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Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories. Most Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament and chronicled in the New Testament, published together as the Christian biblical canon.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church and officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 260 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the Catholic Church—the pope—but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognized by them as primus inter pares. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Western Asia, the Caucasus, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and the Malabar coast of South Asia, and ephemerally parts of Persia, Central Asia, the Near East and the Far East. The term does not describe a single communion or religious denomination.
Chalcedonian Christianity is a term referring to the branches of Christianity that accept and uphold theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the Christological Definition of Chalcedon, a Christian doctrine concerning the union of two natures in one hypostasis of Jesus Christ, who is thus acknowledged as a single person (prosopon). Chalcedonian Christianity also accepts the Chalcedonian confirmation of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, thus acknowledging the commitment of Chalcedonism to Nicene Christianity.
The term Greek Orthodox Church has three meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also called 'Eastern Orthodox,' 'Greek Catholic,' or generally 'the Greek Church'". The narrower meaning designates "any of several independent churches within the worldwide communion of (Eastern) Orthodox Christianity that retain the use of the Greek language in formal ecclesiastical settings". The third is the Church of Greece, the Eastern Orthodox church operating within the modern borders of Greece.
In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym for Christianity, despite the fact that it is composed of multiple churches or denominations, many of which hold a doctrinal claim of being the "one true church", to the exclusion of the others.
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Eastern Orthodoxy in Hungary refers to communities, institutions and organizations of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Hungary. Historically, Eastern Orthodoxy was an important denomination in the medieval and early modern Kingdom of Hungary. In modern times, Eastern Orthodoxy is mainly the religion of some ethnic minorities. In the 2001 national census, only 15,928 persons declared themselves Orthodox Christians.
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Christian devotional literature is religious writing that Christian individuals read for their personal growth and spiritual formation. Such literature often takes the form of Christian daily devotionals. Original excerpts including the Book of Daniel and Leviticus derive from Ancient Roman, Greek and Byzantine culture – and encompass the past relationship of God's Law through the Old Testament. Though these are the most significant accounts, the majority of the literature comprises commentaries to the ever changing social and political reforms of human history – including the impact of censorship, persecution – the reign of Emperor Nero and Diocletian and martyrdom on Christian life through the ages.
References
- ↑ Urbainczyk, Theresa (21 September 2016). "By Stephen Morris". The Journal of Theological Studies: flw118. doi:10.1093/jts/flw118.
- ↑ Bogomilova, Nonka (2016). "Review of Morris' "When Brothers Dwell in Unity": Byzantine Christianity and Homosexuality". Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe. 36 (5).
- ↑ Brakke, David (1 June 2017). "'When brothers dwell in unity'. Byzantine Christianity and homosexuality. By Stephen Morris . Pp. ix + 227 incl. 5 tables. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016. £43.95 (paper.) 978 0 7864 9517 7". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 68 (3): 606–606. doi:10.1017/S0022046917000367.
- ↑ Mitralexis, Sotiris (23 July 2019). "The Early Eastern Orthodox Church: A History, 60–1453, StephenMorris, McFarland & Company, 2018 (ISBN 978‐1‐4766‐7481‐0), vii + 184 pp., pb $45". Reviews in Religion & Theology. 26 (3): 484–486. doi:10.1111/rirt.13619.