Orthodoxy differs from Catholicism, but not everyone will answer the question of what exactly these differences are. There are differences between the churches in symbolism, and in the ritual, and in the dogmatic part ... Which the main differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism ?

The first external difference between Catholic and Orthodox symbolism concerns the image of the cross and crucifixion. If in the early Christian tradition there were 16 types of forms of the cross, today traditionally the four-sided cross is associated with Catholicism, and the eight-pointed or six-pointed cross with Orthodoxy.

The words on the tablet on the crosses are the same, the only difference is the languages ​​in which the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth is King of the Jews. In Catholicism, it is Latin: INRI. Some Eastern churches use the Greek abbreviation INBI from the Greek text Ἰησοῦς ὁ Ναζωραῖος ὁ Bασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων.

The Romanian Orthodox Church uses the Latin version, and in the Russian and Church Slavonic versions the abbreviation looks like I.N.TS.I.

It is interesting that this spelling was approved in Russia only after Nikon's reform; before that, “King of Glory” was often written on the tablet. This spelling was preserved among the Old Believers.

The number of nails often differs between Orthodox and Catholic crucifixes. The Catholics have three, the Orthodox have four.

The most fundamental difference in the symbolism of the cross in the two churches is that on the Catholic cross Christ is depicted in an extremely naturalistic way, with wounds and blood, in a crown of thorns, with his hands sagging under the weight of the body, while on the Orthodox crucifix there are no naturalistic traces of Christ's suffering, the image of the Savior shows the victory of life over death, the Spirit over the body.

Catholics and Orthodox have many differences in the ritual part. So, the differences are obvious in the performance of the sign of the cross. Orthodox Christians cross from right to left, Catholics from left to right.

The norm of the Catholic blessing of the cross was approved in 1570 by Pope Pius V "Blessing himself ... makes a cross from forehead to chest and from left shoulder to right."

In the Orthodox tradition, the norm for fulfilling the sign of the cross changed in terms of two fingers and three fingers, but church leaders wrote about the need to be baptized from right to left before and after Nikon's reform.

Catholics usually cross with all five fingers as a sign of "ulcers on the body of the Lord Jesus Christ" - two on their hands, two on their feet, one from a spear. In Orthodoxy, after Nikon's reform, a three-finger was adopted: three fingers are folded together (symbolism of the Trinity), two fingers are pressed to the palm (two natures of Christ - divine and human. In the Romanian Church, these two fingers are interpreted as a symbol of Adam and Eve, falling to the Trinity).

In addition to the obvious differences in the ritual part, in the system of monasticism of the two churches, in the traditions of iconography, the Orthodox and Catholics have a lot of differences on the dogmatic side.

Thus, the Orthodox Church does not recognize the Catholic teaching on the super-due merits of saints, according to which the great Catholic saints, the Teachers of the Church left an inexhaustible treasury of "super-due good deeds" so that then sinners could use the riches from it for their salvation.

The administrator of the wealth from this treasury is the Catholic Church and personally the Pontiff.

Depending on the zeal of the sinner, the Pontiff can take riches from the treasury and provide them to a sinful person, since a person does not have enough of his own good deeds for salvation.

The concept of "indulgence" is directly related to the concept of "super-proper merits", when a person for the amount contributed is freed from punishment for his sins.

At the end of the 19th century, the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed the dogma of the Pope's infallibility. According to him, when the Pope (as the head of the Church) defines her teaching concerning faith or morality, he has infallibility (infallibility) and is protected from the very possibility of error.

This doctrinal inerrancy is a gift of the Holy Spirit given to the Pope as the successor of the Apostle Peter by virtue of apostolic succession, and is not based on his personal sinlessness.

The dogma was officially proclaimed in the dogmatic constitution of Pastor Aeternus on July 18, 1870, along with the affirmation of the "ordinary and immediate" authority of the pontiff's jurisdiction in the universal Church.

The Pope only once exercised his right to proclaim a new teaching ex cathedra: in 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The dogma of infallibility was confirmed at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the dogmatic constitution on the Lumen Gentium Church.

The Orthodox Church did not accept either the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope or the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Also, the Orthodox Church does not recognize the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

The understanding of what a person's soul goes through after death also differs in Orthodoxy and Catholicism. In Catholicism, there is a dogma about purgatory - a special state in which the soul of the deceased is. Orthodoxy denies the existence of purgatory, although it recognizes the need for prayer for the dead.

In Orthodoxy, in contrast to Catholicism, there is a teaching about aerial ordeals, obstacles through which the soul of every Christian must pass on the way to the throne of God for a private judgment.

Two angels lead the soul along this path. Each of the ordeals, the number of which is 20, is ruled by demons - unclean spirits trying to take the soul passing through the ordeal to hell. According to the expression of St. Theophan the Recluse: "No matter how wild the thought of ordeals seems to clever people, they cannot be avoided." The Catholic Church does not recognize the doctrine of ordeals.

The key dogmatic divergence of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches is the "filioque" (Latin filioque - "and the Son") - an addition to the Latin translation of the Creed, adopted by the Western (Roman) Church in the 11th century in the doctrine of the Trinity: about the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from God the Father, but "from the Father and the Son."

Pope Benedict VIII in 1014 included the term "filioque" in the Symbol of Faith, which caused a storm of indignation on the part of Orthodox theologians.

It was the "filioque" that became the "stumbling block" and caused the final division of the churches in 1054.

It was finally established at the so-called "unification" councils - Lyons (1274) and Ferraro-Florentine (1431-1439).

In modern Catholic theology, the attitude towards the filioque, oddly enough, has changed a lot. Thus, on August 6, 2000, the Catholic Church published the declaration “Dominus Iesus” (“Lord Jesus”). The author of this declaration was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

In this document, in the second paragraph of the first part, the text of the Symbol of Faith is given as amended without the "filioque": "Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem, qui ex Patre proceit, qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorificatur, qui locutus est per prophetas" ... (“And into the Holy Spirit, the Lord giving life, from the Father who proceeds, who, together with the Father and the Son, deserves worship and glory, who spoke through the prophets”).

No official, conciliar decisions followed this declaration, so the situation with the "filioque" remains the same.

The main difference between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church is that the head of the Orthodox Church is Jesus Christ; in Catholicism, the Church is headed by the viceroy of Jesus Christ, its visible head (Vicarius Christi), the Pope of Rome.

For obvious reasons, I will answer the other way around - about the spiritual differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

A large number of spiritual practices: these are prayer beads (Rosary, chaplet to God's mercy and others), and worship of the Holy Gifts (adoration), and meditation on the Gospel in various traditions (from Ignatian to Lectio Divina), and spiritual exercises (from the simplest recollections until a month's silence according to the method of St. Ignatius of Loyola) - I have described almost all of them in detail here:

The absence of the institution of "elders" who are perceived among believers as enlightened and unmistakable saints in their lifetime. And the attitude to the priests is different: there is no ordinary Orthodox "father blessed to buy a skirt, father did not bless him to be friends with Petya" - Catholics make decisions themselves, not shifting responsibility to a priest or nun.

