must be experienced
personally. There is less focus on the exact definition of religious truth and more on the practical
and personal experience of truth in the life of the individual and the Church. Precise theological
definition, when it occurs, is for the purpose of excluding error.

In the Western churches, both Catholic and Protestant, sin, grace, and salvation are seen primarily
in legal terms. God gave humans freedom, they misused it and broke God's commandments, and
now deserve punishment. God's grace results in forgiveness of the transgression and freedom
from bondage and punishment.

For Orthodox theologians, humans were created in the image of God and made to participate fully
in the divine life. The full communion with God that Adam and Eve enjoyed meant complete
freedom and true humanity, for humans are most human when they are completely united with
God.

The result of sin, then, was a blurring of the image of God and a barrier between God and man.
The situation in which mankind has been ever since is an unnatural, less human state, which ends
in the most unnatural aspect: death. Salvation, then, is a process not of justification or legal
pardon, but of reestablishing man's communion with God. This process of repairing the unity of
human and divine is sometimes called "deification." This term does not mean that humans become
gods but that humans join fully with God's divine life.

The Eastern Orthodox view of the Trinity also differs somewhat from that of the Christian West. In
its Christology, Orthodoxy tends to emphasize the divine, preexistent nature of Christ, whereas the
West focuses more on his human nature. However, both East and West affirm Christ's full
humanity and full divinity as defined by the Ecumenical Councils. In fact, Christ's humanity is also
central to the Orthodox faith, in the doctrine that the divine became human so that humanity might
be raised up to the divine life.

The process of being reunited to God, made possible by Christ, is accomplished by the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit plays a central role in Orthodox worship: the liturgy usually begins with a prayer to the
Spirit and invocations made prior to sacraments are addressed to the Spirit.

It is in the view of the Holy Spirit that Orthodox theology differs from Western theology, and
although the difference might now seem rather technical and abstract, it was a major contributor to
the parting of East from West in the 11th century. This dispute is known as the Filioque
Controversy, as it centers on the Latin word filioque ("and from the Son"), which was added to the
Nicene Creed in Spain in the 6th century. The original creed proclaimed only that the Holy Spirit
"proceeds from the Father."
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The purpose of the addition was to reaffirm the divinity of the Son, but Eastern theologians
objected both to the unilateral editing of a creed produced by an ecumenical council and to the edit
itself. For Eastern Christians, both the Spirit and the Son have their origin in the Father.

Orthodox Worship and Religious Practices

Orthodox worship is highly liturgical and is central to the history and life of the church.

By its theological richness, spiritual significance, and variety, the worship of the Orthodox Church
represents one of the most significant factors in this church's continuity and identity. It helps to
account for the survival of Christianity during the many centuries of Islamic in the Middle East and
the Balkans when the liturgy was the only source of religious knowledge or experience.

Russian Orthodox Episcopal Consecration Epiphany in an American Orthodox Church

Inside the Orthodox Church Eastern Orthodox Priest The Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarch in in
Jerusalem presiding at the Divine Liturgy