87-730: Byzantine Church or Byzantine church may refer to: Historically, the State church of the Roman Empire particularly, Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire Any church that uses the Byzantine Rite a.k.a. Greek Rite the Eastern Orthodox Church the 14 different Greek Catholic Churches , Eastern Catholic Churches that are using
174-626: A Parthian dynasty, became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion , with the possible exception of Osroene in 201. In 311, with the Edict of Serdica the dying Emperor Galerius ended the Diocletianic Persecution that he is reputed to have instigated, and in 313, Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan , granting to Christians and others "the right of open and free observance of their worship". Constantine began to utilize Christian symbols such as
261-623: A man of apostolic holiness. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title of Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since, in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with
348-432: A period of several centuries to try to formalize these doctrines. The most significant of these early decisions was that between the homoousian doctrine of Athanasius and Eustathius (which became Trinitarianism ) and the heteroousian doctrine of Arius and Eusebius of Nicomedia ( Arianism ). The homoousian doctrine, which defined Jesus as both God and man with the canons of the 431 Council of Ephesus , won out in
435-549: A problem could be referred to as unorthodox , while a common and 'normal' mainstream way of solving a problem might be referred to as orthodox . The concept of orthodoxy pre-supposes some degree of agreed cultural standardisation - a system of social norms - whereby opinion can distinguish "correct" belief or doctrine from their "incorrect" equivalents. Where world-views or religious sentiment have not developed standardised, generally accepted systems of thought, orthodoxy cannot take root. The development of writing facilitated
522-590: A single millet headed by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Westerners who set up Crusader states in Greece and the Middle East appointed Latin (Western) patriarchs and other hierarchs, thus giving concrete reality and permanence to the schism. Efforts were made in 1274 ( Second Council of Lyon ) and 1439 ( Council of Florence ) to restore communion between East and West, but the agreements reached by
609-418: A superior ecclesial authority that covered the whole of his empire. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 reaffirmed that the bishop of a provincial capital, the metropolitan bishop, had a certain authority over the bishops of the province. But it also recognized the existing supra-metropolitan authority of the sees of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, and granted special recognition to Jerusalem. Constantinople
696-406: Is Sanatana Dharma , but which at best can be translated to mean "ageless traditions", hence denoting that they are accepted not through doctrine and force but through multi-generational tests of adoption and retention based on circumstantial attrition through millennia. Still, the concepts of āstika and nāstika of Indian philosophy are quite similar to orthodoxy and heterodoxy respectively,
783-587: Is also used to cover both full heresies and minor errors. Doctrine or practices not regarded as essential to faith, with which Christians can legitimately disagree, are known as adiaphora . The concept of orthodoxy is prevalent in many forms of organized monotheism . However, orthodox belief is not usually overly emphasized in polytheistic or animist religions, in which there is often little or no concept of dogma , and varied interpretations of doctrine and theology are tolerated and sometimes even encouraged within certain contexts. Syncretism , for example, plays
870-588: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages State church of the Roman Empire In the year before the Council of Constantinople in 381, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire when Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, which recognized the catholic orthodoxy of Nicene Christians as
957-456: Is not a centralized denomination. Relations between its different subgroups are sometimes strained and the exact limits of Orthodoxy are subject to intense debate. Very roughly, it may be divided between Haredi Judaism , which is more conservative and reclusive, and Modern Orthodox Judaism , which is relatively open to outer society. Each of those is itself formed of independent streams. They are almost uniformly exclusionist, regarding Orthodoxy as
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#17327662203431044-518: Is not like the rulers and governors of other regions". Following the schism between the Eastern and Western churches, various emperors sought at times but without success to reunite Christendom , invoking the notion of Christian unity between East and West in an attempt to obtain assistance from the pope and Western Europe against the Muslims who were gradually conquering the empire's territory. But
1131-600: Is to be sought…only among those who are called Catholic or orthodox Christians, that is, guardians of truth and followers of right." Over time, the Western Church gradually identified with the "Catholic" label, and people of Western Europe gradually associated the "Orthodox" label with the Eastern Church (in some languages the "Catholic" label is not necessarily identified with the Western Church). This
