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Greeks were always far more interested in the doct

nal side of religion. To Rome, Christianity was —


a law to be kept: to Constantinople it was a philosophy a.
to be comprehended. As we have seen in the story of — Ce
yy
the councils, what could arouse tempestuous concernin —
the East was a discussion as to the nature of God orthe |
person of Christ. Rome, on the other hand, following
her great prototype, the early Empire, was busied
with the making and enforcement of law. The Hast
speculated: how could there be two natures in the
one person of Christ— how explain the phenomenon,
metaphysically? The councils of the West disputed
the legality of baptism or the sacraments, if adminis-
tered by properly appointed, but not always moral-
ly valid officials. To Constantinople the funda-
mental thing was theology; to Rome, authority.
This, then, is the type of religion that Constantino-
ple has to pass on to the Slavs — of the Hast, eastern,
Orthodox, mainly concerned with the retention of the
faith of the fathers, while Catholic Rome is chiefly
anxious for the acquisition of new authority through the
adaption of old truths to new situations. It is Greek in-
stead of Latin, with the emphasis upon the theological,
rather than the legalistic side of religion. The Eastern
Church to this day knows as the ‘Holy Mysteries”
what we of the West call by the more judicial phrase —
the ‘Ordinance of the Sacraments’. As Stephen
Graham puts it, the Church of the East represents the
“Way of Mary” over against the ‘““Way of Martha’’.
The eastern emphasis is upon devotion rather than
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ie
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athditSed)
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kaadah
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hi aaBelal
doing, worship before work, the contemplative side
of religion, rather than the too often over-emphasized
action of the Christianity of the modern West. isie

Now it is evident why a study of this process of oe


eon
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separation between the Churches of East and West


must begin with the dedication of Constantinople, in |
330. The foundation of an eastern capital was the
initial step toward dividing first the Empire and then

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