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East vs. West: Brutality in the Western church

© Michelle Powell-Smith

First, I'd like to thank one of my readers, Mitchell Glassman, for this week's subject. He sent a very interesting email, questioning whether widespread violence had occured in the Eastern Orthodox church.

After doing some research, I realized that my initial thought was correct. There are very few instances of violence in the Orthodox church, and none that we would define as widespread. With very little effort we can bring to mind multiple acts of widespread violence perpetuated by the Western church, including the Crusades, the Albigensian crusade, the Inquisition, and even the conversion of the "New World". How can we explain this difference? What are the reasons behind the atrocities of the Western church and the generally benign behavior of the Eastern church? It seems that it comes down to, in the end, each church's view of humanity.

The Western church was largely (and in many ways still is) based on a negative anthropology, or view of humankind, based on the work of such early figures as Saint Augustine and Tertullian. In the anthropology of the Western church, the only hope for humanity is through the grace of God, because there is no natural good left in humankind after the fall. Every individual is stained with original sin from the time of their conception, and moreover, lacks the free will to choose to do good with their life.

The Eastern church, on the other hand, adopted a much more positive anthropology. While humanity did fall, the fall was not complete. According to Orthodox theology, the desire for salvation proves that humanity retained some degree of free will, even if it was somewhat clouded by the fall.

It seems that this difference in the view of humankind likely impacted the actions of the institutions of the Western and Eastern churches. While some of the acts of violence perpetuated by the Western church were motivated, in part, by economic or political reasons, they always had a least a superficial religious goal. In looking at the history of these two institutions, we are forced to wonder whether it comes to a question of hope and value. The Eastern church placed a higher value on humanity, both in the eyes of the church and the eyes of God than did the Western church. While it seems a simplistic explanation, lessening the value of human life enables atrocities like the inquisition to occur.

These were, of course, just my thoughts on the subject. I've spent the last few weeks pondering this and I was, quite honestly, rather surprised by the simplicity of the answer I came to...If humanity is viewed as generally good, the treatment of individuals will be, on the whole, better, than if humanity is viewed as generally bad. Sometimes, I suppose, the simplest answer is the most accurate.

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