everybody says catholic is the oldest christian religion, but didnt catholics break away from orthodox?

Answer 1

The Eastern Orthodox Catholic church split from the Roman Catholic church which created two entities in 1054 AD. Ergo, it was a split...not one coming from another.


Rough Timeline of Religion: 2,085 BC = Judaism, 1,500 BC = Hinduism, 560 BC = Buddhism, 550 BC = Taoism, 628 BC = Zoroastrianism, 599 BC = Jainism, 30 AD = Christianity, 50-100 AD = Gnosticism, 150-250 AD = Modalism (Monarchianism)?Sabellius, Praxeus, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, 325 AD. -After being persecuted for almost 200 years Constantine made Christianity a legal religion, compromise enters, 590 AD = Roman Catholicism -Developed after Constantine, 610 AD = Islam -original manuscript was burned up.

Hope this helps,

Stephanie

Answer 2

It's the other way around.
The Catholic Church split in 2 around 1054 A.D., creating the Western or Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern or Orthodox Catholic Church.
Evidence that the Orthodox broke away, and not the Roman Catholics is that Roman Catholics are still united under 1 Pope, whereas the Orthodox have several different Patriarchs, with no complete unity of leadership.
Here's proof.

Answer 3

The Great Schism occurred in 1054 when legates of the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated the Orthodox Patriarch at St. Sophia during the Divine Liturgy. A few weeks later, the Orthodox responded in kind. The excommunications were mutually lifted in 1964 by Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI, but a lot of work remains on unifying the two churches - if ever.

Besides, 41,999 other denominations have split away from Catholicism. The Copts and others remain Orthodox, but not in Communion due to the failure of accepting all 7 Ecumenical Councils. The Copts accept only the first 3.

There are 15 Orthodox churches who are in communion with each other and with the Ecumenical Patriarch, who is first among equals BUT NOT the Orthodox pope. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I is spiritual leader and anathemized if he called himself Orthodox "Pope."

Answer 4

This is an historically confusing issue for most people. Very few people actually know the history and most people cite the Great Schism as the break.

The Great Schism, in its immediate particulars, was caused by papal legate operating outside his mandate or authority excommunicating the Catholic Church sojourning at Constantinople. Of course the Church at Constantinople couldn't know the guy had not authority to act and was really operating in his personal capacity.

Several centuries of events, not much of them religious, split the Church. These range from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (it wouldn't collapse for many centuries still in the East at the time of the Schism), the loss of the ability of western Christians to speak Greek and Greek Christians to speak Latin, attempts by the Roman Emperor to claim the authority of the Pope, political intrigue throughout the Eastern Empire, the loss of education in the West and poor general communications. A fully functioning post office may well have reduced all these issues.

The Catholic and the Orthodox Church are the same Church, they are not separate denominations. Catholic and Orthodox are not like Methodist and Lutheran. Methodists and Lutherans officially have different beliefs and view the beliefs of the other as false or at least as incorrect shades of the truth. That may not be true in practice so much as in official teaching.

On the other hand, Catholics and Orthodox generally share the same dogmatic beliefs, but tend to differ in practice. It is complicated by the fact that not all Eastern Churches are Orthodox and not all Western Churches are Catholic.

The mutual excommunication between the East and West have been lifted. Several of the Orthodox and non-Orthodox Eastern communities are in active work with the Church of Rome on union. Some, like the Church of the East, have signed common Christological declarations with Rome. Otherse, like the Ge'ez have too many domestic issues to move forward. Ethiopia isn't in union with Rome in part because Ethiopia has its own mess going on.

The current Patriarch of Constantinople was trained at the Pontifical Oriental Institute of the Gregorian University in Rome. The real hold up, imho, is the Patriarch of Moscow. The Russian Church has had terrible things happen because of the Soviet Union internally. It is trapped in older theologies because moving forward seems to be very difficult, just as moving forward seems hard for the entire Russian Federation.

There is no real difference between Catholics and Orthodox at a dogmatic level but there are huge differences in implementation and always have been. Western theology and Eastern theology have always been quite different, Western dogma and Eastern dogma are not different.

Answer 5

The Christian religion is one of the younger ones!! There were Christian type religions before the catholic religion.

Religion goes back into pre history where it was by word of mouth and usually worshipped the sun, moon or an idol of some sort. Virtually every nation and people had at least one religion and many like the Romans had a lot.

The reason so many people wrongly believe that Christianity is the oldest is that Christians mis represent the truth.

If you consider the word Christianity and think where it comes from you will realise that it means followers of Christ. The idea of the one God was around long before that and the entire old testament is written about the religion that existed before the birth of Christ.

Answer 6

The first answer is correct. (Former Catholic)
As far as "I "recollect, the Orthodox sect has no Pope, and Jesus started the church with Peter as it's leader/Pope
Of course there were many changes along the way and it wasn't Catholic until centuries later. It was called "the way" in the beginning. Bishops and Cardinals bought their way and positions in the church. (Rich men can get by with things like that)
By the way, Orthodox is the Russian version, and several other countries as well.

Answer 7

Well, I'm not sure about Catholics being the oldeset Christian religion. I know, for example, Timothy went out and started churches, Paul went out and started Churches, and I am reasonably sure that other apostles and deciples went out and started Churches. Perhaps Catholics (started by Peter) is the most prolific, but I have seen no evidence showing that the Catholic church was the first Christian Church was established.

Answer 8

It was the other way around, the Eastern Orthodox Church refused to be headed by the Pope so their was a schism. There were differences of opinion about certain dogma also. One example is that the Eastern Orthodox Church refused to believe that the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son. They believe the Spirit came only from the Father.

Answer 9

No. The Orthodox Church separated from the Catholic Church in the Schism of 1054.

Answer 10

There was only one Christian church in existence for the first 1500 years of Christian history ... the Catholic Church.

Those who are today referred to as "Orthodox" split off from the Catholic church in the early 11th century, but they were still part of the same church.

The Catholic Church is not a denomination. It is the only church founded by Jesus Christ, on Peter, the rock, who is, without a doubt, the first pope.

Peter's God appointed successor, Pope Benedict XVI, sits in his place of authority today, in the Vatican, the earthly headquarters of God's universal church.