hi, would it be right to say out of all the paths, beliefs and religions around the world that the catholics are your closest friends? i was trying to see if christians are ok with catholics? it's very similar for beliefs but i think the main difference is where the pope thinks he's speaking for god while he's surrounded by such wealth and there's something rather eerie about the costumes they wear lol it seems rather unnecessary, what is your veiw?
sure i saw a picture earlier of where the cross still remains after that norte dame fire, some people see that as a spiritual sign so it's like 'god' is active in the cathedral's or churches.
Catholics
are Christians.
Breaking it down, the Christian religion is usually divided into several larger families or "branches", there can be some quibbling on exactly how one wants to map it out, but here's one way to do so:
Catholicism
Eastern Orthodoxy
Oriental Orthodoxy
Protestantism
The "Nestorian" Church*
Sometimes Anglicanism is added as well, as being distinct from Protestantism.
Protestantism is a big-tent term that covers a lot of very diverse groups. First and foremost it covers those churches which arose out of the Magisterial Reformation: Lutheran and Reformed (examples of Reformed denominations include Presbyterians, the Dutch Reformed Church, et al); it also includes other groups which directly or indirectly came out of the Reformation, such as the Mennonites (and thus also the Amish), Moravians, Methodists, Baptists, and so on and so forth.
*The "Nestorian" Church is more correctly called The Church of the East or The Assyrian Church.
Here's how it went down historically:
There was just one catholic, orthodox Christian Church made up of many regional and local churches, with bishops over diocese holding together a common faith. But differences in practices or theological squabbles (which can at times seem to many modern people as pretty irrelevant) resulted in schisms, that is, breaks in communion, and thus groups of churches splitting with other groups of churches.
The first major Schism occurred in the 5th century, centered on a controversy concerning the then Bishop of Constantinople, Nestorius. Nestorius' views had been shaped, at least in some degree, by a fairly well-respected theologian named Theodore of Mopsuestia, who influenced a lot of the thinking of a lot of theologians, especially those parts of Syria and what would today be Iraq. Long story short, some of Nestorius' ideas did not prove terribly well accepted by many. This ultimately resulted in the Council of Ephesus in the year 431 which condemned Nestorius. With the condemnation of Nestorius also came, later condemnations of Theodore of Mopsuestia, this upset many of the churches in Mesopotamia, and resulted in a Schism. The term "Nestorian" applied to the Church of the East (as it is more properly called) isn't necessarily the most correct. The Church of the East used to be fairly expansive, having spread throughout Mesopotamia, parts of the Arabian peninsula, Persia, Afghanistan, India, Central Asia, and even into Northern and Western China. During the time of the Mongolian Empire, "Nestorian" Christians were among many of the peoples who inhabited the Empire, and served in the courts of the Khans and Khagans under the general Mongolian policy of religious toleration. Today most of the Church of the East lives in diaspora, while some still live in their historic homelands in Iraq and India, though since the 2003 Invasion of Iraq the numbers of Assyrian Christians there has twindled incredibly, their churches destroyed, their members killed, with many survivors fleeing to other parts of the world.
The second major Schism occurred also in the 5th century. Theological debates between the two great theological centers of the Church, Antioch and Alexandria, which had been part of the earlier Nestorian debate, also reached a boiling point. In this case another Council was called, this time in Chalcedon, but a number of bishops were not able to be there; and as such the confession of faith drawn up at Chalcedon was agreed upon only by those present, and many who were not present could not give counterpoint or assent. This affair resulted in alienating many, especially in Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, and Armenia. These non-Chalcedonian Churches are usually known together as the Oriental Orthodox, comprising the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, the Ethiopian Tawahedo Orthodox Church in Ethiopia (and, in modern times, the Eritrean Tawahedo Orthodox Church in Eritrea), The Armenian Apostolic Church in Armenia, the Syriac Orthodox Church in Syria, and the Malankara Orthodox Church in India. Today there has been a growing dialogue between Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox, as well as with Catholics and Protestants. With a growing consensus among most parties that our differences have never been theological, but really only semantic. And there is hope for possible full reunion between the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches eventually (though it's not certain).
The third major Schism is the really big one, in fact it is called The Great Schism, and it began in 1054 AD. The historical circumstances behind it are a topic that really deserves its own thread of discussion. But overly simplified (like, really, really, really overly simplified) there had been growing differences in theology and practice between predominantly Latin-speaking Western Christians and predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Christians for centuries. Additionally social and political pressures had drastically changed with the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, though it continued in the East in the form of the Byzantine Empire (the Byzantine Empire really just was the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire continued in the East right up until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD). For example when the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) crowned the king of the Franks, Charles (Charlemagne), the son of Pepin the Great, "King of the Romans" it didn't sit very well with the actual Roman Emperor ruling over there in Constantinople. There had been an earlier fairly big quibble between East and West over the bishop Photius, resulting in a temporary schism known as the Photian Schism, but while it was temporary, it was kind of a sign of what would eventually come. In the end, the bishop of Rome had basically said that as the Successor of St. Peter his apostolic seat gave him pastoral jurisdiction over the whole Church, and so when he declared a change to the Nicene Creed, which had been unchanged since 381 AD, the bishops of the East said no. In the end, some papal legates speaking in the Pope's name went to Hagia Sophia in Constantinople with a Bull of Excommunication saying the bishop of Constantinople was excommunicated--an act which was seen by the bishops of the east as beyond audacious, and so the response from the Eastern bishops was to condemn the bishop of Rome. The result, here, was a schism between East and West. The Eastern Orthodox Church in the East and the Roman Catholic Church in the West.
And then, after all that, came the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Which began as a debate against certain ecclesiastical abuses, namely the selling of Indulgences. If you thought the Great Schism was complicated, well this one's a doozy. As this post has already reached a serious length, I'm going to not talk about this one. Though I've no problem doing so in a future post.
-CryptoLutheran