Catholics, in general, know the course of the Liturgy better - both because they are participants, and not spectators, listeners, and because they have passed catechesis (you cannot become a Catholic without studying the faith).

Catholics often partake of Communion, and here, alas, it is not without abuse - either it becomes a habit and faith in the Eucharist is lost, or they start Communion without confession.

By the way, the Eucharistic veneration is peculiar only to Catholics - the Orthodox have neither adoration, nor a procession for the triumph of the Body and Blood of the Lord (Corpus Christi). The holy place of the celebration of the Eucharist is occupied by popular saints, as I understand it.

With all this, Catholics are more inclined to simplify, to increase "closeness to the people" and "conformity to the modern world" - they are more inclined to assimilate to Protestants. While forgetting the nature and purpose of the Church.

Catholics love to play ecumenism and run around with it like a hand-written sack, not paying attention to the fact that no one is interested in these games other than themselves. A kind of non-aggressive, naive-romantic "mouse brothers".

Among Catholics, the exclusivity of the Church, as a rule, remains only on paper, does not hold in their heads, and the Orthodox remember very well what they are truer.

Well, and the monastic traditions, which have already been mentioned here - a huge number of various orders and congregations, from ultra-liberal Jesuits and amusing Franciscans, slightly more moderate Dominicans to the invariably strict lifestyle of highly spiritual Benedictines and Carthusians; movements of the laity - from the unbridled Neocatechumenate and careless foci to the moderate Communione e Liberazione and the restrained prelature of Opus Dei.

And more ceremonies - in the Catholic Church there are about 22. Not only Latin (the most famous) and Byzantine (identical to the Orthodox), but also exotic Syro-Malabar, Dominican and others; here are also traditionalists adhering to the pre-reform Latin rite (according to the Missal of 1962) and former Anglicans who became Catholics under the pontificate of Benedict XVI, who received their personal prelature and their own rite of worship. That is, Catholics are not so monotonous and not at all homogeneous, but at the same time they get along well together - both thanks to the fullness of the truth, and thanks to the understanding of the importance of the unity of the Church, and thanks to human factors. The Orthodox are split into 16 church communities (and these are only official!), Their heads cannot even get together to resolve any issues - intrigues and attempts to pull the blanket over themselves are too strong ...

It is the largest destination in.

It received the greatest distribution in Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary), in Latin America and the USA. To one degree or another, Catholicism is widespread in almost all countries of the world. Word "Catholicism" comes from Latin - "universal, universal". After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Church remained the only centralized organization and force capable of halting the onset of chaos. This led to the political rise of the church and its influence on the formation of the states of Western Europe.

Features of the doctrine "Catholicism"

Catholicism has a number of features in the doctrine, cult and structure of the religious organization, which reflected the specific features of the development of Western Europe. The Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition are recognized as the basis of the doctrine. All books included in the Latin translation of the Bible (Vulgate) are considered canonical. Only the clergy are vested with the right to interpret the text of the Bible. Sacred Tradition is formed by the decrees of the 21st Ecumenical Council (recognizes only the first seven), as well as the judgments of the popes on ecclesiastical and secular issues. The clergy take a vow of celibacy - celibacy, thereby it becomes, as it were, a partaker of divine grace, which separates it from the laity, whom the church likened to a flock, and the clergy were assigned the role of shepherds. The Church helps the laity to achieve salvation at the expense of the treasury of good deeds, i.e. surplus of good deeds performed by Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and the saints. As Christ's viceroy on earth, the Pope disposes of this treasury of super-worthy deeds, distributing them among those who need them. This practice, called distribution indulgences, was subjected to fierce criticism from Orthodoxy and led to a split in Catholicism, the emergence of a new direction in Christianity -.

Catholicism follows the Nicene-Constantinople Creed, but creates its own understanding of a number of dogmas. On Toledo Cathedral in 589, an addition was made to the Creed about the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from God the Father, but also from God the Son (lat. filioque- and from the Son). Until now, this understanding is the main obstacle to the dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

A feature of Catholicism is also the sublime veneration of the Virgin Mary - the Virgin Mary, the recognition of the dogmas of her immaculate conception and bodily ascension, according to which the Most Holy Theotokos was taken to heaven "with soul and body for the glory of heaven." In 1954, a special holiday was established dedicated to the "Queen of Heaven".

Seven sacraments of Catholicism

In addition to the doctrine of the existence of heaven and hell, common to Christianity, Catholicism recognizes the doctrine of purgatory as an intermediate place where the soul of the sinner is purified by going through severe trials.

Committing sacraments- ritual actions adopted in Christianity, with the help of which special grace is transmitted to believers, in Catholicism differs in a number of features.

Catholics, like Orthodox Christians, recognize seven sacraments:

• baptism;
• communion (Eucharist);
• priesthood;
• repentance (confession);
• chrismation (confirmation);
• marriage;
• blessing of oil (unction).

The sacrament of baptism is performed by pouring water over it, chrismation or confirmation - upon reaching the age of seven or eight, and in Orthodoxy - immediately after baptism. The sacrament of communion among the Catholics is performed on unleavened bread, and among the Orthodox - on leavened bread. Until recently, only the clergy received communion with wine and bread, and the laity - only with bread. The sacrament of blessing of oil - the service of prayer and the anointing of a sick or dying person with special oil - oil - is viewed in Catholicism as a church blessing for a dying person, and in Orthodoxy - as a way to heal an illness. Until recently, worship in Catholicism was performed exclusively in Latin, which made it completely incomprehensible to believers. Only II Vatican Cathedral(1962-1965) allowed the service in national languages.

The veneration of saints, martyrs, blessed ones, whose ranks are constantly multiplying, is extremely developed in Catholicism. The center of cult and ceremonial rituals is the temple, decorated with paintings and sculptures on religious themes. Catholicism actively uses all means of aesthetic influence on the feelings of believers, both visual and musical.

For those who are interested.

Recently, many people have developed a very dangerous stereotype that there is supposedly no particular difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, Protestanism. Some believe that in reality the distance is significant, almost like heaven and earth, and maybe even more?

Others that n The ravoslav church has preserved the Christian faith in purity and intact, just as Christ revealed it, as the apostles conveyed, as the ecumenical councils and church teachers consolidated and expounded, in contrast to the Catholics, who distorted this teaching with a mass of heretical delusions.

Still others, that in the 21st century, that all beliefs are wrong! There cannot be 2 truths, 2 + 2 will always be 4, not 5, not 6 ... The truth is an axiom (which does not require proof), everything else is a theorem (until it is proved it cannot be recognized ...).

