The Great Schism of 1054 - Essay Example

The Great Schism of 1054 d back to 1054, the Great Schism was directly linked to the major historical event of Christianity in the Eastern and Western Churches in Europe. The eastern part was for the Orthodox Christianity (Greek) and the western part was for the Roman Catholic (Latin). The Great Schism took place when there were growing misunderstanding and alienation between these two groups. The misunderstanding or alienation was said to be due to some important factors. Concerning this, the work at hand presents evidences and historical events that could prove to be as the major reasons that contributed to the growing misunderstanding and alienation between the two groups. Their existence can be considered as among the major motivation of the Great Schism of 1054. One important reason of the misunderstanding between the Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity in Europe was the differences of philosophical understanding. At the end of the 4th century, the Roman Empire was divided, and in the Western part, the Roman influence remained so alive devoting to “juridical thinking, clear organisation, and appreciation of logical distinctions”, while the Eastern or Byzantine Empire was influenced by the spirit of Greek culture creating a “bias towards philosophical and speculative thinking” (Blei 36). In this case, the Eastern Orthodox theology was highly focusing on Christological questions, creating a remarkable distinction from Latin theology, which was becoming more concerned with legal question such as predestination and the role of grace in salvation (Dragani 52). In other words, there was a clear distinction between the varying levels of philosophy used by each group of Church. The implementation of reason was remarkable in the case of Eastern Orthodox, while the Latin theology remained so focused and conservative, because of its preservation of the original design of philosophical thinking in religion. However, the differences of philosophical understanding were not only the primarily viewed reason of the split in Christianity in Europe. There were other reasons that should be taken into account. Thus, another remarkable reason of the conflict in Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity in Europe was the liturgical usage. There were liturgical reforms in both of these churches. This would most likely be explained as the result of liturgical reforms carried out by people. People, by virtue of being human are eventually vulnerable to biases, idiosyncrasies and mixed motives (Berger 184). In other words, there is a human element in the liturgical usage, which was said to be as another substantial reason of the Great Schism of 1054. Humans by nature are not free from committing biases. Everyone is unique with varying characteristics. Furthermore, each one has varying motives and mixed emotions. All of these summed up the fact that a human being is more vulnerable to use certain rules and even implement reforms that in the end will most likely lead to conflicts or divisions especially that not everyone is open to the possibility of change. One can remarkably see this happened in the case of the Great Schism of 1054. The other great influential factor that drives the Great Schism of 1054 was the language. As already stated, the major language in the West was Latin, and Greek in the East. The exclusivity of the usage of this language by the time of schism was remarkable thru the exclusivity of the usage of Latin in the West and Greek in the East (Streeter 158). As the language was one of the major means to communicate, the point where the language usage diverged led remarkably to political and eventually ecclesiastical separation between the East and West. The use of language is vital to the entire communication process. Major differences in the language and its usage may therefore result to misunderstanding, because it might necessarily result to political drawbacks, which will be discussed later in the following section. Meanwhile, aside from language, custom was also remarkably considered as the great triggering factor leading to the separation of Western Church and Eastern Church. There was a strong point of view that the Western custom was against nature, but the East was according to nature (Hastings 200). In either way, it might be reasonable to consider that the norm or routine initiated in the two churches may reveal a significant conflict at some point, which ignited the Great Schism of 1054. In this view, it is without doubt that the presence of varying customs and traditions in each of the Greek and Latin culture should reasonably bring forward the associated divergence in religious point of view. The religious point of view is critical in the case of the Great Schism of 1054, but considering the prevailing custom during that time is even more an interesting point of view. This is due to the fact that the Western culture may have relevant contradiction to the law of nature, while the Eastern culture preserved the idea that the existence of mankind is relevant to the law of nature, and thus it was imperative to view nature as integral component of life. However, more than this perspective, there were still other important reasons that led to the Great Schism in 1054. Among them, in addition to the above factors that resulted to the Great Schism of 1054 was the existence of political rivalries, as also one of the major reasons considered by various experts. In fact, the early Christianity was viewed to have created a problem when it comes to the deep political rivalry between the pope at Rome and the emperor at Constantinople (McGrath 21). Theological differences therefore were not that considered as among the primary sources of the first major split up in the early Christianity, but the deep issue was linked to politics that was involved in both religion, and leadership and socio-political context. One cannot contest the fact that the early form of civilization was already experiencing major problems associated with politics. Thus, it cannot be denied that the occurrence of political rivalry will surely be at its greatest possibility, as even history can surely attest through the documented divisions and conflicts, and the Great Schism of 1054 was a major example for this. In addition to the above view, the Church originally was a unified institution prior to the Great Schism of 1054, but division set in later. Division may be linked to various arguments and point of views on certain beliefs or issues. For instance, there were debates over clerical celibacy and the practice of the Eucharist (Edwards 331). In other words, it is clear that there were major divisions in terms of beliefs, which primarily will lead to the issue of understanding varying ideas, theologies, mysteries and movements. Here where one will be able to see major divisions between the Western Church and the Eastern Church. The level of division was so strong that it was able to lead to the major conflicts in beliefs and the emancipation of ideas, theologies at the forefront, at best. In other words, one may be able to deduce the fact that the political rivalries and division were among the greatest reasons of the inception of the Great Schism in 1054. However, these issues were not that the only viewed sources of major change in the early Christianity in Europe. Prior to them, as already stated, there were also remarkable considerations of other vital factors. However, what seems clear as the glowing idea in the entire issue about the Great Schism of 1054 is the thought that the early Christianity in Europe was eventually vulnerable to various changes. Works Cited Berger, Teresa. Liturgy in Migration: From the Upper Room to Cyberspace. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2012. Print. Blei, Karel. Freedom of Religion and Belief: Europe’s Story. Assen: Uitgeverij Van Gorcum, 2002. Print. Dragani, Anthony. Adrian Fortescue and the Eastern Christian Churches. Piscataway: Gorgias Press LLC. Edwards, Linda. A Brief Guide to Beliefs: Ideas, Theologies, Mysteries, and Movements. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Print. Hastings, James. A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels: Volume I. University Press of the Pacific, 2004. Print. McGrath, Alister E. Christian History: An Introduction. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print. Streeter, Tom. The Church and Western Culture. Booktango, 2012. Print. Read More