Eastern Christianity
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Eastern Christianity comprises
Major Eastern Christian bodies include the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, along with those groups descended from the historic Church of the East (aka the Assyrian Church), as well as the Eastern Catholic Churches (which have either re-established or always retained communion with Rome and maintain Eastern liturgies), and the Eastern Protestant churches[2] (which are Protestant in theology but Eastern in cultural practice). Various Eastern churches do not normally refer to themselves as "Eastern", with the exception of the Assyrian Church of the East and its offshoot, the Ancient Church of the East.
The
Historically, after
Because the largest church in the East is the body currently known as the
Eastern churches (excepting the non-liturgical dissenting bodies) utilize several
Families of churches
Eastern Christians do not all share the same religious traditions, but many do share 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 through national divisions (Roman, Persian, etc.). It would be many centuries later that Western Christianity fully split from these traditions as its own communion. Major branches or families of Eastern Christianity, each of which has a distinct theology and dogma, include the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox communion, the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Assyrian Church of the East.[9]
In many Eastern churches, some parish priests administer the sacrament of chrismation to infants after baptism, and priests are allowed to marry before ordination. While all the Eastern Catholic Churches recognize the authority of the Pope of Rome, some of them who have originally been part of the Orthodox Church or Oriental Orthodox churches closely follow the traditions of Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy, including the tradition of allowing married men to become priests.
The Eastern churches' differences from Western Christianity have as much, if not more, to do with culture, language, and politics, as
Since the time of the historian Edward Gibbon, the split between the Church of Rome and the Orthodox Church 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.
The Ukrainian Lutheran Church developed within Galicia around 1926, with its rites being based on the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, rather than on the Western Formula Missae.[10][11]
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church is a Christian body whose adherents are largely based in Western Asia (particularly
Eastern Orthodox Christianity identifies itself as the original Christian church (see
The Eastern Orthodox Church is organized into self-governing jurisdictions along geographical, national, ethnic or linguistic lines. Eastern Orthodoxy is thus made up of fourteen or sixteen autocephalous bodies. Smaller churches are autonomous and each have a mother church that is autocephalous.
All Eastern Orthodox are united in doctrinal agreement with each other, though a few are not in communion at present, for non-doctrinal reasons. This is in contrast to the Catholic Church and its various churches. Members of the latter are all in communion with each other, parts of a top-down hierarchy (see primus inter pares). The Eastern Orthodox reject the Filioque clause as contrast to Catholics. The Catholic Church was once in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church, but the two split after the East–West Schism and are no longer in communion.
It is estimated that there are approximately 240 million Eastern Orthodox Christians in the world.[note 2] Today, many adherents shun the term "Eastern" as denying the church's universal character. They refer to Eastern Orthodoxy simply as the Orthodox Church.[12]
Oriental Orthodoxy
Oriental Orthodoxy refers to the churches of Eastern Christian tradition that keep the faith of the first three
Oriental Orthodoxy developed in reaction to Chalcedon on the eastern limit of the Byzantine Empire and in Egypt, Syria and Mesopotamia. In those locations, there are also Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, but the rivalry between the two has largely vanished in the centuries since the schism.
Church of the East
Historically, the Church of the East was the widest reaching branch of Eastern Christianity, at its height spreading from its heartland in
In the 16th century, dynastic struggles sent the church into schism, resulting in the formation of two rival churches: The Chaldean Catholic Church, which entered into communion with Rome as an Eastern Catholic Church, and the Assyrian Church of the East. The followers of these two churches are almost exclusively ethnic Assyrians. In India, the local Church of the East community, known as the Saint Thomas Christians, experienced its own rifts as a result of Portuguese influence.
Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East emerged from the historical Church of the East, which was centered in Mesopotamia/Assyria, then part of the Persian Empire, and spread widely throughout Asia. The modern Assyrian Church of the East emerged in the 16th century following a split with the Chaldean Church, which later entered into communion with Rome as an Eastern Catholic Church.
The Church of the East was associated with the doctrine of Nestorianism, advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431, which emphasized the disunion between the human and divine natures of
Many followers relocated to Persia and became affiliated with the local Christian community there. This community adopted an increasingly Nestorian theology and was thereafter often known as the Nestorian Church. As such, the Church of the East accepts only the first two ecumenical councils of the undivided Church—the First Council of Nicaea and the First Council of Constantinople—as defining its faith tradition, and rapidly took a different course from other Eastern Christians.
The Church of the East spread widely through Persia and into Asia, being introduced to India by the 6th century and to the Mongols and China in the 7th century. It experienced periodic expansion until the 14th century, when the church was nearly destroyed by the collapse of the Mongol Empire and the conquests of Timur. By the 16th century it was largely confined to Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey, northwest Iran and the Malabar Coast of India (Kerala). The split of the 15th century, which saw the emergence of separate Assyrian and Chaldean Churches, left only the former as an independent sect. Additional splits into the 20th century further affected the history of the Assyrian Church of the East.
