Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions which developed in Greece, the Near East and Eastern Europe. Its division from Western Christianity is as much to do with culture and politics as theology; a definitive date for the commencement of schism cannot be given.
Families of churches
Eastern Christians have a shared tradition, but have also known division from one another over the centuries. Eastern Christianity can be described as comprising four families of churches.
The Eastern Orthodox accept seven Ecumenical Councils as defining their faith (though many regard the councils of 879-80 and 1341-1351 as being the Eighth and Ninth Ecumenical Councils). Most Eastern Orthodox are united in communion with Patriarch of Constantinople, though unlike in the Roman Catholic Church, this is not a touchstone of Orthodoxy or Catholicity.
The Eastern Catholic family of churches are a part of the Roman Catholic Church (of which Eastern Catholics form around 2%), but are rooted in the traditions of Eastern Christianity. For example, their priests need not be celibate, and their parish priests administer the sacrament of confirmation to newborn infants immediately after baptism, via the rite of chrismation, and the infants are then allowed to receive communion. Many of these churches were originally part of one of the above families.
There are also a few small Eastern Christian churches that do not fit into this scheme.
Christianity is based on a particular experience or scheme directed to the act of saving--that is, of bringing or "buying back," which is part of what redemption means, these creatures of God to their source in God.
Christians, it might be said, used the vocabulary and repertory of options then available to them in speaking of the all-encompassing and the ineffable and grafted these onto the witness to God that was essential to their faith.
Christianity was as much a cultural tradition as it was a faith tradition, an assertion that the leadership of the medieval church would not have regarded as diminishing or insulting.
EasternChristianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in Greece, the Balkans, the rest of Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, northeastern Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity.
The twenty-two Eastern Catholic (or "Uniat[e]") churches are all in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, but are rooted in the theological and liturgical traditions of EasternChristianity.
Eastern Catholics Information concerning Christians of Eastern rites who are in communion with, and under the jurisdiction of, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome.
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