The Orthodox Religion

[Xen_Antares]

Hello everyone, for sometime Ive been fascinated with the Byzantine Empire and with it the Orthodox Church. Is there any good sources that break it down for those of us who arent exactly the brightest crayon in the box? How does it differ from Catholicism and Protestantism? I asked a friend about it once, he graduated from Bible College and had to study the different branches so I assumed he would know about it, he told me it was pretty much a Greek Catholic Church, but something tells me his is wrong.

Can anyone help me find out more about this denomination?

[anastasios]

I would suggest "The Orthodox Church" by Timothy Ware. It's available on Amazon.com. It's not the "final say" by any means but a good start.

Anastasios

[Rilian]

Bishop Kallistos Ware's book is a good introduction, and one that many people read (including myself) when first looking into Orthodoxy. John Julius Norwich has written a pretty famous triliogy about the early, middle and late periods of the Byzantine world. He also wrote a compacted one volume book.

Here's a page (http://www.geocities.com/jej89/orthodoxlinks.html) with numerous links on it about different aspects of Orthodoxy.

[Oblio]

The Orthodox Church (http://www.intratext.com/X/ENG0804.HTM) - online

[ExOrienteLux]

Coming from Protestantism, I'd recommend Matthew Gallatin's Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells , especially if you're coming from a Pentecostal/non-denominational background.

Oh, and welcome to TAW!

[Akathist]

You are right, Orthodoxy is not "Greek Catholism".

Originally there was only once church, founded by the Apostles. As they branched out and more and more people converted, more leadership was established and Bishops were assigned areas. Then in time, Bishops ordained Priests. Patriarchs were established over Bishops as well. (Perhaps this occured first.) One of the Patriarchs was of Rome and another of Constantinople and Antioch and others (can't think of them all.) All important theological discussions were made in "Councils". (Think of this as a committee.) The Holy Spirit directed the group of equals that met to discuss theology when needed to eradicate heresy. (Heresy is wrong belief, kind of like believing that Jesus was never human and was only divine, or that he was only divine and not human. These are two heresy's that were addressed on Councils.)

The Patriarch of Rome was considered "first amoung equals" because he is a spiritual descendent of Peter. I think of him as the "Chairman of the committee". He had just one vote so he was equal but he did have influence.

At one point there was a big debate about the Nicean Creed. Some people believed that the Holy Spirit came from the Father alone and others that he came from both the Father and Jesus (the Son). This debate was going on for a while and there was a mini-committee meeting in Spain about it. (Not an official one done by the whole church.) Spain was under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Rome. They decided that the Holy Spirit came from the Father and the Son. Without consulting with the rest of the Patriarchs or following the usual procedures, the Patriarch of Rome decided to say that this was a final decision and that the rest of the church had to accept it because he thought he was "infallable."

The rest of the church felt that he was not infallable and was in fact wrong. After much discussion and arguements and so forth the Patriarch of Rome split from the rest of the church. That is where Roman Catholism came from.

The rest of the church is where Eastern Orthodoxy came from. (Please note that "Oriental Orthodoxy or Coptics" had already split away from the rest of the church over other heresy's, of which there is less disagreements now.)

However, over the thousand of hears that Roman Catholics have been seperated from the Orthodoxy Church, the "Pope" has made a lot of changes to their theology and practices. This has caused the two churches to grow in their disagreements and differences so that it will be very hard for them to re-unite.

Within Roman Catholism, about 500 years after the split, there grew dissatisfaction with some of the practices and teachings of the church by some of its own members. This lead to the "Protestant Reformation" and that is where protestantism came from. They left the church and founded their own seperate church. And since that split protestants have continued to split away when they don't agree with something so that now there are hundreds of different protestant denominations. (And with "non-denominational churches" the splintering grows and grows.)

While all this splintering and changes have taken place in Roman Catholism and Protestantism, the Eastern Orthodox churches have maintained the same teaching and basic practices from before the 4th Century.

Around the 4th Century, Saint John Crystostrom, wrote down how church had been typically done for century's. He took his material from St. Basil who had written down a worship service before him as well. These two Saints are credited with writing out the services that we do today all over the world. True, the words are in the local language of the land they are in. (for the most part) but when interpreted they are the same words. Last Sunday at Divine Liturgy in Michigan, the service (except for a couple small things like one or two prayers changed locally for the church, and the sermon) was identical not only to a Divine Liturgy in Serbia or Russia, or Greece or Atlanta Georgia but was also identical to the service representing the 15th Sunday after Pentacost that was done a thousand years ago.

And if I travel down the road and attend a service spoken in Greek, it will be the same as the one I attended spoken in English.

The Orthodox Church has maintained the teaching and practices of the Original Church founded by the original Apostles that walked next to Jesus and ate meals with Him and were taught daily by Him for more than three years. (I say more as He continued to teach all of us.)

I am converting to Orthodoxy as I see it as the only authentic Christian church.

[Basileus]

Start with John Jules Norwich. That is where I started with and actually led to my conversion. It gives a really good overview to someone that really likes the historical aspect and you sound like you do.

[Orthosdoxa]

Coming from Protestantism, I'd recommend Matthew Gallatin's Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells , especially if you're coming from a Pentecostal/non-denominational background.

Oh, and welcome to TAW!
Yes, welcome to TAW! :)

And not that it's either here or there but my husband and I attend the same parish as Mr. Gallatin. He's a good chanter. :)

LK

[MaRiNa_Orthodox]

Hey Welcome!!!!!:hug: