Church Vs Orthodox Church

The Roman Empire influenced the Byzantine Empire’s culture, mainly through the religion of Christianity. Christianity first appeared in the Roman Empire, with the birth, teachings, and supposed resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the beginning years of it’s arrival, Christianity was not tolerated and Christians were mainly, and most often brutally prosecuted. However, with Constantine’s Edict of Milan, Christianity was officially tolerated, and under Theodosius, it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire inherited this relatively new religion, continuing to follow the beliefs and traditions of the church, as well as spreading the word of Jesus Christ and the message of god. Churches sprung up in the empire, such as the mighty Hagia Sophia. Located in Constantinople and built by Justinian, this church especially exemplified

The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325. At that time, the text ended after the words "We believe in the Holy Spirit", after which an anathema was added. The doctrine of the Trinity is commonly expressed as: "One God, three Persons”, but this word "Trinity" does not appear in the Bible. So the doctrine is formally defined in the Nicene Creed, which declares Jesus to be: "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father." in 325, the Council of Nicea set out to officially define the relationship of the Son to the Father, in response to the controversial teachings of

It was this refusal that caused its practice to be illegal and those who chose to stick with the faith were prosecuted. Although people were being killed for practicing, Christianity started to become even more popular. After seeing Christian martyrs risk their lives for the sake of Christianity, many Romans were compelled and attracted to the faith. Also, there were Apostles who traveled around the empire spreading the message of Christianity. Then in 312 CE, Emperor Constantine proposed the Edict of Milan that banned all laws against Christianity. That allowed people to freely worship, without the fear of harsh punishment. He eventually converted on his deathbed. Then in 392 CE, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of Rome. Christianity went from being an illegal religion to the official religion of the Roman Empire.

It is believed that the Pope is in a direct line from St Peter who

The theological differences were some of the biggest reason why the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches split. The Eastern churches had theological roots in Greek philosophy and the Western churches had theologies that constructed on their Roman law (“Schism of 1054”, 2014, para. 3). A strong issue that the two churches had was the theological proposition of the placement and addition of “the Son” to the Roman creed. The Roman churches included the “Father and the Son” in the Nicene creed without consulting the Eastern church while the Eastern church only used the Father. The Orthodox Church believe it should have been written with “the Father” proceeded by the Holy Spirit.

The new faith that brought a message and established the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the faith that Constantine adopted as a child from his mother. Christianity during Constantine’s reign established much dominance over other religions and was the main reason for influence of the Christian. Christianity in the Roman world had many perils from gladiatorial battles, to forms of charity which affected the Roman world for good (McGiffert, 34). Charity became with

Constantine the Great was the emperor of Rome and was the Roman Emperor from 306 to 337 AD. During his reign he was the first Christian Emperor; and in various different ways, Constantine changed the lives of his people. Constantine kept his empire stable and his people from turning on him by allowing Christianity in the empire, conquering and gaining more land, and lastly creating Constantinople.

Constantine is best remembered in modern times for the Edict of Milan in 313, which fully legalized Christianity in the empire for the first time. Constantine’s edict gave Christians the right to openly practice their faith. Until then, they had met in the homes of fellow believers. Within a year of edit, Constantine ordered the building of churches throughout the empire. Although some Christians were very worried about the future of the churches if it became too close with the empire. The only people edit mentioned by name were the Christian, and the laws that came afterwards radically limited the rights of Jews as citizens of the Roman Empire.

Founder of Constantinople, Constantine claimed the great Byzantine Empire and in turn inherited the new Holy Roman Empire. With the Edict of Milan in 313, Constantine proclaimed religious tolerance of Christians throughout the empire and soon the religion spread. Constantine then transformed the city of Byzantium into the new capital of the Roman Empire, which then was known and proclaimed as Constantinople. The new capital would profit from its location being closer to the east frontier, having then the advantage of better trading, and a militarily sound location being protected on three sides by water.

“Eli Eli lama sabachthani!” was Jesus’ last words as he was crucified as stated in the New Testament. After three days, he was resurrected and ascended to the heavens in front of six hundred people. His disciples began to spread his word to various parts of the world. After Paul, one of Jesus’ disciples and his right hand man, failed to convince the Jews, Paul had to resort to converting the Romans. Around 312 A.D., Emperor Constantine I adopted the Christian faith and, therefore, legalized Christianity. He supported the Christian Church and tried to abandon all the pagan temples. In 325 A.D., he sent for the Council of Nicaea to establish the Nicene Creed. The emperor wanted to enforce orthodoxy and to eradicate heretics.

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Catholics once included a solitary Christian church with two focuses of force, Rome and Constantinople. Known as the Great Schism, was the official split between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Church. The Church split along doctrinal, religious, phonetic, political, and geographic lines, and the central break as never been mended. Though the Church split because of their differences, they still had some things that were similar.

As a final analysis, "The meeting was richly symbolic: Francis 79, leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, stood with Kirill, 69, Leader of the largest church in the Eastern Orthodox world, with an estimated 150 million followers."[6] This put the end to any internal disagreement between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches and open grounds for understanding, respect and affection to each other. Thus, this meeting is the voice of humbleness and gentleness in the service of others. More importantly, it's to stay in union with God throughout his doctrines and disciplines that Christianity provide us. On the subject of this, yesterday April 16 the Pope Francis and the Patriarch Kirill made a historic visit to the Greek

Constantine’s mother, Helena, was a Christian. Still influenced by pagan culture, Constantine worshipped the sun god. However, in 312, Constantine went to battle for the right to his father’s throne and something happened that would change the course of Christianity forever. Before entering into battle, Constantine was resting and was taken up into a dream in which Jesus Christ appeared in a bright light and announced that by this symbol he would win the battle which was about to ensue. The outcome of the battle was in Constantine’s favor. After his victory he moved the Empire in the direction that was favorable to Christians. One of his first acts was to establish the “Edict of Milan,” which allowed Christians and all others to worship freely. He also established a city named after himself and the said city was deemed the first Christian

He wanted to learn more about the religion, even though he was pagan. He adopted the Nicene Creed in 325 AD, since it was first established in the city of Nicene. The Nicene Creed implemented few changes in Christian belief that many found it to be absurd because they didn’t believe that the son of god were equally alike. Reasons for the establishment of the Nicene Creed was because of the relationship between God and Christ. Transforming Christian belief to Nicene provided Romans to make their own adjustment, like celebrating Easter on Sunday instead of doing it as the Jews which was done in a different day; marriages within the church and the state, and many more. In present day, Nicene Creed is used by Roman Catholics, Christians, East Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, and

In 313 AD the Emperor Constantine formally recognized the Christian religion. Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, this event affected the way people thought and lived their lives. Had a great impact on how rulers viewed their power and used their powers. Such influence was portrayed in Christian art as we know today.