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Where We Came From38 entries

From Pentecost to the present: the councils, Byzantium, the Great Schism, and the long making of the Church.

The Great Schism & East–West Estrangement

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The Great Schism An OverviewHow East and West drifted into division; why no single date tells the storyThe Filioque ControversyThe added creed clause, why the East objected, and its doctrinal weightPapal Primacy and Papal ClaimsHow Rome's honor-primacy became supremacy claims the East could not acceptThe Events of 1054Cardinal Humbert, Patriarch Michael Cerularius, and the mutual anathemasThe Crusades and the Christian EastHow Western holy wars deepened the schism on the groundThe Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (1204)The Western sack of the City that made the schism emotionally final

Scripture, Canon & Tradition in History

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The SeptuagintThe Greek Old Testament of the apostles and the Orthodox Church's OT textHow the Biblical Canon Was FormedThe historical process by which the Church recognized its ScripturesThe Deuterocanonical BooksThe “extra” books (Anagignoskomena): what they are and their standing

The Early Church (33–313)

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Pentecost: The Birth of the ChurchThe descent of the Holy Spirit as the Church's founding eventThe Apostolic AgeHow the apostles spread the faith across the Roman world, 33–100 ADThe Twelve Apostles and Their MissionsWhere each apostle preached and the churches tracing their origins to themLife in the Early Christian CommunityWorship, common meals, sharing of goods, and daily life of the first ChristiansThe Roman PersecutionsWhy Rome persecuted Christians, from Nero to Diocletian's Great PersecutionMartyrdom in the Early ChurchThe theology and practice of witness unto death; “seed of the Church”The CatacombsUnderground burial places, earliest Christian art, worship at martyrs' tombsThe Edict of Milan (313)Constantine's legalization of Christianity and the end of persecutionThe Desert Fathers and the Rise of MonasticismThe flight to the Egyptian desert as martyrdom's successor movement

The Age of the Councils (325–787)

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What Is an Ecumenical Council?How the whole Church defines doctrine in council; reception and authorityThe Seven Ecumenical Councils An OverviewThe seven councils at a glance, with what each settledThe Christian Roman EmpireHow Christianity became the empire's faith and what changed after ConstantineHow the Nicene Creed Was WrittenThe Creed's formation at Nicaea and Constantinople and its role ever sinceThe PentarchyThe five ancient patriarchates: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem

Byzantium & the Mission to the Slavs

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Byzantium: The Orthodox EmpireThe East Roman Empire as the Church's home for a thousand yearsConstantinople: The New RomeThe imperial city's founding, rank, and enduring significanceHagia SophiaJustinian's Great Church: cathedral, mosque, museum, mosqueSymphonia: Church and EmperorThe Byzantine ideal of church–state harmony, and its abusesIconoclasm: The Battle over IconsThe century-long imperial campaign against icons and the theology that answered itThe Triumph of Orthodoxy (843)The restoration of icons, commemorated yearly on Lent's first SundayThe Mission to the SlavsCyril and Methodius's ninth-century mission and its vernacular-liturgy principleThe Baptism of Rus (988)Prince Vladimir's conversion of Kyiv and the birth of Slavic Orthodoxy's largest branchMount Athos: The Monastic RepublicThe Holy Mountain's history from 963 to its present pan-Orthodox role

Under Islam: The Ottoman Period

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The Fall of Constantinople (1453)The City's conquest, the last liturgy in Hagia Sophia, and its aftermathThe Church under IslamFour centuries of Orthodox survival as a subject peopleThe Rum MilletThe Ottoman system that made the Patriarch civil head of all Orthodox — fusing faith and ethnicity

Russia & the Slavic Churches

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The Russian Revolution and the ChurchThe Bolshevik assault on Orthodoxy and its worldwide consequencesThe Soviet Persecution and the New MartyrsHistory's largest persecution of Christians: gulags, closures, and the martyrsThe Fall of Communism and the Orthodox RevivalPost-1991 rebuilding across Russia and Eastern Europe