"There are so many religions, so many different, do people really think that" THERE "at the top of the" Christian god "sits in the next office with" Ra "and all the others ... So many versions say that they were written by a man, and not" by a higher power "(What kind of state with 10 constitutions ??? What kind of President failed to approve one of them all over the world ???)

"Religion, patriotism, team sports (football, etc.) give rise to aggression, all the power of the state rests on this hatred of" others ", to" not so "... Religion is no better than nationalism, only it is covered with a curtain of peace and does not hit right away, but with much greater consequences .. ".
And this is only a small part of the opinions.

Let's try to calmly consider what are the fundamental differences between the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant denominations? And are they really that great?
The Christian faith has been attacked from time immemorial by opponents. In addition, different people attempted to interpret the Holy Scriptures in their own way at different times. Perhaps this was the reason that the Christian faith was divided over time into Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. They are all very similar, but there are differences between them. Who are Protestants and how is their teaching different from Catholic and Orthodox?

Christianity is the largest world religion in terms of the number of adherents (about 2.1 billion people worldwide), in Russia, Europe, North and South America, as well as in many African countries, it is the dominant religion. There are Christian communities in almost all countries of the world.

The Christian doctrine is based on faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of all mankind, as well as in the trinity of God (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). It originated in the 1st century A.D. in Palestine and after a few decades began to spread throughout the Roman Empire and within its sphere of influence. Subsequently, Christianity penetrated into the countries of Western and Eastern Europe, missionary expeditions reached the countries of Asia and Africa. With the beginning of the Great Geographical Discoveries and the development of colonialism, it began to spread to other continents.

Today, there are three main areas of the Christian religion: Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism. The so-called ancient Eastern churches (the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Coptic, Ethiopian, Syrian and Indian Malabar Orthodox churches), which did not make the decisions of the IV Ecumenical (Chalcedonian) Council in 451, stand out in a separate group.

Catholicism

The split of the church into Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) occurred in 1054. Catholicism is currently the largest in terms of the number of adherents of the Christian faith. It is distinguished from other Christian confessions by several important dogmas: about the Immaculate Conception and Ascension of the Virgin Mary, the doctrine of purgatory, about indulgences, the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope's actions as the head of the church, the assertion of the power of the Pope as the successor of the Apostle Peter, the indissolubility of the sacrament of marriage, veneration of the saints , martyrs and blessed.

Catholic teaching speaks of the procession of the Holy Spirit from God the Father and from God the Son. All Catholic priests take a vow of celibacy, baptism occurs through the libation of water on the head. The sign of the Cross is made from left to right, most often with five fingers.

Catholics make up the majority of believers in Latin America, Southern Europe (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal), Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Malta. A significant part of the population professes Catholicism in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Latvia, Lithuania, western regions of Ukraine and Belarus. In the Middle East, there are many Catholics in Lebanon, in Asia - in the Philippines and East Timor, in part - in Vietnam, South Korea and China. The influence of Catholicism is great in some African countries (mainly in the former French colonies).

Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy was originally subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople, at present there are many local (autocephalous and autonomous) Orthodox churches, the highest hierarchs of which are called patriarchs (for example, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia). The head of the church is Jesus Christ; there is no figure like the Pope in Orthodoxy. The institution of monasticism plays an important role in the life of the church, while the clergy is divided into white (non-monastic) and black (monastic). White clergy can marry and have a family. Unlike Catholicism, Orthodoxy does not recognize dogmas about the infallibility of the Pope and his supremacy over all Christians, about the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from the Son, about purgatory and about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.

The sign of the Cross in Orthodoxy is made from right to left, with three fingers (three fingers). In some branches of Orthodoxy (Old Believers, fellow believers) use two fingers - the sign of the cross with two fingers.

Orthodox Christians make up the majority of believers in Russia, in the eastern regions of Ukraine and Belarus, in Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia, Georgia, Abkhazia, Serbia, Romania, and Cyprus. A significant percentage of the Orthodox population is represented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of Finland, in the north of Kazakhstan, some states of the USA, Estonia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan and Albania. There are also Orthodox communities in some African countries.

Protestantism

The rise of Protestantism dates back to the 16th century and is associated with the Reformation, a broad movement against the domination of the Catholic Church in Europe. In the modern world there are many Protestant churches, the single center of which does not exist.

Among the original forms of Protestantism, Anglicanism, Calvinism, Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, Anabaptism, Mennonism are distinguished. Subsequently, such movements as Quakers, Pentecostals, The Salvation Army, Evangelicals, Adventists, Baptists, Methodists, and many others developed. Some researchers attribute such religious associations as, for example, Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses to Protestant churches, others to sects.

Most Protestants recognize the common Christian doctrine of the Trinity of God and the authority of the Bible, however, unlike Catholics and Orthodox Christians, they oppose the interpretation of Holy Scripture. Most Protestants deny icons, monasticism and the veneration of saints, believing that a person can be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Some of the Protestant churches are more conservative, some are more liberal (this difference in views on marriage and divorce is especially visible), many of them are active in missionary work. Such a branch as Anglicanism, in many of its manifestations, is close to Catholicism; at present, the question of recognizing the authority of the Pope by the Anglicans is underway.

There are Protestants in most countries of the world. They make up the majority of believers in the UK, USA, Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand, and there are also many of them in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Estonia. An increasing percentage of Protestants are observed in South Korea, as well as in such traditionally Catholic countries as Brazil and Chile. Own branches of Protestantism (such as, for example, Kimbangism) exist in Africa.

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF TEACHING, ORGANIZATIONAL AND Ritual DIFFERENCES OF ORTHODOXY, CATHOLICITY AND PROTESTANTISM

ORTHODOXY AND PROTESTANTISM: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

The Orthodox Church has kept intact the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to the apostles. But the Lord Himself warned His disciples that from among those who would be with them, people would appear who would want to distort the truth and muddy it with their inventions: Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves(Matt. 7 , 15).

And the apostles also warned about this. For example, the apostle Peter wrote: you will have false teachers who will introduce harmful heresies and, rejecting the Lord who redeemed them, will bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their debauchery, and through them the path of truth will be reproached ... Leaving the straight path, they lost their way ... the darkness of eternal darkness is prepared for them(2 Pet. 2 , 1-2, 15, 17).

Heresy is understood as a lie that a person follows deliberately. The path that Jesus Christ opened requires from a person selflessness and efforts in order to show whether he really entered this path with a firm intention and out of love for the truth. It is not enough just to call yourself a Christian; you have to prove by your deeds, words and thoughts, with your whole life that you are a Christian. The one who loves the truth, for its sake, is ready to abandon all lies in his thoughts and his life, so that the truth will enter into him, purify and sanctify.

But not everyone embarks on this path with pure intentions. And so the subsequent life in the Church reveals their unfit mood. And those who love themselves more than God fall away from the Church.

