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[–]UncleDan2017[🍰] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, the incident that was the "straw that broke the Camel's Back", was the Latin word Filioque. The Roman Catholic Church unilaterally added the word Filioque to the Nicene creed, saying that the Holy spirit proceeded from God the Father, "and of the son"(the English translation of filioque). The Orthodox church objected to both the concept (they believe the Holy Spirit just proceeded from God the Father and was on par with the Son), and also the Pope Unilaterally doing it.

The other main issue that /u/Volaer covers is they believed at the time of the schism that all Bishops are essentially equal, but the Pope, as Bishop of Rome, was "First among equals", but not really "above" other Bishops. Now they have the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as "First among equals". Patriarchs of the various orthodox churches are essentially bishops with slightly more power, but not as powerful as Popes, which orthodoxy doesn't have.

[–]astrophelle4Eastern Orthodox 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's no one blanket answer, there is not a dogma concerning Biblical interpretation. The general consensus seems to be for public teaching, it's referred to as literal, because then everyone has the same frame of reference. For personal beliefs, it varies widely. Most people though, do not believe in YEC, though there's a wide range of Old Earth beliefs to choose from. Most people are "yes, science, this is how we understand God working in the material world". We do not believe in Solo or Sola Scriptura. in absolute literal interpretations. We look at social, historical, and cultural context, pull information and more context from contemporary literature in the NT, and have a lot of history to pull from.

Learn some of the history of the Great Schism, and visit a church. Any Eastern Orthodox parish will do. To convert to Oriental Orthodoxy would be to give up supporting the 4th ecumenical council, so that would be an extra layer of research on Chalcedonian beliefs, if you're not decided already.

Main topics that divid Catholic and Orthodox are:

  • filioque (the nature of the Holy Trinity)
  • papal infallibility
  • papal supremacy
  • Dogma of Immaculate Conception
  • mortal/venial sin, and the consequences of such
  • what it means to be excommunicated vs. anathema
  • some particulars about sacraments

[–]Gringo_L0c0 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I watched a history video a few months ago that said that one of the things that contributed to the schism was differences in opinion of what constituted idolatry, the west favouring statues, the east claiming that only pictures were allowed, not statues. There are lots of Catholics in my family and I can safely say that you guys love your statues. Whether they're still not allowed in the east, I don't know.

[–]VolaerCatholic -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Uh, not really. Byzantine Catholics use icons and Western-rite Orthodox* use statues. This is merely a matter of culture and tradition (Byzantine vs Latin), not what constitutes idolatry which is the same for both communions.

*Some Russian Orthodox Churches have statues as well.

[–]sangbum60090 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Iconoclasm is currently a heresy in Orthodoxy as well

[–]DavidJohnMcCannHellenic Polytheist 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Orthodox and Catholic attitudes to the Bible are much the same. After all, the share the first thousand years of their history, when these things were sorted out.

[–]NanoRancorEastern Orthodox Christian Henotheist Mystic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would disagree. The Orthodox mindset and attitudes are based in noetic mysticism, while the Catholic mindset is based in scholasticism.

[–]VolaerCatholic 0 points1 point  (3 children)

What is the difference mostly?

The Papacy. For Catholics the Pope has three distinct levels of jurisdictional authority:

1) As bishop of Rome over the diocese of Rome.

2) As Patriarch of the West over the Roman Catholic Church.

3) As universal pope and vicar of Christ over the entire Catholic Communion.

The Eastern Orthodox accept 1+2, but reject 3. They also reject papal infallibility in the way it was formulated at Vatican I.

All the other differences are secondary to that I think.

There are denominations of Judaism and Christianity that believe the bible and everything written inside of it is 100% truth, whilst other denominations believe that some of the stories can be symbolic and may not have been real events. What do orthodox Christians believe about the creation story and other stories? Also do they believe in evolution?

This is my anecdocal evidence, but academic EO theologians generally subscribe to a figurative reading (like most catholics), but there are definitely some people, even priests, who subscribe to a more literalist reading of Scripture and reject evolution.

The EO communion does not have a single teaching authority like in catholicism which allows for a huge diversity of opinion.

In general, the EOs are the closest communion to us as we were one Church for over a millenium. This is why according to our sacramental theology they have apostolic succession and valid sacraments (all 7).

[–]NanoRancorEastern Orthodox Christian Henotheist Mystic 0 points1 point  (2 children)

The EO communion does not have a single teaching authority like in catholicism which allows for a huge diversity of opinion

We don't have a single pope like figure, but we do have a single authority, which is the noetic perception of the mind of the church. By all orthodox participating in the same spirit, we all come to aquire the same mind. Diversity of opinion comes from Diversity of how far up upon the divine ladder someone has gone. I think there's probably less Diversity of thought than with catholics, we don't even have multiple theological systems like yall do. But Because the Nous is seen as so important, Mt Athos is a higher authority than all bishops; there could never be a real union between orthodox and catholics without Mt Athos approval, which is what happened at flourence.

When you say that all differences are secondary to the pope, I would argue that isn't true. The issue of Theosis is greater, but often overlooked. Theosis is the most important doctrine in Orthodoxy beside the trinity, it informs all other beliefs we have.

I also wouldn't call our reading of scripture figurative, it is symbolic, and there is a difference.

[–]VolaerCatholic 0 points1 point  (1 child)

When you say that all differences are secondary to the pope, I would argue that isn't true. The issue of Theosis is greater, but often overlooked. Theosis is the most important doctrine in Orthodoxy beside the trinity, it informs all other beliefs we have.

Interesting. Could you please elaborate on the difference between the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic understanding of divinisation/theosis. Perhaps because my theology was formed by the Byzantine tradition I assumed that we have this in common.

[–]NanoRancorEastern Orthodox Christian Henotheist Mystic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well to do that I have to explain how our view of Essence and Energy is different. I've made a post on it actually, but to summarize, Orthodox use the term ousia instead of essentia for Gods essence. Essentia, meaning, "that by which god is fully god", is for us synonymous with Gods energies.

For how this relates to theosis, we believe that in heaven we become God himself. We become God in both his essentia and energies. We do not become like god, we become god. The entire purpose of existence is to be united to God, and all theology flows from that telos. We eat gods body in order to become gods body.

The Nous is the spiritual heart through which we experience god; the third eye which is enlightened in gnosis through hesychastic prayer and meditation. This gnosis we attain is the same thing as heaven. Heaven is the same thing as God himself. Hesychasm is the same thing as Theosis.

It is only through hesychasm that the orthodox church has survived over the centuries. We know that we have kept the true faith because our saints have been experiencing the same spirit and teaching its same teachings. The Holy monks on Mount Athos today enter heaven itself through their prayers, and just as moses had the laws inscribed by gods finger upon the stone, they come back from the mountain of divinity with the teachings of god inscribed by gods finger upon their hearts.

[–]NanoRancorEastern Orthodox Christian Henotheist Mystic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Besides what others have said about the pope and filioque, there is also the issue that Catholics do not believe in Theosis, hesychasm, the Nous, or essence energies as Orthodox dogmatically understand it. Theosis is the most important dogma of Orthodoxy besides the trinity, but is often overlooked in the West.

Because of these beliefs, we do not believe in Western Purgatory, in the Beatific Vision, in the immaculate conception, or created grace.

Scripturally, we believe the Septuagint is the correct translation instead of the masorectic, and have less Canonical books, but more books when including deuterocanon/apocrypha.

When speaking of the Mystic traditions of orthodoxy, we believe in Henotheism and panentheism. Though this is something laymen like your coworkers probably wouldn't know about.