The Great Schism, also Known as the East-West Division

People separate and then reunited; people quarrel and then reconciled. Similarly, Christianity also has separation reunion, argument and reconciliation. Christianity was started as one body, and then multiple factors gradually contributed to the split of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Some of these factors are such as the different understanding of Christianity, the different point of views toward the authority of the Pope and the different ideas of governing the Church. All the different thoughts created the disagreement between the two branches of Church. In other words, the conflict came up, and eventually led to the Great Schism. The differences between these two branches of church were significant because they are the result of this Great Schism.

The Great Schism is also known as the East-West division. It is obvious that this division was on the basis of the geography. The geography problem was not the only reasons, but also the“…cultural, political, and economic factors; yet its fundamental cause was not secular but theological.”(Kallistos43-44). As the results of the Great Schism, the eastern side of Europe established the Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox Church. The western side created the Latin-speaking Roman Catholic. Both of the churches believe that they were superior to the other. The Roman Catholic Church believed that it is the mother church. In other word, it is the origin because that it centered at the city Rome, which was the place that Peter had a deep connection with. The Eastern Orthodox believed that it held the truth, even though it is not the origin church but it had truth. This increased the tension of the estrangement, and led to the conflict. "…It was over the matter of do...

... middle of paper ...

...riginal Hebrew Bible.”(Hallam 6). Also, they had the similar concept about the significant of Eucharist. Both Churches agreed that the supper is holy and divine. They also believed that humanity received forgiveness of sins through the mystic supper by encountering with Christ. In additional to this, they have same views toward the understanding of Mary. They both believe that Mary was the mother of God and also was the first saints. Then, the effect of sacraments was also similar between these two churches. Saints used to described holy people. They both thought that this group of people could act in between God and Man such as Christ.

The Great Schism of Christianity occurred at 1054 was mainly caused by the different ideas of understanding Christianity, and led to the variation in doctrine the truth and the different style of governing the Church.