Re: Must be an eduction failure

Post #132,812 by deSitter 12/30/03 2:45:05 PM Reply	Re: Must be an eduction failure As far as I can tell, what really distinguishes Catholicism is 1) belief in the actual Eucharist 2) it is very personal (praying not just to God but to various saints, starting with Mary) 3) it is, or at least has been, very service-oriented. The position of Pope is the inevitable outcome of it having emerged from the Roman Empire. -drl
Post #132,817 by ChrisR 12/30/03 2:52:58 PM Reply	Eucharist.. Actually, the doctrine of Eucharist is probably even more refined in the Orthodox tradition. Catholics came up with the doctrine of Transubstantiation about the time of the Reformation (Aquina, et al), but it is a religious doctrine that only makes sense when prodded with a specific theological question. I've always found the Orthodox teaching to be a bit more appealing. With Catholics, the Eucharist is the embodiment of Christ - you partake of the body and blood. With the Orthodox, it's consider more along the lines of communion with Christ at the last supper - it's not so much of Christ coming to you - as you coming to Christ in Communion. But like I said, theology is a study in closed systems.
Post #132,871 by ben_tilly 12/30/03 6:26:47 PM Reply	The pope does not seem to me to be inevitable The Orthodox church arose out of the Roman Empire just as assuredly as the Roman Catholic one did. One structure arose out of the Western Empire, and the other out of the Eastern Empire. I'm not sure that either was a more inevitable result than the other. However I find it interesting that the division between sects matches fairly closely with the division between political boundaries. That doesn't seem to be coincidence to me. I also wonder that the great political split in the Roman Catholic Church, that of Protestant versus Catholic, happened just a few decades after the collapse of the political underpinning for the Orthodox Church, namely the Eastern Roman (by then Byzantine) Empire. Probably coincidence, but surprisingly close. Cheers, Ben PS Observant people will note that I carefully said Roman Catholic Church. There are actually a couple of dozen Catholic Churches, of which the Roman is merely the largest and best known... "good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not" - [link\|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html\|Stefano Mazzocchi]
Post #133,704 by danreck 1/5/04 4:46:50 PM Reply	Re: The pope does not seem to me to be inevitable The way that I understand it (from many hours of TLC and Discovery Channel viewing) is that other than geological boundaries (hence different mythological basis) had less to do with the initial split than the theological difference in the actual birth of Christ. The basic theological problem arose about whether or not Jesus was born a man or as Son of God. This would mean that Mary either was not too important or very important (the mother of a God). FWIW... Just a few thoughts, Danno

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