1218-626: The Fiscus Iudaicus , the annual tax upon the Jews. Pliny the Younger , when propraetor in Bithynia in 103, assumes in his letters to Trajan that because Christians do not pay the tax, they are not Jews. Since paying taxes had been one of the ways that Jews demonstrated their goodwill and loyalty toward the empire, Christians had to negotiate their own alternatives to participating in
1305-620: The Arian view (the Father and the Son are similar, but the Father is greater than the Son). Emperors thereby became ever more involved with the increasingly divided early Church. Constantine backed the Nicene Creed of Nicaea, but was baptized on his deathbed by the Eusebius of Nicomedia , a bishop with Arian sympathies. His successor Constantius II supported Arian positions: under his rule,
1392-773: The Catholic Church all claim to stand in continuity from the Nicene church to which Theodosius granted recognition. Earlier in the 4th century, following the Diocletianic Persecution of 303–313 and the Donatist controversy that arose in consequence, Constantine the Great had convened councils of bishops to define the orthodoxy of the Christian faith and to expand on earlier Christian councils. A series of ecumenical councils convened by successive Roman emperors met during
1479-580: The Chi Rho early in his reign but still encouraged traditional Roman religious practices including sun worship . In 330, Constantine established the city of Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire. The city would gradually come to be seen as the intellectual and cultural center of the Christian world . Over the course of the 4th century the Christian body became consumed by debates surrounding orthodoxy , i.e. which religious doctrines are
1566-506: The Council of Constantinople in 360 supported the Arian view. After the interlude of Emperor Julian , who wanted to return to the pagan Roman/Greek religion, the west stuck to the Nicene Creed, while Arianism or Semi-Arianism was dominant in the east (under Emperor Valens), until Emperor Theodosius I called the Council of Constantinople in 381 , which reasserted the Nicene view and rejected
1653-777: The Exarchate of Ravenna , until 751, a period known in church history as the Byzantine Papacy . The early Muslim conquests of the 7th–9th centuries would begin a process of converting most of the then-Christian world in the Levant , Middle East , North Africa , regions of Southern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula to Islam , severely restricting the reach both of the Byzantine Empire and of its church. Christian missionary activity directed from
1740-615: The Exarchate of Ravenna , until 751. Justinian definitively established Caesaropapism , believing "he had the right and duty of regulating by his laws the minutest details of worship and discipline, and also of dictating the theological opinions to be held in the Church". According to the entry in Liddell & Scott , the term orthodox first occurs in the Codex Justinianus : "We direct that all Catholic churches, throughout
1827-591: The Goths and Vandals , conquered the western provinces. Rome was sacked in 410 and 455 , and was to be sacked again in the following century in 546 . By 476, the Germanic chieftain Odoacer had conquered Italy and deposed the last western emperor, Romulus Augustus , though he nominally submitted to the authority of Constantinople. The Arian Germanic tribes established their own systems of churches and bishops in
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#17327662203431914-451: The imperial cult . Their refusal to worship the Roman gods or to pay homage to the emperor as divine resulted at times in persecution and martyrdom. Church Father Tertullian , for instance, attempted to argue that Christianity was not inherently treasonous, and that Christians could offer their own form of prayer for the well-being of the emperor. Christianity spread especially in
2001-626: The orthodox designation as a symbol of their theological traditions. Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism , which began in 1580 from the writing of the Book of Concord and ended at the Age of Enlightenment . Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the Counter-Reformation . Lutheran scholasticism
2088-470: The 4th and the 5th centuries, but Christianity continued to suffer rifts and schisms surrounding the theological and christological doctrines of Arianism , Nestorianism , Miaphysitism , and Dyophysitism . In the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire decayed as a polity ; invaders sacked Rome in 410 and in 455 , and Odoacer , an Arian barbarian warlord, forced Romulus Augustus ,
2175-573: The 4th century - Rodney Stark estimated that Christians accounted for 56.5% of the Roman population by 350. According to Will Durant , the Christian Church prevailed over paganism because it offered a much more attractive doctrine and because the church leaders addressed human needs better than their rivals. In 301, the Kingdom of Armenia , nominally a Roman client kingdom but ruled by
