Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism

[poiuytrewq0987]

Could someone point out the major differences between the three mentioned denominations? I'm no genius in theology so I'd appreciate it if someone helped me out. :thumbs up

[Monolith]

http://christianityinview.com/comparison.html

Google is your friend ;)

[Groenewolf]

Could someone point out the major differences between the three mentioned denominations? I'm no genius in theology so I'd appreciate it if someone helped me out. :thumbs up

Our Christian boardmembers could probably help you more. But from what I know the split between the Orthodox church and the Mother church was over whether or not bishop of Rome is the highest authority.

Protestantism can be described as a back to the basis movement, namely the Bible. Alto in some cases they go pretty far in it.

[Bloodeagle]

Being raised protestant (Southern Baptist), I can only tell you this: Everybody who is not protestant is going straight to hell!:mad::D:confused:

[Turkophagos]

Orthodoxy = Original Christianity


Catholicism = Papal apostacy


Protestantism (maybe with the exception of Anglicanism) = Euro-Judaism

[Smaland]

Our Christian boardmembers could probably help you more. But from what I know the split between the Orthodox church and the Mother church was over whether or not bishop of Rome is the highest authority.

Protestantism can be described as a back to the basis movement, namely the Bible....

Yes. To a Protestant, the final authority on earth is Scripture itself. I don't see anything wrong with a church hierarchy per se, but its doctrine, pronouncements and actions should all be in line with what has been laid down in the Bible.

[Óttar]

The Catholic Church is a mafia hierarchy with a crapload of money and a vast network of hospitals, charities, not to mention brain-washing camps. They believe the hierarchy enforces the will of God even if it promotes traditions and practices completely in contradiction to the Bible. Jesus condemned the Pharisees as wearing fine clothing on the outside, but inside being wells of stinking pus. He also said it was near impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. How can the Church justify their priests decked out in gold thread, fine silk, and elaborate sea-shell designs, holding solid gold goblets not to mention their pope in the same get up with red leather designer shoes no less. On the plus side, they did inherit really beautiful Roman architecture and lucid paintings and sculpture infused with Roman realism. The ideal historical event would have been if civilisation could have never had the Church, and just have kept the art, architecture, and tradition of the Roman world which originally never had anything to do with Christianity in the first place.

Orthodoxy is like the Catholic Church, but not as opulent and not so much infused with pagan tradition, only 2D images are allowed, the liturgies are usually in Greek, and they have unique concepts like metanoia and theosis. Their monastic tradition is really strong and unique. I always said of any normative Christianity, Orthodoxy is the most appealing as it still has a highly developed taste for aesthetics (ikons, liturgy, communion etc.) but not as concerned with guilt and shame or as hypocritical as the Catholic Church.

Protestantism sucks all the juice (tradition, liturgies, vestments, images, mysticism) out of traditional Christianity. It has no mystical feminine element. No Holy Divine Wisdom, No Theotokos, No Bride. It is austere, spartan, and stiff. Any person who can read the bible, can start his own church by building a barn and connecting two sticks together on the outside. This has wreaked havoc on the American South and the culture of the rural United States. On the one hand, they are paying attention to Jesus "Where two or more people are gathered, there I am amongst them." (no statues, no mediation between man and God etc.) on the other hand, they are pretty boring and not very inspiring, but then again I think that has to do with the fact that Christianity in general, but particularly when stripped down to its bare essentials is exactly that: A great big huge steaming pile of uninspiring and uninspired boring.

Anglicanism when it started out did not consider itself Protestant (King Henry VIII was an avid opponent of Martin Luther). Anglicanism is half-way between Protestantism in its lack of statuary, lack of overt pagan tradition, and no recognition of papal authority, and Catholicism in that it still retains liturgies, communion, feast days and high class architecture (minus the imagery.)

[CelticTemplar]

Ugh......why is everyone always dissing the Catholics?

(Thats a rhetorical question)

[Savant]

I guess there are lots of reasons really, you could write a book on it. However, one of my biggest sources of resentment towards them (as a group, not individual men and women) is their influence on our immigration policy. Despite all the jew conspiracies, Irish Catholics were primarily behind the 60s immigration reforms, which favored their South American brethren.


Ugh......why is everyone always dissing the Catholics?

(Thats a rhetorical question)

[Heretik]

Being raised protestant (Southern Baptist), I can only tell you this: Everybody who is not protestant is going straight to hell!:mad::D:confused:

Nope, only mormons go to heaven. We shall all burn. :D

http://www.spscriptorium.com/Season4/MormonsInHeaven.jpg

[Murphy]

I knew I would find Óttar in this thread..

Anyway. Moving on..

The main differences between Catholicism and "Orthodoxy" concern the Jurisdiction and Teaching authority of the See of Saint Peter. The "Orthodox" maintain that the primacy of the See of Saint Peter is more a "first amongst equals" thing compared to the Universal Teaching authority that we Catholics believe Peter's Throne carries (basically, that the Pope can declare dogma binding on all the body of faithful). The Jurisdiction issue concern's how great the Papal authority is in the more temporal affairs of the Church (confirming Bishops etcetera).

It's complicated by the fact that the Greeks in the past have argued that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is equal to the Bishopric of Rome because a secular Roman Emperor declared Constantinople the capital of the Roman Empire.. and no that isn't a joke. The fact is the Bishoprics established by Saint Peter have always been recognised as the premier Sees with Rome, Saint Peter's personal See, being recognised as having the authority listed in contention above. Historically even the enemies of the Church appealed to Rome's authority. When Photius usurped the See of Constantinople from Saint Ignatius (Photius went from Layman to Bishop in seconds) Photius appealed to Pope Saint Nicholas I to confirm him as Constantinople's Bishop. Of course the Pope did no such thing and Saint Ignatius was reinstated. But it's just an example.

Then there are the debates surrounding the differing theological and philosophical methods of the Latin West and Greek East. Essentially Scholasticism versus the Patristics (I boil it down to Plato versus Aristotle). There is no conflict between Aquinas (the most well known Scholastic theologian) and the Early Church Fathers but I find the Greeks will pick a fight about pretty much anything with the Latin West.

That's about it. We are essentially unified in everything else (one baptism for the remission of sins, the Most Holy Eucharist &c.).

When we bring Protestantism into the picture.. honestly it cannot be done. Protestantism is far too broad. In Protestantism you have visible versus invisible Church (those that believe in a Church with a hierarchy on Earth and those that believe in a non-visible Church uniting all Christians). You have different degrees of Predestination and various views on the nature of Grace and many who do not believe in the Dual Natures of Christ (that Christ is both distinctly fully human and fully Divine without either being compromised some Protestants or rather many deny this). Then you get into the matter of the Communion of Saints (which many Protestants deny) and the different degrees in which Christ is present in the Most Holy Eucharist (with Catholics+"Orthodox" keeping to the teaching Transubstantiation and extreme-Evangelicals maintaining He is not present at all in the hosts and Lutherans saying he's there a little). And we cannot forget "Scripture Alone". That says it all right there.

Basically Protestants are just weird.


I guess there are lots of reasons really, you could write a book on it. However, one of my biggest sources of resentment towards them (as a group, not individual men and women) is their influence on our immigration policy. Despite all the jew conspiracies, Irish Catholics were primarily behind the 60s immigration reforms, which favored their South American brethren.

Well when one looks at the fact that the Catholic Church in America was pretty much built by immigrants it isn't really a surprise..

[Duckelf]

Murphy, it is clear that you do not understand the main currents of traditional Orthodox and Protestant theology.