There is a sin of deed - when a person by deed violates the commandments of God, and there is a sin of the mind - when a person prefers his lie to Divine truth. The second is called heresy. And among those who called themselves Christians at different times, there were both people devoted to the sin of an act, and people devoted to the sin of the mind. He and the other person opposes God. That and the other person, if he made a firm choice in favor of sin, cannot remain in the Church, and falls away from it. Thus, throughout history, all who chose to sin left the Orthodox Church.

The Apostle John spoke of them: They went out from us, but they were not ours: for if they were ours, they would have remained with us; but they went out, and through that it was revealed that not all of our(1In. 2 , 19).

Their fate is unenviable, for the Scriptures say that the betrayers heresies ... the kingdom of God will not inherit(Gal. 5 , 20-21).

Precisely because a person is free, he can always make a choice and use freedom either for good, choosing the path to God, or for evil, choosing sin. This is the reason why false teachers arose and those who believed them more than Christ and His Church.

When heretics appeared, bringing lies, the holy fathers of the Orthodox Church began to explain to them their errors and called for them to abandon fiction and turn to the truth. Some, convinced by their words, corrected themselves, but not all. And about those who persisted in lies, the Church pronounced its judgment, testifying that they are not true followers of Christ and members of the community of the faithful founded by Him. This is how the apostolic council was fulfilled: After the first and second admonition of the heretic, turn away, knowing that he is corrupted and sins, being self-condemned(Tit. 3 , 10-11).

There have been many such people in history. The most widespread and numerous of the communities founded by them that have survived to this day are the Monophysite Eastern Churches (they arose in the 5th century), the Roman Catholic Church (which fell away from the Ecumenical Orthodox Church in the 11th century) and Churches calling themselves Protestant. Today we will consider what is the difference between the path of Protestantism and the path of the Orthodox Church.

Protestantism

If some branch breaks off from the tree, then, having lost contact with the life juices, it will inevitably begin to dry out, lose its leaves, become fragile and easily break at the first onslaught.

The same can be seen in the life of all communities that have separated from the Orthodox Church. Just as a broken-off branch cannot keep the leaves on itself, so those who separate from genuine church unity can no longer preserve their inner unity. This is because, having left God's family, they lose touch with the life-giving and saving power of the Holy Spirit, and that sinful desire to resist the truth and put themselves above others, which led them to fall away from the Church, continues to act among the fallen ones themselves, turning already against them and leading to ever new internal divisions.

So, in the 11th century, the Local Roman Church separated from the Orthodox Church, and at the beginning of the 16th century, a significant part of the people separated from it, following the ideas of the former Catholic priest Luther and his associates. They formed their communities, which began to be considered the "Church". This movement is collectively called Protestants, and their very secession is called the Reformation.

In turn, the Protestants also did not retain their inner unity, but they began to divide even more into different trends and directions, each of which claimed that it was precisely this Church of Jesus Christ. They continue to share to this day, and now there are more than twenty thousand of them in the world.

Each of their directions has its own peculiarities of doctrine, which would take a long time to describe, and here we will confine ourselves to analyzing only the main features that are characteristic of all Protestant nominations and which distinguish them from the Orthodox Church.

The main reason for the emergence of Protestantism was the protest against the teachings and religious practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

As St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) notes, indeed, “many delusions have crept into the Church of Rome. Luther would have done well if, rejecting the errors of the Latins, he replaced these errors with the true teaching of the Holy Church of Christ; but he replaced them with his own delusions; some of the errors of Rome, very important, he fully followed, and some strengthened. " “The Protestants rebelled against the ugly power and divinity of the popes; but since they acted on the prompting of passions, drowning in debauchery, and not with the direct aim of striving for the holy Truth, they did not prove worthy to see it. "

They abandoned the mistaken idea that the Pope is the head of the Church, but retained the Catholic fallacy that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son.

Scripture

The Protestants formulated the principle: "only Scripture", it means that they only recognize the authority of the Bible, and they reject the Holy Tradition of the Church.

And in this they contradict themselves, because the Holy Scripture itself indicates the need to honor the Holy Tradition coming from the apostles: stand up and keep the traditions that you have been taught either by our word or message(2 Thess. 2 , 15), - writes the Apostle Paul.

If a person writes a text and distributes it to different people, and then asks to explain how they understood it, then it will probably be discovered that someone understood the text correctly, and someone incorrectly, having put their meaning in these words. It is known that any text can have different versions of understanding. They can be correct or they can be wrong. The same is with the text of Holy Scripture, if you tear it away from Holy Tradition. Indeed, Protestants think that you need to understand Scripture the way you want to. But this approach cannot help to find the truth.

Here is how Saint Nicholas of Japan wrote about this: “Sometimes Japanese Protestants come to me, asking me to explain a passage of the Holy Scriptures. "You have your own missionary teachers - ask them," I say to them. "What do they answer?" - "We asked them, they say: understand as you know; but I need to know the true thought of God, and not my personal opinion" ... It's not so with us, everything is bright and reliable, clear and solid - because we are apart from the Sacred We also accept Holy Tradition, and Holy Tradition is a living, unbroken voice ... of our Church from the time of Christ and His Apostles to this day, which will remain until the end of the world. It is on him that the whole of Holy Scripture is affirmed. "

The apostle Peter himself testifies that no prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by oneself, for the prophecy was never uttered by the will of man, but the holy men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit(2 Pet. 1 , 20-21). Accordingly, only the holy fathers, moved by the same Holy Spirit, can reveal to a person the true understanding of the Word of God.

Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition form one inseparable whole, and this was the case from the very beginning.

Not in writing, but orally, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to the apostles how to understand the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament (Lk. 24 , 27), and they orally taught this to the first Orthodox Christians. Protestants want to imitate the early apostolic communities in their organization, but in the early years the early Christians did not have a New Testament scripture at all, and everything was passed from mouth to mouth, like tradition.

The Bible was given by God for the Orthodox Church, it was in accordance with Holy Tradition that the Orthodox Church at its Councils approved the composition of the Bible, it was the Orthodox Church that, long before the appearance of Protestants, lovingly preserved Holy Scripture in its communities.

Protestants, using the Bible, not written by them, not collected by them, not preserved by them, reject the Holy Tradition, and thereby close for themselves the true understanding of the Word of God. Therefore, they often argue about the Bible and often come up with their own, human traditions that have no connection either with the apostles or with the Holy Spirit, and fall, according to the word of the apostle, into empty deception, according to human tradition .., and not according to Christ(Col. 2, 8).

Sacraments

The Protestants rejected the priesthood and sacred rites, not believing that God could act through them, and even if they left something similar, then only the name, believing that these are only symbols and reminders of historical events left in the past, and not a holy reality in itself. Instead of bishops and priests, they got themselves pastors who had no connection with the apostles, no succession of grace, as in the Orthodox Church, where on every bishop and priest is the blessing of God, which can be traced from our days to Jesus Christ Himself. The Protestant pastor is only an orator and administrator of the life of the community.

As Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) says, “Luther ... with fervor rejecting the unlawful authority of the popes, he rejected the legitimate one; Holy Scripture testifies that it is impossible to receive remission of sins without confessing them. " Rejected by Protestants and other sacred rites.

Veneration of the Virgin and the saints

The Most Holy Virgin Mary, who gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ through humanity, prophetically said: from now on all generations will please me(OK. 1 , 48). This was said about the true followers of Christ - Orthodox Christians. And indeed, since then and to this day, from generation to generation, all Orthodox Christians venerate the Most Holy Theotokos the Virgin Mary. And Protestants do not want to honor and humor her, contrary to the Scriptures.

The Virgin Mary, like all saints, that is, people who have followed the path of salvation revealed by Christ to the end, have united with God and are always in harmony with Him.

The Mother of God and all the saints became the closest and most beloved friends of God. Even a person, if his beloved friend asks him for something, he will try to fulfill it, and God willingly listens and soon fulfills the requests of the saints. It is known that even during His earthly life, when they asked, He certainly responded. So, for example, at the request of the Mother, He helped the poor newlyweds and performed a miracle at the feast in order to save them from shame (Jn. 2 , 1-11).

Scripture says that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for with Him all are alive(Luke 20:38). Therefore, after death, people do not disappear without a trace, but their living souls are contained by God, and those who are holy retain the ability to communicate with Him. And the Scripture directly says that the departed saints turn with requests to God and He hears them (see: Rev. 6 , 9-10). Therefore, Orthodox Christians venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints and turn to them with requests that they intercede before God for us. Experience shows that many healings, deliverances from death and other help are received by those who resort to their prayerful intercession.

For example, in 1395 the great Mongolian commander Tamerlane with a huge army went to Russia to capture and destroy its cities, including the capital - Moscow. The Russians did not have enough strength to withstand such an army. The Orthodox inhabitants of Moscow began to earnestly ask the Most Holy Theotokos to pray to God for their salvation from the impending disaster. And so, one morning, Tamerlane unexpectedly announced to his commanders that it was necessary to turn the army and go back. And to questions about the reason, he answered that at night in a dream he saw a great mountain, on top of which a beautiful shining woman stood, who ordered him to leave the Russian lands. And, although Tamerlane was not an Orthodox Christian, he obeyed Her out of fear and respect for the holiness and spiritual strength of the Virgin Mary who appeared.

Prayers for the dead

Those Orthodox Christians who, during their lifetime, could not overcome sin and become saints, after death also do not disappear, but they themselves need our prayers. Therefore, the Orthodox Church prays for the dead, believing that through these prayers the Lord sends relief for the posthumous fate of our deceased loved ones. But Protestants do not want to admit this either, and refuse to pray for the dead.

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The Lord Jesus Christ, speaking about his followers, said: the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days(Mk. 2 , 20).

The Lord Jesus Christ was taken away from his disciples for the first time on Wednesday, when Judas betrayed Him and the villains seized him to lead him to judgment, and the second time - on Friday, when the villains crucified Him on the Cross. Therefore, in fulfillment of the Savior's words, Orthodox Christians from ancient times have been fasting every Wednesday and Friday, refraining for the Lord's sake from eating animal products, as well as from all kinds of entertainment.

The Lord Jesus Christ fasted forty days and nights (see: Matt. 4 2), setting an example for His disciples (see: John. 13 , 15). And the apostles, as the Bible says, with puddled the Lord and fasted(Acts. 13 , 2). Therefore, Orthodox Christians, in addition to one-day fasts, also have many-day fasts, of which the main one is Lent.

Protestants deny fasting and fasting days.

Sacred images

Anyone who wants to worship the true God should not worship false gods, which are either invented by people or by those spirits that fell away from God and became evil. These evil spirits often appeared to people in order to mislead them and distract them from worshiping the true God to worship themselves.

However, having ordered to build a temple, the Lord even in these ancient times commanded to make in it images of cherubim (see: Ex. 25, 18-22) - spirits who remained faithful to God and became holy angels. Therefore, from the very first times, Orthodox Christians also made sacred images of saints who were united with the Lord. In the ancient underground catacombs, where in the II-III centuries Christians, persecuted by the pagans, gathered for prayer and rites, they depicted the Virgin Mary, the apostles, stories from the Gospel. These ancient sacred images have survived to this day. In the same way, in modern churches of the Orthodox Church there are the same sacred images, icons. When looking at them, it is easier for a person to ascend his soul to prototype, concentrate your energies on a prayer appeal to him. After such prayers in front of holy icons, God often sends people help, often miraculous healings occur. In particular, Orthodox Christians prayed for deliverance from the army of Tamerlane in 1395 at one of the icons of the Mother of God - Vladimirskaya.

However, Protestants, by their delusion, reject the veneration of sacred images, not understanding the difference between them and between idols. This stems from their erroneous understanding of the Bible, as well as from the corresponding spiritual mood - after all, only those who do not understand the difference between a holy and an evil spirit can fail to notice the fundamental difference between the image of a saint and the image of an evil spirit.

Other differences

Protestants believe that if a person recognizes Jesus Christ as God and Savior, then he already becomes saved and holy, and no special deeds are needed for this. And Orthodox Christians, following the apostle James, believe that faith, if it has no works, is dead by itself(Jac. 2, 17). And the Savior Himself said: Not everyone who says to Me: "Lord, Lord!" Will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven(Matthew 7, 21). This means, according to Orthodox Christians, that it is necessary to fulfill the commandments that express the will of the Father, and thus by deeds to prove their faith.

Also, Protestants do not have monasticism and monasteries, while the Orthodox have them. Monks earnestly work to fulfill all the commandments of Christ. And besides, they take three additional vows for the sake of God: the vow of celibacy, the vow of non-possession (lack of property) and the vow of obedience to the spiritual leader. In this, they imitate the apostle Paul, who was celibate, not covetous and completely obedient to the Lord. The monastic path is considered higher and more glorious than the path of a layman - a family man, but a layman can also be saved, become a saint. Among the apostles of Christ were married people, namely, the apostles Peter and Philip.

