Definition of Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church considers it to be the authentic and true church of Jesus Christ and other views of Christianity are understood as heresies. From their conception of the gospels and of the faith, the Orthodox emphasize the importance of imitating Christ, while the Catholics emphasize the role of the authority religious.

Orthodox priests can contract marriage but not Catholics. The idea of ​​the infallibility of the Pope of Rome is logically denied by the orthodox view. Another of the singularities of the Orthodox Church focuses on the interpretation of the Holy Trinity (the third person, the Holy Spirit, only comes from the Father).

Historical introduction

After three centuries of persecution the religion Christianity was recognized by Emperor Constantine and formally legalized by the Edict of Milan in AD 313. C. A few years earlier, another emperor, Diocletian, had divided the Roman empire in eastern and western. The division resulted in two conceptions of Christianity and of the church itself: while the West defended the authority of the Pope, the East claimed the role of the patriarchs.

The beliefs of the Orthodox Church

Tensions within Christianity grew stronger and in the year 1054 there was a division in the church: the Catholicism Roman and Eastern Orthodox Church officially separated, which is known in religious terms as a schism.

Although the two churches share common elements, since both are based on the doctrine of Jesus Christ, the Orthodox Church has some peculiarities. First, the Orthodox argue that God cannot be described from a perspective human and you can only say what God is not, so it is possible to know God but not description. The worship of God led to the worship of icons, that is, the worship of paintings depicting Christian subjects and people. In this way, by worshiping icons, the Orthodox tried to get closer to God.

The Orthodox Church today is present in some Eastern European countries (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania), as well as in Russia and Greece. Although the visible head is the Patriarch of Constantinople, it is a purely protocol authority, since the local patriarchs have a high degree of autonomy.

The largest number of Orthodox faithful is led by the Patriarch of Moscow, who represents the entire Russian Orthodox Church with more than 150 million believers. Interestingly, the Russian Orthodox were persecuted during the communist period, something that reminds us of the origin Christianity, when the Roman Empire did not tolerate Christians and subjected them to martyrdom and persecution.

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