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Orthodoxy
"Orthodoxy" means
"right opinion" or "right belief". Consequently, any human
community which bases itself on an accepted system of thought,
opinions or beliefs will claim "orthodoxy" for its doctrines.
Within the Christian context, the term came to be associated
with certain sections of Eastern Christendom: the Chalcedonian
(or Eastern Orthodox) and non-Chalcedonian (or Oriental
Orthodox) churches.
Eastern Christians
are not united within one communion. The main divisions
appeared in the 5th century. Some did not accept the third
ecumenical council (Ephesus 431) [Nestorians], and more
rejected the fourth (Chalcedon 451) [Oriental Orthodox]. This
non-acceptance was due both to the theological disagreements
over the Christological debates and to the reluctance of some,
mainly non-Greek or non-Byzantine Christians, to accept the
idea that the dogmatic definitions should be imposed as
imperial laws by the capital, Constantinople. (Note that the
Byzantines or the Greeks had Imperial support )..so their
theology won against that of the Non-Greeks or what we call
today the Oriental Orthodox communities...viz the Copts, the
Syrians, the Armenians etc. In hindsight these debates seem
frivolous and have lost their whole purpose especially after
the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 and lastly the
Russian Empire in 1917. However full communion has not yet
been established.
Reunion among
Eastern Christians has not been yet achieved. But many judge
the theological obstacles to be minor, if not non-existent.
The remaining difficulties are only of a practical nature.
The Larger Split...The gradual estrangement between the
Christian East and the Christian West culminated in the split
between the two halves of the Roman empire, which most
historians include under the terms "Latins" and "Greeks". In
fact, the "Latins", though they all used Latin as their
liturgical and theological language, included Germanic Franks,
Celts and Anglo-Saxons; the "Greeks" or "Byzantines"
incorporated the traditions not only of Constantinople but
also of Asia Minor, Egypt (Alexandria), Syria (Antioch) and
Palestine (Jerusalem). [Eastern + Oriental].
The date generally recognized as that of the schism, 1054,
was in fact because of an exchange of excommunications between
the legates of Pope Leo IX and the Patriarch of
Constantinople, Michael Cerularius (these excommunications
were solemnly lifted in 1964 by Pope Paul VI and the patriarch
of Constantinople Athenagoras I). But the 1054 dating is
somewhat conventional: only later did the other three
patriarchates of the famous "pentarchy" (Antioch, Alexandria,
Jerusalem) break with Rome, and already in the 9th century
difficulties had begun (e. g. between Photius, Patriarch of
Constantinople, and Pope Nicholas I).
The real issues at stake in the eventual schism were
doctrinal : (1) the Western addition of the filioque ("and
from the Son") to the Nicene Creed, concerning the procession
of the Holy Spirit; (2) The Papal Universal superiority claims
and infallibility claims. In spite of progress made, these two
questions still constitute the main obstacles to reunion
between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches. Also
later the Western Crusades (1095-1270) deepened the breach. The papal
appointment at that time of "Latin" bishops who paralleled
existing Orthodox bishops in such ancient sees as Antioch and
Constantinople represented in fact an unchurching of
long-existing Christian communities. Moreover, the attempts at
reunion -- the councils of Lyons (1274) and of
Ferrara-Florence (1438-39) -- not only failed, but in the eyes
of the vast majority of the Orthodox, they actually
represented a consummation of the schism. After Florence, the
two halves of Christendom largely ignored each other.
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