John Binns' An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches intends to give the reader an overview of Orthodox churches, and not merely those but those which accepted the Council of Chalcedon. Binns' starts his overview of Orthodoxy's diversity by examining the various bishops found along Straight Street in Damascus, they all are representing different traditions. Through this lens Binns' begins to set the stage for Orthodox history and practice. He begins to differentiate Eastern and Western theology, thus a needed analysis begins to take shape of the Eastern church. Binns' takes on the task of fixing the lack of general information of Eastern Theology effectively by means of examining the past through a survey of Orthodoxy in the east.
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
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.
I attended a mass at Saint Haralambos Orthodox Greek Church. The church is located in Niles which is a suburb of Chicago on Caldwell Street in between Touhy and Howard Street. The mass I went to was on the Sunday of Orthodox which is known as the first Sunday of Lent where they honor the icons. The most important foundations that are highlighted in Greek Orthodoxy are the Bible and Holy Traditions that have been passed down (“Greek Orthodox Church”). The Greek Orthodox Church believes that the bible is motivated by God. Some important dogmas of the church include things such as the Holy Trinity, Jesus, the role that Virgin Mary had, and honoring the icons. The holy sacraments are what lead Greek Orthodox believers that they are reaching
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
“I’m not a dreamer, and I’m not saying this will initiate any kind of definitive answer or cure to cancer, but I believe in miracles. I have to. I just wish people would realize that anything’s possible if you try, dreams are made possible if you try” (Terry Fox). At first, no one knew who he was. However, over time his voice was heard, and his name was recognized. Terry Fox is one of Canada’s greatest heroes and inspiration as he has transformed Canada into becoming a more generous society with their help with charities, and became a representation of what a good Canadian is. Through his humble being and actions, Terry inspired many people to follow their dreams; showed that being disabled does not limit oneself from experiencing certain things;
In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe the allegory of this story is death, symbolically and literally. The literal portion is about the Red Death and how no one can escape it.
“One has to consult the sayings of the Fathers of the Church, as well as other ancient writers. This helps us understand the historical changes which have occurred over the years. Reading the Fathers can give meaning to many of the rubrics, many of which are not carried out properly because of lack of understanding of their meaning”.
The central-plan churches of the Early Christian and Byzantine period were particular looking buildings in the fact that they were round, polygonal, or cruciform in design. This gathered considerable momentum in the West as well as in the East in the course of the Early Christian and Byzantine period. Basilica Style churches, on the other hand, always had some kind of rectangular hall and also had a central nave with one aisle at each side and an apse at one end opposite to the main door at the other end. In front of the apse was typically some sort of raised platform; here is where the altar for the priest would normally be placed. An important feature of the basilica was that at either end it had an apse that protruded into a semicircular
The stoic worldview that is presented in The Handbook of Epictetus can be considered a divergence from Socrates’s conception of philosophy. According to Epictetus’s Handbook, he was as a firm believer that emotions would result in errors of judgement which would essentially lead to an unhappy life. Throughout his handbook, he presents the idea of how to be a proper philosopher. He states that in order to live a happy and well life one must be emotionless and should be absent. Epictetus believed that having no emotion would lead to the ultimate Telos, being happiness. Whereas Socrates’s conception of philosophy consisted of only the truth. His ultimate Telos was eudaimonia, which is also happiness, but the way to achieve that is different. Socrates was willing to die in the name of philosophy because of how strongly he felt about it. He also believed that in order to have a good life one had to do good. Although both of their end purpose consisted of happiness, they still differed.
By The Middle Ages, one understands a relatively long historical period extending from the end of the Roman Empire to the 1500's. The conquest of The Roman Empire by Germanic tribes, and synthesis of Germanic and Roman ways of life formed the civilization which we call medieval (medieval-from Latin words; medium (middle) and aevum (age)). Medieval civilization was greatly influenced by the Muslims in Spain and The Middle East, and by Byzantine Empire and Christians in Southeast Europe.
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 Christian religion finds its foundation on the Word of God and the work of Jesus Christ. Christianity finds its beginnings with Jesus Christ about 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to earth to teach, heal, and die for the sins of humanity. When God created man, he openly rebelled against God, causing a rift in their relationship. Since humans cannot save themselves, a perfect and completely innocent sacrifice was necessary in order to purify and restore mankind. Christianity is all about Jesus’ death and resurrection, as well as denying oneself and following Christ.
The Chinese Christian church in the United States often has ethnic characteristics, but different Chinese churches often have special concentration in the composition of the congregation, which reflects the tide of Chinese immigrants in different stages. For example, descendants of early immigrants from southern China usually have their fixed church. International students from the mainland of China have the church which they set up together. And other "informal immigrants" also formed Christian organizations. According to Aihui Lee, she divides American Chinese Christianity into four categories.
The first picture shows a church that is full of paintings and sculptures, this is a photo of the Catholic Church. In the Catholic Church they worshiped relics and used many statues and other pieces of art. Along with the use of relics, the Catholic Church used the bible to teach and preach about God, whereas the protestant Church did not. The second picture is of a church that is mostly empty, this shows the protestant church, because they did not use relics and they focused on their relations with god.
After Constantine embrace the Christian faith was developed what I call a symbiotic relationship between Jews and Roman because, Jews bring the Christian theology and the Roman afford their politic power and resources incorporating the faith to the Roman’s propagandistic machinery that was spread through the arts like paintings, sculptures and architectures. According to Dr. Allen Farber this interaction is clear due to “the transformation of Christianity that is dramatically evident in a comparison between the architecture of the pre-Constantinian church and that of the Constantinian and post-Constantinian church. During the pre-Constantinian period, there was not much that distinguished the Christian churches from typical domestic architecture.”