2262-604: The 7th century, first clashing with the Roman Empire in 634. That empire and the Sassanid Persian Empire were at that time crippled by decades of war between them. By the late 8th century the Umayyad caliphate had conquered all of Persia and much of the Byzantine territory including Egypt , Palestine , and Syria . Suddenly, much of the Christian world was under Muslim rule. Over the coming centuries
2349-617: The Arian view. This council further refined the definition of orthodoxy, issuing the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed . On 27 February of the previous year, Theodosius I established, with the Edict of Thessalonica , the Christianity of the First Council of Nicaea as the official state religion , reserving for its followers the title of Catholic Christians and declaring that those who did not follow
2436-562: The Bible. The 5th century would see the further fracturing of Christendom. Emperor Theodosius II called two synods in Ephesus , one in 431 and one in 449, the first of which condemned the teachings of Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, while the second supported the teachings of Eutyches against Archbishop Flavian of Constantinople . Nestorius taught that Christ's divine and human nature were distinct persons, and hence Mary
2523-555: The Byzantine Empire came to an end, Poland also, Hungary and other central European peoples were part of a church that in no way saw itself as the empire's church and that, with the East-West Schism , had even ceased to be in communion with it. With the defeat and death in 751 of the last Exarch of Ravenna and the end of the Exarchate, Rome ceased to be part of the Byzantine Empire. Forced to seek protection elsewhere,
2610-845: The Byzantine Rite Church buildings belonging to Byzantine architecture , usually built during the Byzantine Empire Post-Byzantine church buildings , built during the Post-Byzantine era (16th-18th c.) Modern church buildings belonging to the Byzantine Revival architecture also known as Neo-Byzantine architectural style Byzantine Church (Petra) See also [ edit ] Byzantine Empire Byzantine (disambiguation) Orthodox Church (disambiguation) Persian Church (disambiguation) Topics referred to by
2697-620: The Church and was referred to as orthodoxy in most Christian contexts, since this was the viewpoint of previous Christian Church Fathers and was reaffirmed at these councils. (The minority of nontrinitarian Christians object to this terminology.) Following the 1054 Great Schism , both the Western Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church continued to consider themselves uniquely orthodox and catholic . Augustine wrote in On True Religion : "Religion
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2784-629: The East . Many other churches, such as the Anglican Communion , claim succession to this universal church. Before the end of the 1st century, the Roman authorities recognized Christianity as a separate religion from Judaism . The distinction, perhaps already made in practice at the time of the Great Fire of Rome in the year 64, was given official status by the emperor Nerva around the year 98 by granting Christians exemption from paying
2871-611: The Egyptian, Syrian, Ethiopian and Armenian churches, that is today known as Oriental Orthodoxy . In spite of these schisms, however, the Chalcedonian Nicene church still represented the majority of Christians within the by now already diminished Roman Empire. In the 5th century, the Western Empire rapidly decayed and by the end of the century was no more. Within a few decades, Germanic tribes , particularly
2958-742: The Emperor in Constantinople encouraged missionary expeditions to nearby nations including the Muslim caliphate, and the Turkic Khazars . In 862 he sent Saints Cyril and Methodius to Slavic Great Moravia . By then most of the Slavic population of Bulgaria was Christian and Tsar Boris I himself was baptized in 864. Serbia was accounted Christian by about 870. In early 867 Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople wrote that Christianity
3045-545: The India. It is a record of the accepted teachings of each of thousands of gurus , who others equate to prophets, and has no founder, no authority or command, but recommendations. The term most equivalent to orthodoxy at best has the meaning of "commonly accepted" traditions rather than the usual meaning of "conforming to a doctrine", for example, what people of middle eastern faiths attempt to equate as doctrine in Hindu philosophies
3132-533: The Levant, who preferred Miaphysite theology. Thus, within a century of the link established by Theodosius between the emperor and the church in his empire, it suffered a significant diminishment. Those who upheld the Council of Chalcedon became known in Syriac as Melkites , the imperial group, followers of the emperor (in Syriac, malka ). This schism resulted in an independent communion of churches, including
3219-478: The Muslim Empire could be accepted as Muslims simply by declaring a belief in a single deity and reverence for Muhammad (see shahada ). As a result, the peoples of Egypt, Palestine and Syria largely accepted their new rulers and many declared themselves Muslims within a few generations. Muslim incursions later found success in parts of Europe, particularly Spain (see Al-Andalus ). During the 9th century ,
3306-498: The Oriental Orthodox Churches had seceded, having rejected the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and called the adherents of the imperially-recognized church " Melkites ", from Syriac malkâniya ("imperial"). In Western Europe , Christianity was mostly subject to the laws and customs of nations that owed no allegiance to the emperor in Constantinople. While Eastern-born popes appointed or at least confirmed by
