Portal:Eastern Christianity

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Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity. Eastern Christians have a shared tradition, but they became divided (SEE: SCHISM) during the early centuries of Christianity in disputes about christology and fundamental theology. In general terms, one can identify four branches or families of Eastern Christianity, each of which has distinct theology and dogma. They are: the Assyrian Church of the East, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Eastern Catholic Churches - the latter being in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

All of the Eastern branches, as well as the Western churches, share a common Christian tradition and most of the same Christian Biblical canon. The Eastern branches also share traditional practices in common which are not shared by the Western churches. The Eastern churches' differences from Western Christianity have as much, if not more, to do with culture, language, and politics as theology. The Assyrian Church of the East became estranged from the church of the Roman Empire in the years following the Council of Ephesus (431), Oriental Orthodoxy separated after the Council of Chalcedon (451), and the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church is usually dated to 1054. This event is referred to as the Great Schism.

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Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship. It is the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and is the main language of the Talmud. Aramaic was the native language of Jesus (see Aramaic of Jesus). Modern Aramaic is spoken today as a first language by numerous, scattered communities, most significantly by Assyrians, Syriacs, and Chaldeans. The language is considered to be endangered. Christian missionaries brought the language into Persia, India and even China. From the seventh century AD onwards, Aramaic was replaced as the lingua franca of the Middle East by Arabic. However, Aramaic remains a literary and liturgical language among Jews, Mandaeans and some Christians, and is still spoken by small isolated communities throughout its original area of influence. The turbulence of the last two centuries has seen speakers of first-language and literary Aramaic dispersed throughout the world.

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Credit: Cplakidas

Constantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire (330–395) and the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453).

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Did you know...

...that the Chinese government had no objections when the Eastern Orthodox Church canonized Metrophanes, Chi Sung and other martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion, but did object to canonizations by the Roman Catholic Church?

...that Martha, the mother of Simeon Stylites, is said to have only consented to marriage after John the Baptist appeared to her telling her to do so?

...that Anthony of Kiev left his Kiev Monastery of the Caves when it gained 12 members because he felt it was too crowded?

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Jovan Vladimir in English texts often John Vladimir, (died May 22, 1016 in Prespa, today in the Republic of Macedonia) was the ruler of Duklja between the years ca. 990 and 1016, during the protracted war between Byzantium and the First Bulgarian Empire. He tried to protect Duklja from the expansionist Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria by making alliance with Byzantium; Samuil, however, conquered Duklja in 997 and took Jovan Vladimir prisoner. Samuil’s daughter Theodora Kosara fell in love with the captive, and begged her father for his hand. He obliged, returning Duklja to his new son-in-law and giving him the territory of Dyrrhachium besides, to rule them as his vassal. Vladimir ruled in peace, evading involvement in the major conflict. The war culminated with Samuil’s defeat by the Byzantines in 1014, shortly after which the Tsar died. Jovan Vladimir finally fell victim in 1016 to a plot by Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian empire. He was beheaded in front of a church in Prespa. Jovan Vladimir was buried in Prespa, and shortly after his death he was recognized as a martyr and saint, being celebrated on May 22; he is chronologically the first Serbian saint. To the present day, the relics of Saint Jovan Vladimir attract many believers, especially on his feast day. One relic connected with the saint is the cross that he held in his hands when he was beheaded. Saint Jovan Vladimir is the patron saint of the town Bar, Montenegro.

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• Religion
  • Christianity
    • Oriental Orthodoxy
    • Eastern Orthodoxy
    • Roman Catholicism
    • Syriac Christianity
    • Bible
    • Saints

Related topics

History: Byzantine Empire - Crusades - Ecumenical council - Christianization of Bulgaria - Christianization of Kievan Rus'
East-West Schism

By region: Asian - Copts - Eastern Orthodox - Georgian - Ukrainian

Traditions: Assyrian Church of the East - Eastern Orthodox Church - Eastern Catholic Churches - Oriental Orthodoxy
Syriac Christianity

Liturgy and Worship: Sign of the cross - Divine Liturgy - Iconography - Asceticism - Omophorion

Theology: Hesychasm - Icon- Apophaticism - Filioque clause- Miaphysitism - Monophysitism- Nestorianism - Theosis
Theoria - Phronema - Philokalia - Praxis - Theotokos - Hypostasis - Ousia - Essence-Energies distinction - Metousiosis

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