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The 1,500 year old schism fuelling the clash between Russia and the West
http://www.karlremarks.com/2014/03/the-1500-year-old-schism-fuelling-clash.html
With the clash between Russia and the West escalating in Ukraine, most
tend to focus on the contemporary factors fuelling the confrontation and
ignore its historic roots. The truth of the matter is that the current
conflict is but a manifestation of an ancient schism between East and
West that has been tearing Christianity apart for 1,500 years.
The rift between the two great Christian denominations runs like a
tectonic fault-line along what is known as Orthodox crescent, starting
in Greece and curving through Bulgaria and Romania to Ukraine and
Belarus to Russia in the north east. On the one side there are the
Orthodox Eastern Churches and on the other the Catholic Church and its
offshoot the Protestant Church.
There are around 2.1 billion Christians in the world. Of these,
somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent – estimates vary considerably - are
Orthodox. Most Christians are Catholics, their number is estimated at
1.2 billion, and the rest are split between Protestantism’s 27,000
denominations. The ancient rifts between those branches are now
threatening global stability and the prospect of long war.
The conflict could be traced back to the 451 Council of Chalcedon,
during which the great rift between Christianity’s major wings began. At
its heart was the debate over the use of unleavened bread when
performing the Eucharist, a rite derived from the Last Supper when Jesus
broke bread with his disciples during a Passover Seder. Western
Christians preferred unleavened bread, whereas Eastern Christians opted
for leavened bread. The debate has escalated over the centuries and is
particularly difficult to resolve today as no one is quite sure what
unleavened bread is but nobody wants to admit that they were wrong.
This division plagued the Church for a long time but stopped short from
creating a full schism, until the debate about Christology, the true
nature of Christ, took centre stage. Eastern Christians maintained the
proposition that Christ has one human nature [physis] and one divine
nature [physis], united with neither confusion nor division. Western
Christians said the two natures were united without division but one
shouldn’t rule out confusion and really Eastern Christians should learn
to chill a bit.
This had the opposite effect as Eastern or Orthodox Christians became
even more infuriated at the suggestion. But the straw that broke the
camel’s back came with the debate about the precise Calendar to use in
establishing the dates of Christian celebrations. Western Christians had
for years been buying the normal calendar with the pictures of cats, and
pictures of cats on the snow in the winter, but Orthodox Christians said
it was unseemly and they need a classier calendar.
The debate about the calendar could not be settled and it finally pushed
the Churches towards full schism beginning in the year 1053 and
escalating with a series of ex-communications, counter ex-communications
and ex-ex-communications. The sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the
fourth crusade fully sealed the schism and left a scar on the psyche of
Orthodox Christians that has never healed.
Orthodox Christians around the world commemorate the sacking of
Constantinople and Western treachery every year in a solemn religious
ceremony during which they burn calendars with pictures of cats and shed
tears for their slain martyrs. Catholics have for long frowned on these
celebrations, what with them reminding everyone of their history, and
indeed have banned them for long periods.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the revival of Orthodox
Christianity in Russia and Eastern Europe, the stage was set for the
return of this historic confrontation. Many Russians, including
President Vladimir Putin himself, did not forget the role that the
Papacy played in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the moral support
it gave to the West. Symbolically Putin insisted on being photographed
receiving leavened bread, a gesture that infuriated then President
George W Bush who had was famously wheat-intolerant, as well as being
generally intolerant.
As the situation escalated in Crimea, President Obama called Putin to
discuss the situation and how to avert further escalation. Putin
repeatedly insisted that Obama agree with the two natures of Christ
being ‘united with neither confusion nor division’ but it was a step too
far for Obama and one that would cost him dearly among the voters. The
conversation broke down and Putin ordered a series of escalatory
measures as a result.
The conflict in Ukraine is but one manifestation of this ancient rivalry
that doesn’t show any signs of abating with time. Thousands of fanatics
from both sides have already poured into Ukraine driven by the ancient
hatreds that have plagued Christianity for so long. German Greens,
Swedish Liberals and American Republicans are united in their desire to
uphold Western Christianity while on the other side Russian volunteers
are expected to be joined by Armenians, Cypriots, and Egyptian Copts as
the conflict escalates into a defining confrontation at the heart of
Christianity.
To most outsiders these disagreements about calendars and theological
debates appear outdated and irrelevant. They prefer to talk instead of
geopolitical and economic factors, obscuring the role of the ancient
East-West schism in the process. But the reality is that Ukraine, and
probably other countries too, will become the stage for a proxy war
between those rival power, with Russia on the one side representing
Orthodox Christianity and the US on the other leading the Western
Christian alliance. Can we stop this descent into madness? Let’s pray
- See more at:
http://www.karlremarks.com/2014/03/the-1500-year-old-schism-fuelling-clash.html#sthash.gsqaTFbL.dpuf
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