Catholicism vs Orthodoxy

love humanity

Hello

I would like to introduce the topic of Orthodoxy and Catholicism, the similarities and differences between the two. The following is from a page called "Orthodox Christianity for Absolute Beginners" by Father Gregory Hallam
Source: orthodoxresource.co.uk/comparative/roman-catholic.htm



Beliefs In Common

The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures and attested to in the other sacred, inspired, biblical writings.

The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the first millennium together with their creeds and definitions, most notably the revised creed of Nicaea (without the 'filioque' clause later inserted by Rome, see below) and the Chalcedonian christological definition.

The teachings of the fathers and saints of the first millennium within Holy Tradition throughout this period.

Orthodox Catholic piety in relation to the saints and their invocation, pilgrimages, relics, iconography and, more widely, the Christian patronage of the arts and sciences.

Mary as Ever Virgin and Theotokos (Bearer or Mother of God) and her role in the salvation wrought by her Son. She is the Mother of Church and provides the most exalted model of what a Christian should be.

The Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Mysteries and the efficacy of sacramental grace.





Differences in Belief



THE TRINITY:

Cath: Reason can show that God exists and that his attributes may be logically inferred.
Orth: Knowledge of God (acknowledged or not) is planted in human nature. Reason cannot go further than this.


Cath: In the Age to come, the righteous will behold with their intellects and assisted by grace the essence of God, the Beatific Vision.
Orth: No one can ever or will ever see God in Himself. We are creatures of the Creator. There is an absolute distinction in being here such that communion with God is with his energies, not his essence or nature.

Cath: Grace and the Light of Transfiguration are created realities. These are not themselves manifestations of God. Only the essence / substance of God constitutes his substantive being
Orth: The aforementioned energies of God are no less than God himself who makes Himself immediately perceptible as he infuses creation with Himself. The essence of God (also being God) is foreclosed to all creatures and unknowable.

Cath: The Spirit proceeds from the Father AND the Son, ('filioque' clause added to the Nicene Creed).
Orth: The Spirit proceeds from the Father only. The original Ecumenical version of the Nicene Creed is used.



CHRIST:
Cath: God became Man because only God, in the Person of Christ, could offer the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world on the Cross thereby satisfying the demands of divine justice. The resurrection is the hope of eternal life for the saved, (St. Anselm).
Orth: God became Man to heal humanity. By taking our humanity to Himself in the Incarnation he entered a process of redemption which culminated in the resurrection, death being destroyed and the reign of sin ended, (St. Irenaeus). The goal of salvation is deification, union with God.



LIFE AFTER DEATH:
Cath: After death, the saved are not yet ready to inherit eternal life but must first experience a period of purgation to fit them for Paradise in a place or state called Purgatory. Our Lord and the saints produce an excess of grace which may be transferred to these souls through the prayers of the faithful. The human soul is generally held to be naturally immortal (after the scholastics). At the second coming the unrepentant experience the wrath of God, the redeemed the bliss of heaven. Divine justice is satisfied, (St. Augustine).
Orth: After death the soul is in Hades but has no natural immortality. Eternal life is sustained solely by the grace and resurrection of Christ, The soul awaits** the coming again of Christ and its resurrection to immortality in heaven or or to hell where it suffers the consequences of unrepented sin. God does not punish those in hell. Hell is how the unrepentant experience the love of God. The saints have often prayed that hell might be empty, having confidence in the power of the Love of God. (**Since heaven is in the eternity of God the saints are already part of the New Creation and it is only we who must wait for that coming Kingdom).


HUMANITY:
Cath: Humans are made in the image and likeness of God. The Fall did not destroy human nature but disabled its ability to relate to God. Grace perfects nature and restores that relationship.
The sin of Adam and Eve is transmitted along with the guilt and shame of that (original sin) through the concupiscence of generational reproduction, (St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas).

Baptism washes away the taint and power of original sin. Sanctification, which leads to salvation, involves both restoring this baptismal purity through confession and becoming more Christ-like through the acquisition of the virtues.

Orth: Orthodoxy agrees that humans are made in the image and likeness of God and that Fall did not destroy human nature but rather disabled its ability to relate to God.
Orthodoxy adds that the state of humans in Eden was immature, like a child, (St. Irenaeus). Salvation enables humans to grow once again into their true potential by deification. This is achieved by a struggle in grace against the passions.

This is made possible by the destruction of death in the resurrection of Christ and the ending of its corrupting influence in human life, (ancestral sin).

Humans may attain the full stature of Christ through repentance, ascesis and faithful obedience to God.


THE EVER VIRGIN MARY:
Cath: Since all humans are born with the full consequences and power of the sin of Adam and Eve through reproduction, Mary must have been conceived immaculately without this burden of sin in order to be obedient to God by grace and to become the Mother of God in the Incarnation, (the dogma of the Immaculate Conception).

Orth: Since the Orthodox Church does not believe that Adam and Eve's actual sin and guilt is transmitted sexually, the Virgin Mary did not need to be immaculately conceived to surrender herself to God in the Incarnation. She inherited the mortality that comes to all on account of the Fall but was then filled with divine grace to deal with this through actual obedience to God's Word.




God bless all.

alma73

I have great respect for the O.C. We have a lot in common, I just dont find them very united. They are a group of enthnic churches with a lot of infighting over authority.

lazybones32

I thought there were 3 main differences between us: filioque; the Mary issue and original sin but it was phrased quite differently to the way you've quoted. The person I learned from wrote that it was more about whether people had an innate ability to be pleasing to God by their own nature/power. The Cath. version is that we are not ("without me you can do nothing") and the Orth. stance was that we can be: the example used to highlight this point was that David had the desire to build a Temple for God. If God is the only source of all our good desires, why did God give David the desire to build the Temple, knowing full-well that He wanted another to build it. I'm not relaying the point as eloquently as it was shown to me but it still makes me think...


1 question for you though - " No one can ever or will ever see God in Himself...not his essence or nature."... yet "Salvation enables humans to grow once again into their true potential by deification." Does the Orth. have a different definition of deification? Scripture says we will see Him face to face; as He is. How can this contradiction be resolved? Also, could you elaborate about when you speak of the "energies" of God as being how He communicates/interacts with us? To me that sounds, for example, that God is like a pool of water but the only interaction/experience of Him we will have is not direct but as if we would only experience the steam that rises from Him. I thought we'd actually be immersed in Him (like a little sponge that's dropped into an Ocean) and practically becomes one with Him but without being completely dissolved or annihilated. Don't know if that makes sense to you...and I know it's more than 1 Q.