Roman Catholicism vs. Eastern Orthodoxy (1): A Comparative Analysis
“…I do not presume to call false any Church which believes that Jesus is the Christ. The Christian Church can only be either purely true, confessing the true and saving divine teaching without the false admixtures and pernicious opinions of men, or not purely true, mixing with the true and saving teaching of faith in Christ the false and pernicious opinions of men… but I just simply look upon them; in part I see how the Head and Lord of the Church heals the many deep wounds of the old serpent in all the parts and limbs of his Body, applying now gentle, now strong, remedies, even fire and iron, in order to soften hardness, to draw out poison, to clean wounds, to separate out malignant growths, to restore spirit and life in the numbed and half-dead members. In this way I attest my faith that, in the end, the power of God will triumph openly over human weakness, good over evil, unity over division, life over death.”
--St. Philaret of Moscow (2)
“The Latins are not only schismatics but are heretics. However, our Church was silent about this because [the Latins] are so numerous; but was this not the reason why the Orthodox Church moved away from them, because they were heretics? We simply cannot unite with them unless they agree to remove the addition (made by them) into the Symbol [Creed], and confess the Symbol just as we confess it.”
-St. Mark of Ephesus (3)
“We seek not conquest, but the return of our brethren, whose separation from us is tearing us apart.”
-St. Gregory the Theologian (4)
The relationship of the Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church to each other is a nuanced and difficult topic to speak of. Because I work for the Orthodox Church full time as a Campus Missionary, I often find myself in situations where I have to explain Orthodox Christianity in a short amount of time to people who have never heard of it. Often, these people ask me what the differences are between Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism, and specifically what makes Orthodoxy unique. While differences between Orthodoxy and Protestantism can be expressed relatively easily, it becomes much harder to do this with Roman Catholicism. Orthodoxy and Catholicism share over a millennium of history together, and hence we have significant similarities in liturgical practice and theology. However, we also have a millennium of separation between us, leading to significant differences in theology and practice as well. What are these similarities and differences? How did they develop? And how is an Orthodox Christian to view Roman Catholic theology and practice? In this article I will seek to condense my years of reading both Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology into a succinct yet accurate summary of the main differences between our Churches.
A few disclaimers: I am an Orthodox Christian, and thus this series is written from the perspective of an Orthodox Christian. I have many Roman Catholic friends who I have a deep respect and admiration for; they have helped me grow in my own Orthodox Christian faith, and I find our conversations about the common pre-schism Tradition of our Churches to be edifying. I respect Roman Catholicism greatly, especially its intellectual consistency and philosophic rigorousness. That being said, in this piece I will be touching upon what I believe to be the key differences between our Churches -- these are differences that I believe to be sadly irreconcilable at the moment. I write this not for polemical or apologetic purposes, but rather to simply catalogue my thoughts inasmuch as they may be useful to others. I pray that one day Eucharistic communion is restored between East and West as rooted in our common Tradition from the first millennium.
The next installment will take an in-depth look at Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic views on papal primacy.
1: I will be using the phrases “Orthodox Church” and “Roman Catholic Church” to refer to the communion of Orthodox Churches and those Churches in communion with the Pope of Rome, respectively. I use these terms for the sake of convenience and because they are common parlance. As an Orthodox Christian, I believe that the “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church” spoken of by the Creed is the Orthodox Church.
2: Quoted in Fr. George Florosvky’s article “The Limits of the Church”
3: Quoted in Archimandrite Ambrosius Pogodin’s article “On the Question of the Order of Reception of Persons into the Orthodox Church, Coming to Her from Other Christian Churches”
4: Likewise quoted in Florovsky’s “The Limits of the Church.” Many quotes in this piece, including the above from St. Greogry the Theologian, were brought to my attention by the piece “Sacramental Rigorism: Tradition or Modern Phenomenon?” by Arche Athanatos
