It is also something of a contentious subject among Orthodox Christians themselves and there have been many disagreements about it. It is therefore quite possible that some people who read this article may not agree with everything in it. That's what the discussions are for - to put forward a different point of view, or to point out where you think the article is wrong.
Historical Background
The Orthodox Church traces its beginning to the day of Pentecost AD 33, and the events recounted in the Acts of the Apostles, chapters 1 & 2. The Church began with people speaking a multiplicity of languages being baptised. As the Church grew and spread, more people from different cultural backgrounds joined, though mostly, to begin with, within the Roman empire.
In the fourth century several of the emperors themselves were Christians, and one of them, Theodosius, made Christianity the only official religion of the empire. From then until the end of the empire in 1453 all the emperors were nominally Christian, though not all of them were Orthodox - some, for example, promoted the iconoclast heresy. After the 5th century the Roman empire shrunk, so that many lived beyond its boundaries, in territories like Egypt and Syria, which had been conquered by the Arabs, or in Britain, from which Roman troops had been withdrawn.
In the 9th century there was a mission to the Slavs, many of whom lived outside the empire, which eventually led to the formation of the Slavic Orthodox Churches - Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian. Each of these eventually developed its own autocephalous Orthodox Church (autocephalous means that it chooses its own head, or chief bishop, who is sometimes, but not always, given the title of "Patriarch"). These autocephalous churches took on a national character, and when most of the people were Christians, the membership of both Church and nation overlapped to a large degree. This link between Church and nation is, however, not the same as nationalISM, as I hope to show.
When most of Russia was conquered and ruled by the Tatars in the 13th century, the Church prayed for the new rulers. But church leaders like St Sergius of Radonezh also supported the movement for independence from Tatar rule, which was won a couple of centuries later, and led to the rise of Moscow as a power.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Steve Hayes's Eastern Orthodox Church topic, please visit the Discussions page.