When Saint Nicholas of Japan was asked at the end of the 19th century why, although the Orthodox in Japan have only two missionaries, and the Protestants have six hundred, nevertheless, more Japanese converted to Orthodoxy than to Protestantism, he replied: “It's not about people, but in teaching. If a Japanese, before adopting Christianity, thoroughly studies it and compares it: in the Catholic mission he recognizes Catholicism, in the Protestant mission - Protestantism, we have our teaching, then, as far as I know, he always accepts Orthodoxy.<...>What is this? Yes, that in Orthodoxy Christ's teaching is kept pure and whole; we added nothing to it, as Catholics, did not subtract anything, as Protestants. "

Indeed, Orthodox Christians are convinced, as Saint Theophan the Recluse says, of this immutable truth: “What God has revealed and what He has commanded, nothing should be added or subtracted from that. This applies to Catholics and Protestants. Those add everything, and these subtract ... The Catholics have muddied the apostolic tradition. The Protestants undertook to fix the matter - and they did it even worse. Catholics have one Pope, and Protestants, whatever Protestant, is a Pope. "

Therefore, everyone who is really interested in the truth, and not in their own thoughts, both in past centuries and in our time, will certainly find their way to the Orthodox Church, and often, even without any efforts of Orthodox Christians, God Himself leads such people to the truth. For example, we will give two stories that happened recently, the participants and witnesses of which are still alive.

Case in the USA

In the 1960s, in the American state of California, in the cities of Ben Lomon and Santa Barbara, a large group of young Protestants came to the conclusion that all Protestant Churches they knew could not be a real Church, since they assume that after the apostles the Church of Christ disappeared , and it seems that it was only in the 16th century that Luther and other leaders of Protestantism revived it. But such a thought contradicts the words of Christ that the gates of hell will not prevail against his Church. And then these young people began to study the historical books of Christians, from the earliest antiquity, from the first century to the second, then to the third, and so on, tracing the continuous history of the Church founded by Christ and His apostles. And so, thanks to their many years of research, these young Americans themselves became convinced that such a Church is the Orthodox Church, although none of the Orthodox Christians communicated with them and did not inspire them with such an idea, but the history of Christianity itself has borne witness to this truth for them. And then they came into contact with the Orthodox Church in 1974, all of more than two thousand people accepted Orthodoxy.

Case in Benini

Another story took place in West Africa, in Benin. In this country there were no completely Orthodox Christians, most of the inhabitants were pagans, a little more professed Islam, and some more were Catholics or Protestants.

One of them, a man named Optat Bekhanzin, had a misfortune in 1969: his five-year-old son Eric fell seriously ill and was paralyzed. Bekhanzin took his son to the hospital, but the doctors said that the boy could not be cured. Then the grief-stricken father turned to his Protestant "Church", began to attend prayer meetings in the hope that God would heal his son. But these prayers were fruitless. After that, Optat gathered some close people at his home, persuading them to pray together to Jesus Christ for the healing of Eric. And after their prayer a miracle happened: the boy was healed; this strengthened the small community. Subsequently, all new miraculous healings took place through their prayers to God. Therefore, more and more people moved to them - both Catholics and Protestants.

In 1975, the community decided to form itself as an independent church, and the believers decided to pray hard and fast in order to know the will of God. And at that moment Erik Bekhanzin, who was already eleven years old, received a revelation: when asked how he should call his church community, God answered: "My Church is called the Orthodox Church." This greatly surprised the Beninians, because none of them, including Eric himself, had ever heard of the existence of such a Church, and they did not even know the word "Orthodox". Nevertheless, they called their community “the Orthodox Church of Benin,” and it was only twelve years later that they were able to meet Orthodox Christians. And when they learned about the real Orthodox Church, which has been called that since ancient times and originates from the Apostles, they all joined together, with over 2,500 people, transferred to the Orthodox Church. This is how the Lord responds to the requests of all who really seek the path of holiness leading to the truth, and brings such a person into His Church.
The difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism

The reason for the split of the Christian Church into Western (Catholicism) and Eastern (Orthodoxy) was the political split that occurred at the turn of the VIII-IX centuries, when Constantinople lost the lands of the western part of the Roman Empire. In the summer of 1054, the Pope's ambassador to Constantinople, Cardinal Humbert, anathematized the Byzantine Patriarch Michael Kirularius and his followers. A few days later, a council was held in Constantinople, at which Cardinal Humbert and his henchmen were anathematized in response. Disagreements between representatives of the Roman and Greek churches were aggravated by political differences: Byzantium was arguing with Rome for power. The distrust of East and West spilled over into open enmity after the crusade against Byzantium in 1202, when Western Christians went against their Eastern fellow believers. Only in 1964 did the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI officially abolished the anathema of 1054. However, differences in tradition have become deeply ingrained over the centuries.

Church organization

The Orthodox Church includes several independent Churches. In addition to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), there are Georgian, Serbian, Greek, Romanian and others. These Churches are governed by patriarchs, archbishops and metropolitans. Not all Orthodox Churches have communion with each other in sacraments and prayers (which, according to the catechism of Metropolitan Philaret, is a necessary condition for individual Churches to be part of the one Universal Church). Also, not all Orthodox Churches recognize each other as true churches. The Orthodox believe that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church

Unlike the Orthodox Church, Catholicism is one Ecumenical Church. All its parts in different countries of the world are in communication with each other, and also follow the same doctrine and recognize the Pope as their head. In the Catholic Church, there are communities within the Catholic Church (rites), which differ from each other in the form of liturgical worship and church discipline. There are Roman, Byzantine rites, etc. Therefore, there are Roman Catholics, Byzantine Catholics, etc., but they are all members of the same Church. The Pope is considered the head of the Church and Catholics.

Divine service

The main service for the Orthodox is the Divine Liturgy, for the Catholics - the Mass (Catholic liturgy).

During service in the Russian Orthodox Church, it is customary to stand as a sign of humility before God. In other Churches of the Eastern Rite, it is allowed to sit during services. As a sign of unconditional obedience, the Orthodox kneel down. Contrary to popular belief, it is customary for Catholics to sit and stand during services. There are worship services that Catholics listen to on their knees.

The virgin

In Orthodoxy, the Mother of God is primarily the Mother of God. She is revered as a saint, but she was born in original sin, like all ordinary mortals, and died, like all people. Unlike Orthodoxy, in Catholicism it is believed that the Virgin Mary was conceived immaculately without original sin and at the end of her life was ascended to heaven alive.

Symbol of faith

The Orthodox believe that the Holy Spirit comes only from the Father. Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and from the Son.

Sacraments

The Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church recognize seven main Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation (Confirmation), Communion (Eucharist), Repentance (Confession), Priesthood (Ordination), Blessing of Oil (Unction) and Marriage (Wedding). The rituals of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches are almost identical, the differences are only in the interpretation of the sacraments. For example, during the sacrament of baptism in the Orthodox Church, a child or an adult is immersed in a font. In a Catholic church, an adult or a child is sprayed with water. The sacrament of communion (Eucharist) is performed on leavened bread. Both the priesthood and the laity partake in both the Blood (wine) and the Body of Christ (bread). In Catholicism, the sacrament of communion is performed on unleavened bread. The priesthood partakes of both the Blood and the Body, and the laity - only the Body of Christ.