Saint Thomas Syrian Christians
The
Eastern Catholic Churches
The twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches are in communion with the Holy See at the Vatican whilst being rooted in the theological and liturgical traditions of Eastern Christianity. Most of these churches were originally part of the Orthodox East, but have since been reconciled to the Latin Church.
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 Syro-Malabar Church, which is part of the Saint Thomas Christian community in India, follows East Syriac traditions and liturgy. Other Saint Thomas Christians of India, who were originally of the same East Syriac tradition, passed instead to the West Syriac tradition and now form part of Oriental Orthodoxy (some from the Oriental Orthodox in India united with the Catholic Church in 1930 and became the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church). The Maronite Church claims never to have been separated from Rome, and has no counterpart Orthodox Church out of communion with the Pope. It is therefore inaccurate to refer to it as a "Uniate" Church. The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church has also never been out of communion with Rome, but, unlike the Maronite Church, it resembles the liturgical rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Dissenting movements
In addition to these four mainstream branches, there are a number of much smaller groups which originated from disputes with the dominant tradition of their original areas. Most of these are either part of the more traditional
"True Orthodox" churches
Starting in the 1920s,
Eastern Protestant Churches
Byzantine Rite Lutheranism
Catholic–Orthodox ecumenism
Ecumenical dialogue since the 1964 meeting between
In 2013 Patriarch
In 2019, Primate of the
Rejection of Uniatism
At a meeting in
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.
- 22) Pastoral activity in the Catholic Church, Latin as well as Oriental, no longer aims at having the faithful of one Church pass over to the other; that is to say, it no longer aims at proselytizing among the Orthodox. It aims at answering the spiritual needs of its own faithful and it has no desire for expansion at the expense of the Orthodox Church. Within these perspectives, so that there will be no longer place for mistrust and suspicion, it is necessary that there be reciprocal exchanges of information about various pastoral projects and that thus cooperation between bishops and all those with responsibilities in our Churches, can be set in motion and develop.
Migration trends
There has been a significant Christian migration in the 20th century from the Near East. Fifteen hundred years ago Christians were the majority population in today's Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt. In 1914 Christians constituted 25% of the population of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 21st century Christians constituted 6–7% of the region's population: less than 1% in Turkey, 3% in Iraq, 12% in Syria, 39% in Lebanon, 6% in Jordan, 2.5% in Israel/Palestine and 15–20% in Egypt.
As of 2011 Eastern Orthodox Christians are
Role of Christians in Arabic culture
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Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam,[25][26] and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the Middle East and North Africa and other areas.[27][28][29] Byzantine science played an important and crucial role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world.[30]
Christians, especially Nestorians, contributed to the Arab Islamic Civilization during the
A hospital and medical training center existed at
Arab Christians and Arabic-speaking Christians, especially Maronites, played important roles in the Nahda, and because Arab Christians formed the educated upper and bourgeois classes, they have had a significant impact in politics, business and culture, and most important figures of the Nahda movement were Christian Arabs.[38] Today Arab Christians still play important roles in the Arab world, and Christians are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate.[39]
See also
- Apophatic theology
- Ascetical theology
- Cappadocian Fathers
- Desert Fathers
- Eastern Christian monasticism
- Eastern Orthodox – Roman Catholic ecclesiastical differences
- Eastern Orthodox Christian theology
- Eastern Party
- Essence–energies distinction (Eastern Orthodox theology)
- History of Eastern Christianity
- History of the Eastern Orthodox Church
- Index of Eastern Christianity–related articles
- Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy
- Mystical theology
- Syriac Christianity
- Tabor Light
Notes
- Christian denominations.[8]
- ^ See details about major religious groups.
References
- ^
Historically, Christianity in the Persian Empire and in Central Asiaalso had great importance, especially in proselytising in East and South Asia.
- ^ ISBN 978-1317084914.
- ^ Fairchild, Mary (17 March 2017). "Eastern Orthodox Denomination". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
- ^ "Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 8 November 2017.
Oriental Orthodoxy has separate self-governing jurisdictions in Syria, Iraq, Armenia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Eritrea, India, and it accounts for roughly 20% of the worldwide Orthodox population.
- ^ "The beautiful witness of the Eastern Catholic Churches". Catholic Herald. 7 March 2019. Archived from the original on 29 September 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ^ Murre van den Berg, Heleen (2011) [2009]. "Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East". The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization. Vol. 1. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 154–159.
- ^ Bulletin for the Study of Religion, Volumes 9–12. Council on the Study of Religion. 1978. p. 29.
Since Eastern Christianity is difficult to define, or even to describe, the subject parameters of the proposed works will be somewhat open-ended.
- ^
Scharper, Philip J. (1969). Meet the American Catholic. Broadman Press. p. 34.
It is interesting to note, however, that the Nicene Creed, recited by Catholics in their worship, is also accepted by millions of other Christians as a testimony of their faith – Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and members of many of the Reformed Churches.
- ISBN 978-0736948074.
