Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy

One of the three major divisions in Christianity today. Perhaps the best starting point for understanding Eastern Orthodoxy is through its use of icons. Icons, to the Eastern Orthodox worshiper are a kind of window between the earthly and the celestial worlds. Through the icons the heavenly beings manifest themselves to the worshiping congregation and unite with it. In Orthodoxy the idea of image is the key to understanding the ways of God with man. Man is created "in the image of God’, he carries the icon of God within himself. A great theme of Orthodox theology is the incarnation of God and the re-creation of man. When man sins he does not violate the divinely established legal relationship between God and man (as in the western theological point of view); rather, he reduces the divine likeness — he inflicts a wound in the original image of God. Salvation, therefore, consists of the restoration of the full image.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Eastern-Orthodoxy, history[/tags]

 

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