Purgatory

In Orthodoxy, they do not believe in the presence of purgatory after death. Although it is assumed that souls can be in an intermediate state, hoping to get to heaven after the Last Judgment. In Catholicism, there is a dogma about purgatory, where souls dwell in anticipation of paradise.

Faith and Morality
The Orthodox Church recognizes only the decisions of the first seven Ecumenical Councils, which took place from 49 to 787. Catholics recognize the Pope as their head and share a single creed. Although within the Catholic Church there are communities with different forms of liturgical worship: Byzantine, Roman and others. The Catholic Church recognizes the decisions of the 21 Ecumenical Councils, the last of which took place in 1962-1965.

Within the framework of Orthodoxy, divorces are allowed in individual cases, which are decided by the priests. The Orthodox clergy is divided into "white" and "black". Representatives of the "white clergy" are allowed to marry. True, then they will not be able to receive the episcopal and higher dignity. The "black clergy" are celibate monks. The sacrament of marriage among Catholics is considered concluded for life and divorce is prohibited. All Catholic monastic clergy take a vow of celibacy.

Sign of the cross

Orthodox Christians cross only from right to left with three fingers. Catholics cross from left to right. They do not have a single rule, as when creating a cross, you need to fold your fingers, so several options have taken root.

Icons
On the icons of Orthodox Christians, saints are painted in a two-dimensional image according to the tradition of reverse perspective. Thus, it is emphasized that the action takes place in another dimension - in the world of the spirit. Orthodox icons are monumental, strict and symbolic. Catholics write saints in a naturalistic way, often in the form of statues. Catholic icons are painted in direct perspective.

The sculptural images of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints accepted in Catholic churches are not accepted by the Eastern Church.

Crucifixion
The Orthodox cross has three crossbars, one of which is short and located at the top, symbolizing a tablet with the inscription "This is Jesus, King of the Jews", which was nailed over the head of the crucified Christ. The lower crossbar is a foot and one end looks up, pointing to one of the robbers crucified next to Christ, who believed and ascended with him. The second end of the crossbar points downward, as a sign that the second robber, who allowed himself to slander Jesus, went to hell. On the Orthodox cross, each foot of Christ is nailed with a separate nail. Unlike the Orthodox cross, the Catholic cross consists of two bars. If it depicts Jesus, then both of Jesus' feet are nailed to the base of the cross with one nail. Christ on Catholic crucifixes, as well as on icons, is depicted in a naturalistic way - his body sags under the weight, torment and suffering are noticeable in the whole image.

Memorial service for the deceased
The Orthodox commemorate the dead on the 3rd, 9th and 40th days, then a year later. Catholics always commemorate the dead on Memorial Day - November 1. In some European countries, November 1 is official m weekend. Also, the deceased are commemorated on the 3rd, 7th and 30th days after death, but this tradition is not strictly observed.

Despite the existing differences, both Catholics and Orthodox are united by the fact that they profess and preach throughout the world one faith and one teaching of Jesus Christ.

conclusions:

1. In Orthodoxy, it is generally accepted that the Ecumenical Church is "embodied" in every local Church headed by a bishop. Catholics add to this that in order to belong to the Universal Church, the local Church must have communion with the local Roman Catholic Church.
2. World Orthodoxy does not have a single leadership. It is divided into several independent churches. World Catholicism is one church.
3. The Catholic Church recognizes the primacy of the Pope in matters of faith and discipline, morality and government. The Orthodox Churches do not recognize the Pope's supremacy.
4. Churches see differently the role of the Holy Spirit and the mother of Christ, who in Orthodoxy is called the Mother of God, and in Catholicism the Virgin Mary. In Orthodoxy, there is no concept of purgatory.
5. In the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, the same sacraments operate, but the rituals of their performance are different.
6. Unlike Catholicism, in Orthodoxy there is no dogma of purgatory.
7. Orthodox Christians and Catholics create the cross in different ways.
8. Orthodoxy permits divorce, and its "white clergy" can marry. In Catholicism, divorce is prohibited, and all monastic clergy take a vow of celibacy.
9. The Orthodox and Catholic Churches recognize the decisions of various Ecumenical Councils.
10. Unlike Orthodox Christians, Catholics write saints on icons in a naturalistic way. Also, sculptural images of Christ, the Mother of God and saints are common among Catholics.
    

So ... Everyone understands that Catholicism and Orthodoxy, like Protestantism, are the directions of one religion - Christianity. Despite the fact that both Catholicism and Orthodoxy belong to Christianity, there are significant differences between them.

If Catholicism is represented by only one church, and Orthodoxy consists of several autocephalous churches, homogeneous in their doctrine and structure, then Protestantism is a multitude of churches that may differ from each other both in organization and in individual details of doctrine.

Protestantism is characterized by the absence of a principled opposition of the clergy to the laity, the rejection of the complex church hierarchy, a simplified cult, the absence of monasticism, celibacy; in Protestantism there is no cult of the Virgin, saints, angels, icons, the number of sacraments is reduced to two (baptism and communion).
The main source of doctrine is Scripture. Protestantism is spread mainly in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavian countries and Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Latvia, Estonia. Thus, Protestants are Christians who belong to one of several independent Christian churches.

They are Christians, and together with Catholics and Orthodox, they share the fundamental principles of Christianity.
However, the views of Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Protestants on some issues differ. Protestants value the authority of the Bible above all else. Orthodox Christians and Catholics value their traditions more highly and believe that only the leaders of these Churches can interpret the Bible correctly. Despite their differences, all Christians agree with the prayer of Christ recorded in the Gospel of John (17: 20-21): “I do not only pray for them, but also for those who believe in Me according to their word, that they may all be one ... ".

Which is better, depending on which side you look at. For the development of the state and life in pleasure - Protestantism is more acceptable. If a person is motivated by the thought of suffering and redemption, then Catholicism?

For me personally, it is important that NS ravoslavism is the only religion that teaches that God is love (John 3:16; 1 John 4: 8). And this is not one of the qualities, but is the main revelation of God about Himself - that He is all-good, unceasing and unchanging, all-perfect Love, and that all His actions, in relation to man and the world, are only an expression of love. Therefore, such “feelings” of God as anger, punishment, revenge, etc., which are often spoken of in the books of Holy Scripture and the holy fathers, are nothing more than ordinary anthropomorphisms, used to give the widest possible circle of people, in the most accessible form, an idea of ​​the providence of God in the world. Therefore, says St. John Chrysostom (IV century): “when you hear the words:“ rage and anger ”, in relation to God, then do not understand anything human by them: these are words of condescension. Deity is alien to all such things; it is said so in order to bring the subject closer to the understanding of more coarse people "(Conversation on Ps. VI. 2. // Creations. T.V. Book. 1. St. Petersburg 1899, p. 49).

To each his own...

For a Christian believer, it is very important to accurately represent the main points of his own faith. The difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, which manifested itself during the period of church schism in the middle of the 11th century, developed over the years and centuries and created practically different branches of Christianity.

