Dogmatic Differences Between The Roman Catholic Church And The Eastern Orthodox Church

Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church share many beliefs together. They both believe in the sacraments, both venerate Mary as the mother of God, both believe that Jesus Christ was divine and died for the sins of humanity and both believe in the Eucharist as the incarnation of Jesus Christ. However, there are many main differences between them that they cannot agree on and unite as a whole Christian church. Some of these differences include Authority and infallibility of the pope and the Idea of Purgatory.

Although the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church ultimately had more differences which ended up causing their

One of the events that lead to the schism was that one church had more power that the other. As it states in Document 1, “If he wishes to judge us and even rule us and our church, not by taking council with us but his own arbitrary” (Document 1). This quote is said by an Orthodox Archbishop named Nicomedia. In other words, Nicomedia s trying to say that the Roman Catholic church things it has more power than the Greek Orthodox church. Nicomedia complains that the Catholic church is trying to take over the Orthodox

It only seemed natural for the Orthodox East and the Catholic West to have a series of elements differentiating them from each-other. However, it is actually surprising that most of these differences emerged as a result of cultural practices influencing each branch of Christianity. Individuals in the East developed innovative methods of putting across Christian thinking and managed to create a cult that largely differed from the one in the West. In spite of the fact that the Byzantine Empire shrank across time, it managed to induce intense feelings in communities neighboring it. Some of these influences can be

The Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic, are two variations of the same religion, that due to some disagreements over certain ideas and religious teachings leads to the great Schism in 1054 AD. The great schism of 1054 refers to the final separation of the Eastern Orthodox church, led by the patriarch in Constantinople and the western church, led by Pope Leo IX. The estrangement between the Orthodox and Roman church, happened gradually over the course of the 5th and much of the 11th century. The reasons of the Schism are attributed to several differences between the two churches. The religious and doctrinal studies of the East, had roots in Greek philosophy, while the Western studies closely followed Roman law. Misunderstandings between the two churches then led to two separate ways of defining one doctrine, which would initiate the split. The doctrine in question, procession of the Holy Spirit, where without consulting the East the Roman churches added “and from the Son” to the Nicene Creed. This was not the only thing the two churches clashed on. The eastern church resented the forced clerical celibacy, political jealousies and interests only intensified the disputes. There had been schisms before but not ones that were permanent. While there may have been hopes for a reconciliation, the eastern Greeks were infuriated by the Latin capture of Constantinople in 1204 A.D. After this, any pleas from the west concerning reunion were rejected. (“Schism of 1054”)

If we travel back to the year 1500, the Church (what we now call the Roman Catholic Church) was very powerful both politically and spiritually in Western Europe. For some time the Church was seen as an institution weighed down by internal power struggles. Popes and Cardinals often lived more like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed political as well as spiritual power. They commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, even waged war.

More precisely, the disagreement appeared between the pope and emperor since Henry was electing bishops and had a say in priest marriage, in order to stabilize his royal status, which was not an advantage for the Pope. Consequently, the Dictatus Papae proposed the domination of the pope over political powers, which meant that Gregory applied the maxims of papal authority in order to succeed the monarch. The Pope had higher authority referring to his papal reforms, so the Dictatus Papae clearly introduced that papal power is the sole universal power and secular interference with church is rejected, in addition, pope is the only authority who has the right to appoint, depose or move churchmen. Furthermore, pope was allowed to invest clergy with the insignia of their office, additionally, clergy was not allowed to accept insignia from secular rulers.

Starting in the 12th century, many European countries like Italy were starting to give the pope a lot of power. This resulted in the popes becoming more powerful figures than most of the European counties princes. One example of this was with pope Gregory VII. He believed that he was one of the most

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.

The differences derive from theology. Both Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Catholics understand God to exist in three forms, known as the Trinity. God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father refers to God’s role as the creator of the world. The Son refers to Jesus. Finally, the Holy Spirit, they believe, enters people's souls during their daily lives. Another similarity is that holding reverence for the saints plays a central role in the spiritual lives of Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Catholics. The physical representation of the saints tends to take different forms, however. Roman Catholics usually use statutes to represent their saints, as evident in St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church; meanwhile, Orthodox Catholics more often use paintings to represent their saints, as evident at St. Michael’s Antiochian Orthodox Church. Another difference between the two is that for Roman Catholics there is a procedure for choosing officially sanctioned saints. This process does not exist in the Orthodox community. The central doctrinal divide between the two Christian churches concerns the Pope and his supremacy. Roman Catholics believe the Pope is the living embodiment of Jesus. He is then, in their opinion, the head of the entire Christian religion. Eastern Orthodox Catholics view the Pope as the head of Christianity in Rome, a geographical

There are several essential differences between Catholics and Protestants. Although over the years, numerous endeavors have been made to seek a mutual understanding between the two, differences remain and they are just as key today as they were at the commencement of the Reformation.

These two have many things in common, their differences are quite minimal compared to other religions. One Pope declared the crusade to regain the city for Christianity, and it caused not only 200 years of blood battles and crimes, but issues still arise today.

The Pope was also known to have say on many decisions involving the king and the decisions they make. However, during the Early Renaissance the kings began to stray away from the church. This caused great political change as kings began to use the belief of divine right to their advantage. They now had the mindset that it doesn’t matter what the Pope says, it matters what God says. Kings used their new found power to appoint their own officials in the Church, weakening the Churches overall control over Western Europe.

In the end, I strongly agree that the Pope’s power had declined in relation to all the events and movements that have happened in the past to affect it severely. During the 10th century, there have been conflict between the Pope and the king for powers. The most

The attendant effects of Martin Luther’s reformation in the early period of the sixteenth century occasioned by his posting of the 95 theses that raised objections to some of the then prevalent practices of the Roman Catholic Church eventually led to a significant breakaway from the church of a relatively more liberal Christian sect known as the “Protestant”. It is worthy of note however that the Roman Catholic Church tried albeit unsuccessfully to placate the breakaway by instituting a “counter-Reformation” but this only achieved a cleansing of the church internally without achieving much in its most important mandate to prevent the protestant breakaway. Consequently, Europe was enmeshed in bloody religious war largely between forces loyal to the papacy in Rome and those who sympathized with the runaway protestant movement. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church invariably began to lose its pole position in the scheme of things in an already divided Europe.