3393-402: The Roman Empire's state religion . Historians refer to the Nicene church associated with emperors in a variety of ways: as the catholic church , the orthodox church , the imperial church , the Roman church , or the Byzantine church , although some of those terms are also used for wider communions extending outside the Roman Empire. The Eastern Orthodox Church , Oriental Orthodoxy , and
3480-519: The Roman Empire, many Nestorians fled to Persia and joined the Sassanid Church (the future Church of the East ). The Second Council of Ephesus upheld the view of Eutyches, but was overturned two years later by the Council of Chalcedon , called by Emperor Marcian . Rejection of the Council of Chalcedon led to the exodus from the state church of the majority of Christians in Egypt and many in
3567-517: The West, but Latin was the spoken vernacular ). By the time Christianity became the state religion of the empire at the end of the 4th century, scholars in the West had largely abandoned Greek in favor of Latin. Even the Church in Rome, where Greek continued to be used in the liturgy longer than in the provinces, abandoned Greek. Jerome 's Vulgate had begun to replace the older Latin translations of
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3654-482: The capital of Constantinople did not lead to a lasting expansion of the formal link between the church and the Byzantine emperor, since areas outside the Byzantine Empire's political and military control set up their own distinct churches, as in the case of Bulgaria in 919. Justinian I , who became emperor in 527, recognized the patriarchs of Rome , Constantinople , Alexandria , Antioch , and Jerusalem as
3741-591: The commentaries such as the Visuddhimagga . Hence, the Theravada school came to be considered the most orthodox of all Buddhist schools, as it is known to be highly conservative especially within the discipline and practice of the Vinaya . In classical Christian use, the term orthodox refers to the set of doctrines which were believed by the early Christians . A series of ecumenical councils were held over
3828-558: The context of religion, the term orthodoxy is often used to refer to any commonly held belief or set of beliefs in some field, in particular when these tenets - possibly referred to as " dogmas " - are being challenged. In this sense, the term "orthodox" can have a mildly pejorative connotation. Among various "orthodoxies" in distinctive fields, the most commonly used terms include: The terms orthodox and orthodoxy are also used more broadly by English-speakers to refer to things other than ideas and beliefs. A new and unusual way of solving
3915-406: The correct ones. In the early 4th century, a group in North Africa , later called Donatists , who believed in a very rigid interpretation of Christianity that excluded many who had abandoned the faith during the Diocletianic Persecution, created a crisis in the western empire . A synod was held in Rome in 313 , followed by another in Arles in 314 . These synods ruled that the Donatist faith
4002-413: The eastern parts of the empire and beyond its border; in the west it was at first relatively limited, but significant Christian communities emerged in Rome , Carthage , and other urban centers, becoming by the end of the 3rd century , the dominant faith in some of them. Christians accounted for approximately 10% of the Roman population by 300, according to some estimates. Christianity then rapidly grew in
4089-427: The emperor continued to be loyal to him as their political lord, they refused to accept his authority in religious matters, or the authority of such a council as the imperially convoked Council of Hieria of 754. Pope Gregory III (731–741) was the last Bishop of Rome to ask the Byzantine ruler to ratify his election. With the crowning of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800 as Imperator Romanorum ,
4176-431: The empire were increasingly embroiled in debates regarding christology (i.e., regarding the nature of the Christ ). Opinions ranged from belief that Jesus was entirely human to belief that he was entirely divine . The most persistent debate was that between the homoousian view (the Father and the Son are of one substance), defined at the Council at Nicaea in 325 and later championed by Athanasius of Alexandria , and
4263-400: The empire, and among Pictic and Celtic peoples who had never been part of the Roman Empire, fostered the idea of a universal church free from association with a particular state. On the contrary, "in the East Roman or Byzantine view, when the Roman Empire became Christian, the perfect world order willed by God had been achieved: one universal empire was sovereign, and coterminous with it was
4350-445: The end of the 6th century . By the time the Byzantine missions to central and eastern Europe began, Christian western Europe, in spite of losing most of Spain to Islam, encompassed Germany and part of Scandinavia, and, apart from the south of Italy, was independent of the Byzantine Empire and had been almost entirely so for centuries. This situation fostered the idea of a universal church linked to no one particular state. Long before