- ^ Eastern Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
A revised Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is also celebrated in Ukraine by members of the Ukrainian Lutheran Church. This Church was organized originally in 1926 in the "Galicia" region of Ukraine, which was at that time under the government of Poland. The liturgical rites used by the Ukrainian Lutherans reflected their Byzantine tradition. They did not use a Lutheran revision of the Latin Mass in their services, but instead they used a Lutheran revision of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
- ^ a b Webber, David Jay (1992). "Why is the Lutheran Church a Liturgical Church?". Bethany Lutheran College. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
In the Byzantine world, however, this pattern of worship would not be informed by the liturgical history of the Latin church, as with the Reformation-era church orders, but by the liturgical history of the Byzantine church. (This was in fact what occurred with the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, which published in its 1933 Ukrainian Evangelical Service Book the first ever Lutheran liturgical order derived from the historic Eastern Rite.)
- ISBN 978-0-14-014656-1
- ^ A. E. Medlycott, India and The Apostle Thomas, pp. 1-71, 213–297; M. R. James, Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 364–436; Eusebius, History, chapter 4:30; J. N. Farquhar, The Apostle Thomas in North India, chapter 4:30; V. A. Smith, Early History of India, p. 235; L. W. Brown, The Indian Christians of St. Thomas, pp. 49–59
- ^ "Believers Eastern Church".
- ^ "Church History". St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India (steci) is an episcopal Church. Archived from the original on 2019-07-20. Retrieved 2019-07-23.
- ^ "Heritage – Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church".
- ISBN 978-1879001008.
- ^ "Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople". Ecupatriarchate.org. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
- ^ "auto". Archived from the original on 2014-01-05. Retrieved 2013-04-08.
- ^ "Предстоятель ПЦУ Епіфаній: Найперше мусимо зберегти свою незалежність".
- ^ "Blazhennishyy Svyatoslav: "Vidnovlennya yevkharystiynoho spilkuvannya mizh Rymom i Konstantynopolem ne ye utopiyeyu"" Блаженніший Святослав: "Відновлення євхаристійного спілкування між Римом і Константинополем не є утопією" [His Beatitude Svyatoslav: "Restoration of Eucharistic communication between Rome and Constantinople is not a utopia"] (in Inupiaq).
- ^ Seventh Plenaey Session (Vatican Website) Archived 23 December 2003 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Leonhardt, David (13 May 2011). "Faith, Education and Income". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
- ^ US Religious Landscape Survey: Diverse and Dynamic (PDF), The Pew Forum, February 2008, p. 85, archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09, retrieved 17 September 2012
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0455-3, p. 4
- ISBN 978-0-226-07080-3.
- ISBN 978-0-19-829388-0. Archivedfrom the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ISBN 978-1351510721.
- ISBN 978-1351510721.
Christian contributions to art, culture, and literature in the Arab-Islamic world; Christian contributions education and social advancement in the region.
- ^ George Saliba (2006-04-27). "Islamic Science and the Making of Renaissance Europe". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 29 June 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
- ^ Rémi Brague, Assyrians contributions to the Islamic civilization
- ^ Britannica, Nestorian
- ^ Hyman and Walsh Philosophy in the Middle Ages Indianapolis, 1973, p. 204' Meri, Josef W. and Jere L. Bacharach, Editors, Medieval Islamic Civilization Vol. 1, A–K, Index, 2006, p. 304.
- ^ The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:2 Mehmet Mahfuz Söylemez, The Jundishapur School: Its History, Structure, and Functions, p. 3.
- ^ Gail Marlow Taylor, The Physicians of Gundeshapur, (University of California, Irvine), p. 7.
- ^ Cyril Elgood, A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate, (Cambridge University Press, 1951), p. 7.
- ^ Cyril Elgood, A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate, (Cambridge University Press, 1951), p. 3.
- ^ [1] "The historical march of the Arabs: the third moment."
- The Huffington Post. 15 June 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
Further reading
- Angold, Michael, ed. (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. 5, Eastern Christianity. ISBN 978-0-521-81113-2.
- Julius Assfalg (ed.), Kleines Wörterbuch des christlichen Orients, Wiesbaden 1975.
- FitzGerald, Thomas (2007). "Eastern Christianity in the United States". The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity. Malden, MA: ISBN 978-0470766392 – via Google Books.
- Jenkins, Philip (2008). The Lost History Of Christianity. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-147281-7.
- Michelson, David Allen. (2022).The Library of Paradise: a History of Contemplative Reading in the Monasteries of the Church of the East. Oxford University Press.
- Walters, J. Edward, ed. (2021). Eastern Christianity: A Reader. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-7686-7.
External links
- Eastern Christian Churches
- Eastern Catholics Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine Information concerning Christians of Eastern rites who are in communion with, and under the jurisdiction of, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome.
- Byzantine Chant Studies Page
- The Greek Orthodox Church in Canada Archived 2019-11-05 at the Wayback Machine
- OrthodoxWiki
- Sample of Melkite Chant in English
- The Eastern Christian Churches Archived 2017-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- Fellowship and Aid to the Christians of the East