What was the main reason for the separation of churches? The split of the Christian church

The Christian church has never been united. This is very important to remember, so as not to fall into the extremes, so often taking place in the history of this religion. It is clear from the New Testament that the disciples of Jesus Christ even during his lifetime had disputes about which of them is more important and important in the nascent community. Two of them - John and Jacob - even asked for the throne on the right and left hands of Christ in the coming kingdom. After the death of the founder, the first thing that the Christians began to do is to share in various opposing groups. The book of Acts and the Epistles of the Apostles report numerous false apostles, heretics, who came from the first Christians and founded his own community. Of course, they looked at the authors of New Testament texts and their communities in the same way - as heretical and schismatic communities. Why did this happen and what was the main reason for the separation of churches?

The Church of the Donic ages

We know very little about what constituted Christianity before the year 325. We only know that this is the messianic current within Judaism, which was initiated by a wandering preacher named Jesus. His teaching was rejected by the majority of the Jews, and Jesus himself was crucified. A few followers, however, stated that he had risen from the dead and declared him the Messiah, the promised prophets of the Tanach and come to save the world. Faced with total rejection among their compatriots, they spread their sermon among the Gentiles, among whom many devotees were found.

First divisions among Christians

In the process of this mission, the first split of the Christian church occurred. Going to preach, the apostles did not have a codified prescription and the general principles of preaching. Therefore, they preached different Christ, different theories and concepts of salvation and impose different ethical and religious obligations on new converts. Some of them forced Christians from the Gentiles to be circumcised, to observe the rules of kashrut, to observe the Sabbath and fulfill other rulings of the Mosaic law. Others, on the contrary, abolished all the requirements of the Old Testament not only for new converts of the Gentiles, but also for themselves. In addition, someone considered Christ as the Messiah, the prophet, but at the same time a man, and someone began to endow him with divine qualities. Soon a layer of doubtful traditions appeared, like a virgin birth, stories of events from childhood and other things. In addition, the salutary role of Christ was assessed in different ways. All this led to significant contradictions and conflicts within the early Christians and initiated the split of the Christian church.

From the New Testament such differences in views (up to mutual rejection of each other) are clearly visible between the apostles Peter, James and Paul. Modern scholars who study the division of churches sing out four main branches of Christianity at this stage. In addition to the three above-mentioned leaders, they add the branch of John - also a separate and independent alliance of local communities. All this is natural, considering that Christ did not leave a deputy or successor, and did not give any practical instructions on the organization of the church of believers. The new communities were completely independent, obeying only the authority of the preacher who founded them and the elected leaders within themselves. Theology, practice and liturgy had an independent formation in each community. Therefore, episodes of separation were present in the Christian environment from the very beginning and they were often of a doctrinal nature.

Postlenikey period

After the emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, and especially after 325, when the first ecumenical council took place in the city of Nicaea, the orthodox party that had benefited from it actually absorbed most of the other directions of early Christianity. Those who remained, turned out to be heretics and were outlawed. Christian leaders in the person of bishops were given the status of government officials with all the legal consequences of their new position. In the end, the question of the administrative structure and administration of the Church arose with all seriousness. If in the previous period the reasons for the separation of churches were doctrinal and ethical, then in post-Ethnic Christianity another important motive was added - political. So, outside the church fence, there could be an orthodox Catholic who refused to obey his bishop, or the bishop himself, who did not recognize legal authority over himself, for example, the neighboring metropolitan.

Separation of the post-Enlisian period

We have already found out what was the main reason for the separation of churches during this period. However, the clergy often tried to paint political motives in doctrinal terms. Therefore, this period gives examples of several very complicated by their nature splits - the Arian (by the name of its leader, the priest Aria), the Nestorian (by the name of the founder - the patriarch Nestorius), Monophysite (from the name of the doctrine of a single nature in Christ) and many others.

The Great Schism

The most significant split in the history of Christianity occurred at the turn of the first and second millennia. A single, orthodox Catholic church in 1054 was divided into two independent parts - the eastern one, now called the Orthodox Church, and the western one, known as the Roman Catholic Church.

The reasons for the schism of 1054

In short, the main reason for the separation of the church in 1054 is political. The fact is that the Roman Empire by that time was two independent parts. Eastern part of the empire - Byzantium - ruled Caesar, whose throne and administrative center was located in Constantinople. The emperor was also the head of the church. The Western empire was actually ruled by the Bishop of Rome, who concentrated both secular and spiritual power in his hands, and also claims to power and the Byzantine churches. On this basis, of course, soon there were disputes and conflicts, expressed in a number of church claims against each other. The petty, in fact, nitpicking led to a serious confrontation.

In the end, in 1053 in Constantinople by the order of Patriarch Michael Kerularia all the temples of the Latin rite were closed. In response, Pope Leo IX sent an embassy headed by Cardinal Humbert to the capital of Byzantium, who excommunicated Michael from the church. In response, the patriarch assembled the cathedral and mutually anathematized papal legates. Immediately on this did not pay much attention, and inter-church relations continued in the usual channel. But twenty years later the initially minor conflict began to be realized as a fundamental division of the Christian church.

Reformation

The next important schism in Christianity is the emergence of Protestantism. It happened in the thirties of the 16th century, when a German monk of the Augustinian Order rebelled against the authority of the Roman bishop and dared to criticize a number of dogmatic, disciplinary, ethical and other provisions of the Catholic Church. What was the main reason for the separation of churches at this time is difficult to answer unambiguously. Luther was a convinced Christian, and for him the main motive was the struggle for the purity of faith.

Of course, his movement was also a political force for the liberation of German churches from the authority of the Pope. And this, in turn, unleashed the hands of secular power, no longer constrained by the demands of Rome. For the same reasons, the Protestants continued to separate themselves. Very quickly in many European states began to appear their own ideologists of Protestantism. The Catholic church began to crack at the seams - many countries fell out of the orbit of Rome's influence, others were on the verge of this. Protestants themselves did not have a single spiritual authority, no single administrative center, and this in part resembled the organizational chaos of the first Christianity. A similar situation exists in their environment today.

Modern schisms

What was the main reason for the separation of churches in earlier eras, we found out. What is happening with Christianity in this respect today? First and foremost, it must be said that there have been no significant Schism since the Reformation. The existing churches continue to be divided into similar small groups. Among the Orthodox, there were Old Believers, Old Calendar and Catacomb schisms, several groups also separated from the Catholic Church, and Protestants tirelessly split up, starting from their very appearance. Today, the number of Protestant denominations is more than twenty thousand. Nevertheless, nothing fundamentally new has appeared, except for several semi-Christian organizations like the Church of Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.

It is important to note that, firstly, today most of the churches are not connected with the political regime and are separated from the state. And secondly, there is an ecumenical movement that seeks to bring together, if not to unite the various churches. In these conditions, the main reason for the separation of churches is ideological. Today very few people seriously revise dogmatics, but huge reactions are received by movements for the ordination of women, the marriage of same-sex marriages, etc. In response to this, each group separates from others, taking its principled position, preserving in general the dogmatic content of Christianity inviolable.