4437-403: The end of the 4th century the Roman Empire had effectively split into two parts although their economies and the imperial-recognized church were still strongly tied. The two halves of the empire had always had cultural differences, exemplified in particular by the widespread use of the Greek language in the Eastern Empire and its more limited use in the West (Greek, as well as Latin , was used in
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#17327662203434524-477: The entire world, shall be placed under the control of the orthodox bishops who have embraced the Nicene Creed." By the end of the 6th century the church within the Empire had become firmly tied with the imperial government, while in the west Christianity was mostly subject to the laws and customs of nations that owed no allegiance to the emperor. Emperor Justinian I assigned to five sees, those of Rome , Constantinople , Alexandria , Antioch and Jerusalem ,
4611-409: The gradual canonisation of written scriptures and supra-national philosophies in the increasingly monotheistic Abrahamic Near East, but literacy traditions in South Asia and in East Asia did not prevent the growth of religious and political pluralism . Medieval Europe and the post-colonial West saw a turn - subsequently spreading elsewhere - to coercive interest in the belief -systems of
4698-433: The ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give to their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the divine condemnation and in the second the punishment of our authority which in accordance with the will of Heaven we shall decide to inflict. In 391, Theodosius closed all the "pagan" (non-Christian and non-Jewish) temples and formally forbade pagan worship. At
4785-446: The individual ( McCarthyism exemplifies a peak in this trend) and in their regulation or "correction" via social control - in the interests of ideological purity and state homogeneity. Orthodoxy is opposed to heterodoxy ('other teaching') or heresy . People who deviate from orthodoxy by professing a doctrine considered to be false are called heretics, while those who, perhaps without professing heretical beliefs, break from
4872-450: The last nominal Western Emperor, to abdicate in 476 . However, apart from the aforementioned schisms, the church as an institution persisted in communion , if not without tension, between the East and West . In the 6th century, the Byzantine armies of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I recovered Italy and other regions of the Western Mediterranean shore. The Byzantine Empire soon lost most of these gains, but it held Rome, as part of
4959-403: The leadership of the church. It maintained that, in accordance with the First Council of Nicaea, only the three " Petrine " sees of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch had a real patriarchal function. The canons of the Quinisext Council of 692, which gave ecclesiastical sanction to Justinian's decree, were also never fully accepted by the Western Church. Early Muslim conquests of the territories of
5046-425: The liturgical commemoration in Russian churches of the Byzantine emperor on the grounds that he was "emperor (βασιλεύς) and autokrator of the Romans, that is of all Christians ". According to Patriarch Antony, "it is not possible among Christians to have a Church and not to have an emperor. For the empire and the Church have great unity and commonality, and it is not possible to separate them", and "the holy emperor
5133-790: The minds of the Eastern bishops with the empire to such an extent that they had difficulty in thinking of Christianity without an emperor. Orthodoxy Orthodoxy (from Greek : ὀρθοδοξία , orthodoxía , 'righteous/correct opinion') is adherence to correct or accepted creeds , especially in religion . Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity , but different Churches accept different creeds and councils. Such differences of opinion have developed for numerous reasons, including language and cultural barriers. Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy are sometimes referred to simply as "Orthodoxy". In some English-speaking countries, Jews who adhere to all
5220-401: The one universal church"; and the church came, by the time of the demise of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, to merge psychologically with it to the extent that its bishops had difficulty in thinking of Nicene Christianity without an emperor. The legacy of the idea of a universal church carries on in today's Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Church of
5307-439: The only authentic form of Judaism and rejecting all non-Orthodox interpretations as illegitimate. Kemetic Orthodoxy is a denomination of Kemetism , a reform reconstruction of Egyptian polytheism for modern followers. It claims to derive a spiritual lineage from the Ancient Egyptian religion . There are organizations of Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery) which characterize the religion as Orthodoxy and by other terms. Outside
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#17327662203435394-456: The participating eastern delegations and by the emperor were rejected by the vast majority of Byzantine Christians. In the East, the idea that the Byzantine emperor was the head of Christians everywhere persisted among churchmen as long as the empire existed, even when its actual territory was reduced to very little. In 1393, only 60 years before the fall of the capital, Patriarch Antony IV of Constantinople wrote to Basil I of Muscovy defending
