Eastern Orthodox – Roman Catholic Theological Differences
This article discusses Roman Catholic–Eastern Orthodox theological differences.
The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church have been in a state of official schism from one another since the events of 1054—the East–West Schism. The causes of this breach were centuries in the making and stemmed to a considerable extent from cultural and political factors derived from the increasing isolation of the Latin scholarly culture of the West and the Greek scholarly culture of the Byzantine Empire. Historically, it has been argued that there are substantive theological differences between the Western and Eastern churches that have proven enduring points of contention.
Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has generally taken the approach that the schism is primarily ecclesiological in nature, that the doctrinal teachings of the Eastern Orthodox churches are generally sound (with the exception of their understanding of papal primacy, the filioque clause, and the purification after death) and that "the vision of the full communion to be sought is that of unity in legitimate diversity" as before the division, since "the first councils are an eloquent witness to this enduring unity in diversity". In this view, the primary difficulty is disagreement on the role of the Pope.
Jeffrey D. Finch claims that "the future of East–West rapprochement appears to be overcoming the modern polemics of neo-scholasticism and neo-Palamism".
Read more about Eastern Orthodox – Roman Catholic Theological Differences: Historical Background of The East–West Schism, Impact of Linguistic Differences, Areas of Agreement On Doctrine, See Also
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