In short, what makes Orthodoxy different is that it is a more canonical teaching. It is not for nothing that the church is also called Eastern Orthodoxy. Here they try to adhere to the original traditions with high precision.

Consider the main milestones in history:

• Until the 11th century, Christianity develops as a single doctrine (of course, the statement is largely conditional, since various heresies and new schools that deviated from the canon have appeared over a whole millennium), which is actively progressing, spreading in the world, so-called Ecumenical Councils are held, designed to solve some of the dogmatic features of the teaching;
• The Great Schism, that is, the Church schism of the 11th century, which separates the Western Roman Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox, in fact, the Patriarch of Constantinople (Eastern Church) and the Roman Pontiff Leo the Ninth quarreled, as a result, they gave each other mutual anathema, that is, excommunication from churches;
• the separate path of the two churches: in the West, the institution of pontiffs flourishes in Catholicism and various additions are made to the doctrine, in the East the original tradition is honored. Rus became in fact the successor of Byzantium, although the Greek Church remained to a large extent the guardian of the Orthodox tradition;
• 1965 - the formal lifting of mutual anathemas after the meeting in Jerusalem and the signing of the corresponding declaration.

Throughout almost a thousand-year period, Catholicism has undergone a huge number of changes. In turn, in Orthodoxy, even minor innovations, which concerned only the ritual side, were not always accepted.

The main differences between traditions

Initially, the Catholic Church was formally closer to the basis of the doctrine, since the Apostle Peter was the first pontiff in this particular church.

In fact, the tradition of the transfer of the Catholic ordination of the apostles comes from Peter himself.

Although ordination (that is, ordination to the priesthood) exists in Orthodoxy, and every priest who participates in the Holy Gifts in Orthodoxy also becomes the bearer of the original tradition, coming from Christ himself and the apostles.

Note! In order to indicate each difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism will take a significant amount of time, this material sets out the most basic details and provides an opportunity to develop a conceptual understanding of the difference between traditions.

After the split, Catholics and Orthodox Christians gradually became carriers of very different views. We will try to consider the most significant differences that relate to dogma, and the ritual side, and other aspects.

Perhaps the main difference between Orthodoxy and Catholicism is contained in the text of the Symbol of Faith prayer, which should be regularly recited to the believer.

Such a prayer is, as it were, an over-compressed synopsis of the entire teaching, describes the basic postulates. In Eastern orthodoxy, the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father, each Catholic, in turn, reads about the descent of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son.

Before the schism, various decisions regarding dogma were made conciliarly, that is, by representatives of all regional churches at a common council. This tradition has remained in Orthodoxy to this day, but it is not this that is essential, but the dogma of the infallibility of the pontiff of the Roman Church.

This fact is one of the most significant, in what the difference between Orthodoxy and the Catholic tradition, since the figure of the patriarch does not have such powers and has a completely different function. The pontiff, in turn, is the vicar (that is, as it were, an official representative with all the powers) of Christ on earth. Of course, the scriptures do not say anything about this, and this dogma was adopted by the church itself much later than the crucifixion of Christ.

Even the first pontiff Peter, whom Jesus himself appointed “the stone on which to build the church,” was not endowed with such powers, he was an apostle, but no more.

Nevertheless, the modern pontiff to some extent does not differ from Christ himself (before His coming at the end of times) and can independently make any additions to the doctrine. Hence, there are differences in dogma, which in a significant way lead away from the original Christianity.

A typical example is the virginity of the conception of the Virgin Mary, which we will discuss in more detail later. This is not indicated in the scriptures (even the opposite is indicated), but Catholics relatively recently (in the 19th century) adopted the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, accepted the current pontiff of that period, that is, this decision was infallible and dogmatically correct, in agreement with the will of Christ himself ...

Quite justifiably, it is the Orthodox and Catholic Churches that deserve more attention and detailed consideration, since only these Christian traditions have the rite of consecration, which actually comes directly from Christ through the apostles, whom He endowed with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Apostles, in turn, transmitted the Holy Gifts further through the ordination of priests. Other movements, such as, for example, Protestants or Lutherans, do not have the rite of transmission of the Holy Gifts, that is, priests in these movements are outside the direct transmission of teachings and sacraments.

Traditions of icon painting

Only Orthodoxy differs from other Christian traditions in the veneration of icons. In fact, this has not only a cultural aspect, but also a religious one.

Catholics have icons, but they do not have the exact traditions of creating images that convey the events of the spiritual world and allow them to ascend into the spiritual world. To understand what is the difference between the perception in the two directions of Christianity, it is enough to look at the images in the temples:

• in Orthodoxy and nowhere else (if Christianity is considered), the icon-painting image is always created using a special technique of constructing perspective, in addition to this, deep and multifaceted religious symbolism is used, those present on the icon never express earthly emotions;
• if you look in a Catholic church, you can immediately see that these are mostly paintings written by simple artists, they convey beauty, can be symbolic, but focus on the earthly, saturated with human emotions;
• characteristic is the difference in the depiction of the cross with the Savior, because Orthodoxy differs from other traditions by the depiction of Christ without naturalistic details, there is no emphasis on the body, He is an example of the obsession of the upper spirit over the body, and Catholics most often in the crucifix emphasize the sufferings of Christ, carefully depict details of the wounds that He had, consider the feat precisely in suffering.

Note! There are separate offshoots of Catholic mysticism that represent an in-depth focus on the suffering of Christ. The believer seeks to fully identify himself with the Savior and fully experience his suffering. By the way, in this regard, there are also the phenomenon of stigmata.

In short, the Orthodox Church shifts the emphasis to the spiritual side of the matter, even art is used here within the framework of a special technique that changes a person's perception so that he can better enter a prayer mood and perception of the heavenly world.

Catholics, in turn, do not use art in this way, they can emphasize beauty (Madonna and Child) or suffering (Crucifixion), but these phenomena are transmitted purely as attributes of the earthly order. As the wise saying goes, to understand religion, you need to look at the images in the temples.

Immaculate Conception of the Virgin

In the modern Western church, there is a kind of cult of the Virgin Mary, which was formed purely historically and also largely due to the adoption of the previously noted dogma of Her Immaculate Conception.

If we remember the scriptures, then it clearly speaks of Joachim and Anna, who conceived quite viciously, in a normal human way. Of course, this was also a miracle, since they were elderly people and before the Archangel Gabriel appeared to everyone, but the conception was human.

Therefore, for the Orthodox, the Mother of God is not a representative of the divine nature from the very beginning. Although she subsequently ascended in a body and was taken by Christ to Heaven. Catholics now consider Her to be something like the personification of the Lord. After all, if the conception was immaculate, that is, from the Holy Spirit, then the Virgin Mary, like Christ, combined both divine and human nature.

Good to know!