The Great Schism

A very interesting article detailing the causes and historical background of the Great Schism.

The Great Schism of the Ecumenical Church, by Rev. George Mastrantonis

My opinion on the Schism is that it had three causes:

1. Religious differences. We must remember that people in the medieval world took their religion much more seriously than the majority of today's people, especially in Western Europe.
2. The cultural clash between the de-Hellenized (or conversely barbarized) West and the Roman (or "Byzantine") Empire where Hellenic paideia never waned. De-hellenization robbed the West of one of the sources of Christianity, hence its eventual warping of correct faith (Gk. orthodoxia) which eventually led to the logical conclusion: Protestantism, a.k.a. as simplified Christianity for the Germanic people who, unlike the Gallo-Romans, could never relate with authentic Christianity, a product of the Eastern Mediterranean world. (*)
3. The political clash starting from the replacement of the Greek papal elite of Rome, followed by the crowning of Charlemagne and ending tragically with the rape of Constantinople by the knights of the Fourth Crusade.

(*) Note also that the Orthodox Slavs, who also had no connection to the sources of Christianity never experienced a Schism, since they received authentic Christianity from the Eastern Romans, unlike the Germans that received it via the Germano-Latins.

Posted by Dienekes at March 24, 2003 04:05 AM | PermaLink