5481-407: The patriarch of the emperor's capital. Also under the influence of the imperial model of governance of the state church, in which "the emperor becomes the actual executive organ of the universal Church", the pentarchy model of governance of the state church regressed to a monarchy of the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Rashidun conquests began to expand the sway of Islam beyond Arabia in
5568-431: The patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, most of whose Christians were in any case lost to the orthodox church since the aftermath of the Council of Chalcedon, left in effect only two patriarchates, those of Rome and Constantinople. In 732, Emperor Leo III 's iconoclast policies were resisted by Pope Gregory III . The Emperor reacted by transferring to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Constantinople in 740
5655-451: The perceived main body of believers are called schismatics . The term employed sometimes depends on the aspect most in view: if one is addressing corporate unity, the emphasis may be on schism; if one is addressing doctrinal coherence, the emphasis may be on heresy. A deviation lighter than heresy is commonly called error, in the sense of not being grave enough to cause total estrangement, while yet seriously affecting communion. Sometimes error
5742-438: The period of the Western Crusades against the Muslims had passed before even the first of the two reunion councils was held. Even when persecuted by the emperor, the Eastern Church, George Pachymeres said, "counted the days until they should be rid not of their emperor (for they could no more live without an emperor than a body without a heart), but of their current misfortunes". The church had come to merge psychologically in
5829-533: The political split between East and West became irrevocable. Spiritually, Chalcedonian Christianity persisted, at least in theory, as a unified entity until the Great Schism and its formal division with the mutual excommunication in 1054 of Rome and Constantinople. The empire finally collapsed with the Fall of Constantinople to the Islamic Ottoman Turks in 1453. The obliteration of the empire's boundaries by Germanic peoples and an outburst of missionary activity among these peoples, who had no direct links with
5916-426: The popes turned to the Franks and, with the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800, transferred their political allegiance to a rival Roman emperor. Disputes between the see of Rome, which claimed authority over all other sees, and that of Constantinople, which was now without rival in the empire, culminated perhaps inevitably in mutual excommunications in 1054. Communion with Constantinople
6003-400: The rank of patriarch in 1346, a rank maintained until after the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Turks. No Byzantine emperor ever ruled Russian Christendom. Expansion of the church in western and northern Europe began much earlier, with the conversion of the Irish in the 5th century , the Franks at the end of the same century, the Arian Visigoths in Spain soon afterwards, and the English at
6090-412: The rank of patriarchate, an autonomy recognized in 927 by Constantinople, but abolished by Emperor Basil II Bulgaroktonos (the Bulgar-Slayer) after his 1018 conquest of Bulgaria. In Serbia, which became an independent kingdom in the early 13th century, Stephen Uroš IV Dušan , after conquering a large part of Byzantine territory in Europe and assuming the title of Tsar, raised the Serbian archbishop to
6177-445: The religion taught by Pope Damasus I of Rome and Pope Peter of Alexandria were to be called heretics : It is our desire that all the various nations which are subject to our Clemency and Moderation, should continue to profess that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition, and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria,
6264-429: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Byzantine Church . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Byzantine_Church&oldid=1185389370 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
6351-532: The successive Muslim states became some of the most powerful in the Mediterranean world. Though the Byzantine church claimed religious authority over Christians in Egypt and the Levant , in reality the majority of Christians in these regions were by then miaphysites and members of other sects. The new Muslim rulers, in contrast, offered religious tolerance to Christians of all sects. Additionally subjects of
6438-513: The supreme authorities in the state-sponsored Chalcedonian church apparatus (see the Pentarchy ). However, Justinian claimed " the right and duty of regulating by his laws the minutest details of worship and discipline, and also of dictating the theological opinions to be held in the Church". In Justinian's day, the Christian church was not entirely under the emperor's control even in the East:
6525-461: The territories in Greece , Illyria , Sicily and Calabria that had been under Rome (see map), leaving the bishop of Rome with only a minute part of the lands over which the empire still had control. The Patriarch of Constantinople had already adopted the title of "ecumenical patriarch", indicating what he saw as his position in the oikoumene , the Christian world ideally headed by the emperor and
