Russian Church Reformation Essay

When Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople the Christian churches of Rome and Constantinople found themselves at odds. They ended up differing on many subjects. Over the years they gradually grew apart until the final split happened in 1054. This continues to today. The differences are slight but significant. The Roman church continued with using Latin as the official language, giving the Pope the ultimate authority, but not allowing priests to get married (Doc C). Whilst the Eastern Orthodox church decided to have Greek as the official language, instead of a Pope they had a ceremonial leader, also known as the Patriarch (who could marry); this is because Constantinople failed to see the Pope as the supreme authority. Their interpretation of the bible was also a bit different (Doc C). In the world there are about 120,845,374 people who worship Orthodox Christianity. Though there are many branches of it. Most of the religion stays in the Eastern side of the world, except the 5,000,000 or so Americans (Doc C). If it hadn’t been for the Byzantines stepping out

It was a vell written book that was easy to follow. I would recommend this book for anyone who is curious as to the Orthodox way of thinking, and for anyone who may need an easier read on this topic. With that suggestion, I also suggest that you find someone who comes from an Eastern Orthodox background to further clarify question that arise as you read. Also they may interpret some of the ideas in a way that is worded better than the author chose to address them. I would also be mindful that there is very little to no comparison of the Eastern Orthodox thinking to Protestant faith and Catholic faith, so having prior knowledge of each type of Christian faith, I feel, is important in trying to get a better idea of the differences. I did enjoy this book very much and have gained a newfound understanding and respect for the way Eastern Orthodox views Christianity and the responsibilities of

The break from the Catholic Church began when King Henry VIII came into conflict with the Pope over the divorce he wanted to obtain from his wife Catherine of Aragon. After several years of bickering with the Papacy, Henry VIII eventually separated from the church of Rome to the church of England. But this new entity, the church of England, was basically the Catholic Church without the Pope and the monasteries. For the rest of the reign of Henry VIII, and that of following Tudor monarchs there would be vicious competition between the new Protestants and Catholics for supremacy. There was also dissension among the Protestants themselves over how far the reform of the Church should go, and over the course of some years a split began to form between the members of the Church of England.

They also did other jobs such as protected the Tsar’ family and intercepted mail to make sure it was safe. Undercover agents were placed everywhere to protect the Tsar. The Orthodox Church was another way the government tried to improve the resentment within the country. The Orthodox Church was a major influence over the Russian people so the government turned it into a government department in the 1900’s to get more power and was run by a lay official appointed by the Tsar. Making the Orthodox Church a government department meant that the opinions within the church were expressed in favour of the Tsar and so the church in fact played a big role in the Russification of the empire as the government caused it to be this way. However this made Russia even more difficult to govern as people thought the priests were ‘no better than the peasants around him, he was paid by the state and was inferior to the middle and upper classes.’ He was seen as ‘a government agent and a hypocritical tool of the possessing classes.’ This made Russia difficult to govern as no one paid an interest in what the church had to say any more. The Okhrana tried to stop this opposition towards the government and the church but were very inefficient and did nothing to stop the assassination of

The Orthodox Church in Russia, seeing the advancing tide of Islamic power in the East, declared its independence from Constantinople in 1448, five years before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. In 1589 the patriarchate of Moscow was established and formally recognized by Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople. For the Russian people and their tsars, Moscow had become the so-called third Rome, direct heir to the imperial and ecclesiastical supremacy of ancient Rome and Constantinople. The patriarchs of Moscow

To begin, the Protestant Reformation began in reaction to the Catholic Church’s rather corrupt practices. Prior to the Reformation, the only major Christian denomination in Western Europe at the time was Catholicism, headed by the Pope in Rome. Through many acts of violence such as the formation of the Spanish Inquisition and the slaughter of the Cathars, amongst others, Europe’s Monarchs had wiped out and suppressed any form of religious competition. With the Catholic Church holding a tight stranglehold over Europe, Catholicism was the only option. This allowed

Fr. Justin Havens gave a lecture about the history, principles and practices of the Orthodox church and emphasized that Christ should be the focus of our education, and our every thought and action. He described how religion is primarily about making ourselves better and orthodox focuses on becoming like the best human, nonetheless divine being in existence, Jesus Christ. His attributes, perfections, motivations, teachings, lifestyle and everything about Him is the epitome of goodness. Thus the succession in church leadership, from Jesus, to Peter, throughout the generations to various bishops is described as one of the key reasons why orthodox Christianity is perceived as God’s ordained church on the earth as well as the amazing durability of the religion as approximately 160,000 Orthodox followers were slaughtered, significantly reducing the religion’s population. However, as Fr. Havens

Several Christian churches around the Roman Empire have been suggested—notably Ephesus, but also Antioch in

Long before the reformation period,people within the church, both clergy and lay were keen for the church to eliminate all corrupt practices and for a reform,which would bring everyone closer to God. Those high up in church authority had ignored the concerns made by these reformers because they were personally gaining from practices like indulgences. However the sixteenth century split of protestant from the Catholic church became obvious and brought about bad publicity towards the church as the loss of members was a large concern, putting them under pressure to reform itself properly. The church responded in a very serious matter which resulted in the church starting

he Russian Orthodox Church when through many troubles during the Soviet Union Era. When the Tsarist government was overthrown and Bolsheviks took over, the Russian Orthodox Church was without official state backing for the first time in its history. The new Communist government issued a decree that declared freedom of religious and anti-religious propaganda which banned church programs from television and led to a decline in church power and influence.

“The Orthodox Church is strongly connected to the Greek Nation since the Byzantine times, when the Patriarch of Constantinople had a strong power over the national matters. During the Ottoman rule, from 1453 to 1821, the Orthodox religion was an important element for the conservation and the

Similar to Rome, there was a head of the church established in Constantinople called the patriarch, but he did not have the same power as the pope of the Roman Church. Religion was viewed as a branch of the state which needed “to be protected not only against heathen outsiders but also heretics within the empire” (McKay, 216), and the emperor was responsible for appointing the patriarch and other church officials. Much like Constantine, emperors would settle disputes by calling councils of bishops and theologians. Church leaders in the east disagreed with Rome’s claim of supremacy, and gradually they diverged into the Byzantine Christian Church (also called the Orthodox

By the late 1500s, Christian denominations had been popping up all over Europe. This was in response to the reports of indulgences (selling of freedom from purgatory), clerical immorality, abuse of money, along with many other bad actions that were rampant among the Church. It was these problems that Luther and others rebelled and created their own religions. With the rising of these Reformation movements, the Church needed to make some reforms itself. These reforms took the form of educating the clergy, opening monasteries, the Inquisition, and the organizing of councils. In fact, even though Protestant attacks brought these reforms, many of these reforms were needed anyway. The problems in the Church were so bad that the Church would not

There were a variety of movements that initiated reform within the church. The Catholic Church during the Middles Ages had lost much as a religious institution. During this period ignorance and corruption in the church was insidious. One only has to look at the church leaders in Spain as evidence. Some priest didn’t even understand the Latin in the mass, monks kept

The Reformation was a movement during the 16th century that had a faction of Catholics break away from the Catholic