Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the
Christian traditions and churches which developed in the
Balkans,
Eastern Europe,
Asia Minor, the
Middle East,
Northeastern Africa and southern
India over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in
Western Christianity to describe all Christian traditions which did not develop in
Western Europe. As such the term does not describe any single communion or common religious tradition (indeed some
Eastern Churches have more in common historically and theologically with
Western Christianity than other
Eastern Churches).
The terms
Eastern and
Western in this regard originated with the division between the
Eastern and
Western Roman Empire and the cultural split that this caused. The term
Orthodox is often used in the same way as
Eastern in referring to church communions although, strictly speaking, most churches consider themselves part of an
orthodox and
catholic communion.
Families of churches
Eastern Christians do not have a shared religious traditions but many of these groups have shared cultural traditions. Christianity divided itself in the East during its early centuries both within and outside of the Roman Empire in disputes about
christology and fundamental theology, as well as national divisions (Roman, Persian, etc.). It would be many centuries later that Western Christianity fully split from these traditions as its own communion
(SEE: SCHISM). Today there are four main branches or families of Eastern Christianity, each of which has distinct
theology and
dogma.
All of the Eastern churches, as well as the Western churches, share a common Christian tradition and most of the same Christian
Biblical canon. Many Eastern churches also share traditional practices in common which are
not shared by the Western churches but there is no particular tradition that distinguishes non-Western churches from Western churches. In many Eastern churches, parish priests administer the sacrament of
chrismation to infants after
baptism, and priests are allowed to marry before ordination. While the
Eastern Catholic Churches recognize the authority of the Pope, having originally been part of the
Eastern Orthodox Church they closely follow the traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy, including the tradition of allowing priests to marry.
The Eastern churches' differences from
Western Christianity have as much, if not more, to do with
culture,
language, and
politics, as
theology. For the non-Catholic Eastern churches, a definitive date for the commencement of
schism cannot usually be given (see
East-West Schism). The
Assyrian Church of the East declared independence from the churches of the
Roman Empire at its general council in 424, which was before the
Council of Ephesus in 431, and so had nothing to do with the theology declared at that Council.
Oriental Orthodoxy separated after the
Council of Chalcedon in 451. Since the time of church historian
Edward Gibbon, the split between the Church of Rome and the
Orthodox Churches has been conveniently dated to 1054 (though the reality is more complex). This split is sometimes referred to as the Great Schism, but now more usually referred to as the
East-West Schism. This final schism reflected a larger cultural and political division which had developed in Europe and southwest Asia during the
Middle Ages and coincided with
Western Europe's re-emergence from the collapse of the
Western Roman Empire.
Assyrian Church of the East
The
Assyrian Church of the East traces its roots to the See of Babylon and is said to have been founded by
Saint Thomas the Apostle. It accepts only the first two
Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church—the
Council of Nicaea and the
First Council of Constantinople—as defining its faith tradition. This church, developing within the
Persian Empire, at the east of the Christian world, rapidly took a different course from other Eastern Christians. In the West, it is sometimes inaccurately called the
Nestorian Church.
Oriental Orthodox Churches
Oriental Orthodoxy refers to the churches of Eastern Christian tradition that keep the faith of the first three
Ecumenical Councils of the undivided Church: the
First Council of Nicaea (AD 325), the
First Council of Constantinople (381) and the
Council of Ephesus (431), and rejected the
dogmatic definitions of the
Council of Chalcedon (451). Hence, these churches are also called
Old Oriental Churches.
Oriental Orthodoxy developed in reaction to Chalcedon on the eastern limit of the
Byzantine Empire and in
Egypt and
Syria. In those locations, there are now also Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs, but the rivalry between the two has largely vanished in the centuries since schism.
The following Oriental Orthodox churches are
autocephalous and in
full communion:
Eastern Orthodox Churches
The
Eastern Orthodox Church is a Christian body whose adherents are largely based in Russia, Greece, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, with a growing presence in the western world. Eastern Orthodox Christians accept seven
Ecumenical Councils.
Orthodox Christianity identifies itself as the original Christian church founded by Christ and the Apostles, and traces its lineage back to the early church through the process of
Apostolic Succession and unchanged theology and practice. Orthodox distinctives (shared with some of the Eastern Catholic Churches) include the
Divine Liturgy, Mysteries or Sacraments, and an emphasis on the preservation of Tradition, which it holds to be Apostolic in nature.
Orthodox Churches are also distinctive in that they are organized into selfgoverning jurisdictions along national, ethnic, and/or linguistic lines. Orthodoxy is thus made up of 15 or 16
national autocephalous bodies. Smaller churches are
autonomous and each have a mother church that is autocephalous.
The Eastern Orthodox Church includes the following churches- Exceptional churches generally considered to be orthodox in beliefs but otherwise not in communion with all of the above churches.