6612-631: The traditions and commandments as legislated in the Torah are often called Orthodox Jews . Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "Orthodox Islam". The historical Buddha was known to denounce mere attachment to scriptures or dogmatic principles, as it was mentioned in the Kalama Sutta . Moreover, the Theravada school of Buddhism follows strict adherence to the Pāli Canon ( tripiṭaka ) and
6699-593: The various challenges of modernity and secularization . Theologically , it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah , both Written and Oral , as literally revealed by God on biblical Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since. The movement advocates a strict observance of halakha (Jewish Law), which is to be interpreted only according to received methods due to its divine character. Orthodoxy considers halakha as eternal and beyond historical influence, being applied differently to changing circumstances but basically unchangeable in itself. Orthodox Judaism
6786-528: The western provinces but were generally tolerant of the population who chose to remain in communion with the imperial church. In 533, Roman Emperor Justinian in Constantinople launched a military campaign to reclaim the western provinces from the Arian Germans, starting with North Africa and proceeding to Italy. His success in recapturing much of the western Mediterranean was temporary. The empire soon lost most of these gains, but held Rome, as part of
6873-494: The ātiska being those who accept the epistemic authority of the Vedas . Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as "Orthodox Islam". Other scholars of Islam, such as John Burton believe that there is no such thing as "Orthodox Islam". Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of Judaism , which seek to fully maintain the received Jewish beliefs and observances and which coalesced in opposition to
6960-494: Was a theological method that gradually developed during the era of Lutheran orthodoxy. Theologians used the neo-Aristotelian form of presentation, already popular in academia, in their writings and lectures. They defined the Lutheran faith and defended it against the polemics of opposing parties. Reformed orthodoxy or Calvinist orthodoxy was an era in the history of Calvinism in the 16th to 18th centuries. Calvinist orthodoxy
7047-741: Was accepted by the Kievan Rus' , which however was definitively Christianized only at the close of the following century. Of these, the Church in Great Moravia chose immediately to link with Rome, not Constantinople: the missionaries sent there sided with the Pope during the Photian Schism (863–867). After decisive victories over the Byzantines at Acheloos and Katasyrtai , Bulgaria declared its church autocephalous and elevated it to
7134-400: Was added at the First Council of Constantinople (381) and given authority initially only over Thrace . By a canon of contested validity, the Council of Chalcedon (451) placed Asia and Pontus , which together made up Anatolia , under Constantinople, although their autonomy had been recognized at the council of 381. Rome never recognized this pentarchy of five sees as constituting
7221-559: Was broken off by European Christians with the exception of those ruled by the empire (including the Bulgarians and Serbs) and of the fledgling Kievan or Russian Church, then a metropolitanate of the patriarchate of Constantinople. This church became independent only in 1448, just five years before the extinction of the empire, after which the Turkish authorities included all their Orthodox Christian subjects of whatever ethnicity in
7308-533: Was heresy and, when the Donatists refused to recant, Constantine launched the first campaign of persecution by Christians against Christians, and began imperial involvement in Christian theology. However, during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate , the Donatists, who formed the majority party in the Roman province of Africa for 30 years, were given official approval. Christian scholars and populace within
7395-403: Was in note of the fact that both Catholic and Orthodox were in use as ecclesiastical adjectives as early as the 2nd and 4th centuries respectively. Much earlier, the earliest Oriental Orthodox Churches and Chalcedonian Christianity separated in two after the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451), because of several Christological differences. Since then, Oriental Orthodox Churches are maintaining
7482-600: Was paralleled by similar eras in Lutheranism and tridentine Roman Catholicism after the Counter-Reformation . Calvinist scholasticism or Reformed scholasticism was a theological method that gradually developed during the era of Calvinist Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy does not exist in Hinduism , as the word Hindu itself collectively refers to the various beliefs of people who lived beyond the Sindhu river (Indus river) of
7569-512: Was the mother of Christ but not the mother of God. Eutyches taught on the contrary that there was in Christ only a single nature, different from that of human beings in general. The First Council of Ephesus rejected Nestorius' view, causing churches centered around the School of Edessa , a city at the edge of the empire, to break with the imperial church (see Nestorian schism ). Persecuted within
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