ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Problems Between Eastern and Western Christianity

Updated on December 3, 2014
Nick Burchett profile image

Nick is a US Army veteran, husband and father of three, and has a BA in history. He is a Civil War aficionado and also enjoys genealogy.

Council of Chalcedonian
Council of Chalcedonian | Source

With the acceptance of Christianity as a legitimate, state sanctioned religion, the rapid spreading of the faith, and the last Roman emperor in the West giving up his throne leaving just the Byzantine Empire in the east, the many issues began to arise. The Council of Chalcedonian was called by Emperor Marcian in 451 CE to again resolve the issue of Jesus’ divinity and His human nature. This was brought forth by an outgrowth of the Alexandrian school called Monophysitism. Their belief was Christ had only one nature, a divine one. The Council obviously disagreed with this belief. The Nestorian church (of the east) refused to accept this decision and split off from the rest of Christianity causing the first major schism. The Emperor Justinian attempted to bring the two groups back together at the Second Council of Constantinople in 533, but was unsuccessful.

Another important problem that separated the western and eastern branches of Christianity was the nature of the philosophical backgrounds of both. The Eastern Christians used Greek as their language while those in the West used Latin. This caused a breakdown in communication as bilingual theologians began to become increasingly few and far in between. This also led to a difference in philosophical interpretations, with those in the East clearly being influenced by the Greek theologians, philosophers and teachers. The Western Christians, however, were clearly influenced and dominated by the teachings of Augustine.

William C. Placher in his book "A History of Christian Theology: An Introduction" also describes the issue with church decorations, images of Christ, Mary and the saints and other icons by those in the east. The idea he states was to give the opportunity to teach those who were illiterate about the faith. To the early Christians however, this was nothing short of blasphemous and directly violating on of the Ten Commandments. Emperor Leo went on a mission to destroy this practice and all these “graven images” as did his son Constantine V. He also stated that some historians have even gone as far as attributing this iconoclasm to a Muslim influence. These debates lead to two eastern theologians, John of Damascus and Theodore of Studios to take on iconoclasm as well as limiting imperial power in theology.

Debate between Catholics and Oriental Christians in the 13th century, Acre 1290
Debate between Catholics and Oriental Christians in the 13th century, Acre 1290 | Source

Another major debate was the idea of the occurrence of salvation. Western theologians believed that salvation happens at the time of conversion whereas the Eastern theologians believed that works were involved and that the process would continue throughout the individual’s life. This leads to the concept that God is incomprehensible yet salvation can only come through the works of becoming a known portion of God.

The list of differences between the Eastern and Westerns sects of Christianity are numerous and many of those debates that took place then still rage today across the globe and even across various Christian denominations. There is the idea that if you don’t speak in tongues you are not truly saved as opposed to the view that if you do speak in tongues you are a stumbling block to those who hear but do not understand. There are those that believe Baptism to be fundamental in one’s salvation and eternal security and those who believe Baptism to be not saving, but an outward profession of faith only. As the splits between the east and west continued to grow, the core beliefs of the very early Christians, who were persecuted and martyred for their faith, began to fall squarely into the realm of legalism. Many Christians then and now have returned full circle to the Pharissitical practices of the law givers of Jesus’ time, missing the entire point of Christ in the first place.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)