Most Eastern Orthodox are united in communion with each other, though unlike the Roman Catholic Church, this is a looser connection rather than a top-down
hierarchy (see
primus inter pares).
It may also be noted that the
Church of Rome was once in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church, but the two were split after the
East-West Schism and thus it is no longer in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church.
It is estimated that there are approximately 240 million Orthodox Christians in the world. Today, many adherents shun the term "Eastern" as denying the church's universal character. They refer to Eastern Orthodoxy simply as the
Orthodox Church.
Eastern Catholic Churches
The twenty-two Eastern Catholic churches are all in
communion with the
Holy See at the Vatican, but are rooted in the theological and liturgical traditions of Eastern Christianity.
Many of these churches were originally part of one of the above families and so are closely related to them by way of ethos and
liturgical practice. As in the other Eastern churches, married men may become
priests, and parish priests administer the
mystery of
confirmation to newborn infants immediately after
baptism, via the rite of
chrismation; the infants are then administered
Holy Communion.
The
Maronite Church always remained in communion with the
Holy See, and thus does not have a counterpart among the non-Catholic Eastern churches. The (Italo-Albanian)
Italo-Greek Catholic Church has come under Papal authority very soon under the Schism, and thus has no counterpart not in communion. Eastern Catholics form around 2% of the entire membership of the
Catholic Church. Most of the Eastern Catholic churches re-established communion with Rome during the 17th through 19th centuries.
Rejection of Uniatism
At a meeting in Balamand, Lebanon in June 1993, the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church declared that these initiatives that "led to the union of certain communities with the See of Rome and brought with them, as a consequence, the breaking of communion with their Mother Churches of the East ... took place not without the interference of extra-ecclesial interests" (section 8 of the ); and that what has been called "
uniatism" "can no longer be accepted either as a method to be followed nor as a model of the unity our Churches are seeking" (section 12).
At the same time, the Commission stated:
- 3) Concerning the Eastern Catholic Churches, it is clear that they, as part of the Catholic Communion, have the right to exist and to act in response to the spiritual needs of their faithful.
- 16) The Oriental Catholic Churches who have desired to re-establish full communion with the See of Rome and have remained faithful to it, have the rights and obligations which are connected with this communion.
Catholic-Orthodox ecumenism
Ecumenical dialogue over the past 43 years since
Paul VI's meeting with the Orthodox Patriarch
Athenagoras I has awoken the nearly 1000-year hopes for Christian unity. Since the lifting of excommunications during the Paul VI and Athenagoras I meeting in Jerusalem there have been other significant meetings between Popes and Ecumenical Patriarchs of Constantinople. The most recent meeting was between Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I, who signed the
Common Declaration. It states that "We give thanks to the Author of all that is good, who allows us once again, in prayer and in dialogue, to express the joy we feel as brothers and to renew
our commitment to move towards full communion".
Dissenting movements
In addition to these four mainstream branches, there are a number of much smaller groups which, like
Protestants, originated from disputes with the dominant tradition of their original areas, but are usually not referred to as Protestants because they lack historical ties to the
Reformation, and usually lack a classically Protestant theology. Most of these are either part of the more traditional
Old Believer movement, which arose from a
schism within Russian Orthodoxy, or the more radical "
Spiritual Christianity" movement. The latter includes a number of diverse "low-church" groups, from the Bible-centered
Molokans to the anarchic
Doukhobors to the self-mutilating
Skoptsy. None of these groups are in communion with the mainstream churches listed above, aside from a few
Old Believer parishes in communion with the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
There are national dissidents, where ethnic groups want their own nation-church like with the
Macedonian Orthodox Church and
Montenegrin Orthodox Church; both domiciles of the
Serbian Orthodox Church. However, it should be noted that in
Macedonia, the influence of the
Serbian Orthodox Church is minimal to non-existent. The vast majority of Orthodox
ethnic Macedonians view the Serbian Orthodox Church as hostile to Macedonian history, national interests, and self-determination.
A little known movement of "reformers" in the Greek Orthodox Church traces its history to the 18th century. The leaders of this "schism" within the Orthodox Christian churches were called by a Greek word meaning 'unstable' (
astateos). The children of these leaders left the East toward Western Europe, mainly Spain. In Ibero America these families are known by the derivative name 'Astacios' or 'Astacio.' One of their descendants was one of the first converts to the Pentecostal movement in 1916, Petra Astacio, of Montellano (Ponce, Puerto Rico). The Astacios have intermarried with native people of the Americas as well as with Spanish Jews (Sephardim) and Afro-Caribbeans.
Liturgy
The Eastern churches (excepting the non-liturgical dissenting bodies) each belong to one of several liturgical families:
See also
For other definitions and meaning for the word
orthodox, see
Orthodoxy.
