Why are Eastern Orthodox churches subdivided along national lines?

Question

i.e. why is there a 'Russian Orthodox Church', 'greek Orthodox Church', 'Bulgarian Orthodox Church', etc. etc. etc.

Are there any differences in beliefs or practices?

Answer 1

It has a little to do with religion, but more to do with politics. The Greeks were the originators of Orthodox Catholicism. The Russians adopted it later and everyone was happy for a while. Then the Greeks declined and Russia ascended in power. When Byzantium collapsed, the Russians essentially took over as leaders and protectors of the Orthodox religion. Of course they made certain changes that the Greeks didn't agree with and you see your first big split. All's cool again for a while until Russian Orthodoxy decides to make a few reforms. Nothing major, but trying to correct some corrupted texts, slightly change a few traditions, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, the Russian method of encouraging change has always been rather...forceful. Whoever wouldn't change was excomunicated. The big problem with this was that it seemed to say that all the people and saints who had gone before and practiced Orthodoxy by the old ways were irredeemably wrong. Certain traditional Russians couldn't accept such this, and the second big split occurred. Then you have Russia's imperial ambitions. Russia thought of itself as the defender of the faith, with Moscow being like a '3rd Rome.' It wished to be a hegemon in Eastern Europe and used this religious mandate as justification. The other countries would have been more or less willing to let Russia have it's way - it's nice having big friends, after all - except that as the best and the biggest, Russia expected these other countries to become like mini-Russias. Russia thus tried to impose its language, government, religion, etc. on them. Eventually these countries had enough and wanted to split. Now keep in mind that religion at this time is inherently linked to power and to government. To split from Russia but keep its religious leaders as the head of your religion is not to split from Russia at all. So you end up seeing a lot of nationally divided splinter groups. I'm not saying there aren't also legitimate theological differences, but they were probbly initiated and exaggerated by political factors.

Answer 2

There are 2 significant branches. One is the jap Orthodox, which includes the Greeks, the Russians, the Serbians, and so on, all of whom chop up from the Roman Church interior the eleventh century. the different is the Oriental Orthodox, which includes the Ethiopians, the Copts and the Armenians, whi spit from a similar Church a number of centuries till now

Answer 3

First of all there society and culture are d/t ,also there Bible have little d/t.