Posted: Oct 22, 2010 3:53 pm
quas wrote:Moses de la Montagne wrote:Tim O’Neill and Gakusei Don would probably be better-informed than I am to do so, but if there’s a stereotype that could be applied here it’s that Byzantine Christianity has traditionally tended towards a mystical appreciation of the scriptures, whereas the Latins have been somewhat more rigorous and exacting.
I'd like to know the 'whys'. Why do the Byzantines believe so and so, why do the Latins have differing beliefs?
The beliefs don’t necessarily differ that much. The Eastern Orthodox understand the doctrine of the Virgin Birth in the same way the Roman Catholics do—which is to say, literally.
Probably the most significant difference in scriptural interpretation is Jesus’ “thou art Peter” line, which the Catholics interpret as referring to the papacy. The Orthodox naturally don’t. As to why, I suppose it originally boiled down to differing opinions on how the Church should be constituted: as an institution with one guy at the top, or as a diverse community of churches appealing to a singular tradition. Perhaps it has to do with their cultural psychologies? The Romans (being the architects and engineers) would've evolved the more legalistic structure while the Greeks (the poets and philosophers) preferred a broader view. But that's only to return to stereotypes. In any case, the Catholic take is slightly stricter (and less Origen-esque?) although not entirely literal, since they don’t take “Peter” to refer to an actual piece of granite.