Western Christianity is one of two sub-divisions of
Christianity (
Eastern Christianity
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 ...
being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the
Latin Church
, native_name_lang = la
, image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran
, caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...
and
Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the
Old Catholic Church
The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics, Old-Catholic churches or Old Catholic movement designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivide ...
,
Independent Catholicism
Independent Catholicism is an independent sacramental movement of clergy and laity who self-identify as Catholic (most often as Old Catholic or as Independent Catholic) and form "micro-churches claiming apostolic succession and valid sacrament ...
and
Restorationism.
The large majority of the world's 2.3 billion Christians are Western Christians (about 2 billion – 1.2 billion Latin Catholic and 800 million Protestant). The original and still major component, the Latin Church, developed under the
bishop of Rome
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
. Out of the Latin Church emerged a wide variety of independent
Protestant denominations
This is a list of the largest Protestant denominations. It aims to include sizable Protestant communions, federations, alliances, councils, fellowships, and other denominational organisations in the world and provides information regarding the me ...
, including
Lutheranism and
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
, starting from the
Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, as did Independent Catholicism in the 19th century. Thus, the term "Western Christianity" does not describe a single
communion or
religious denomination, but is applied to distinguish all these denominations collectively from Eastern Christianity.
The establishment of the distinct Latin Church, a
particular church ''
sui iuris'' of the
Catholic Church, coincided with the consolidation of the
Holy See in
Rome, which claimed
primacy since Antiquity. The Latin Church is distinct from the
Eastern Catholic Churches
The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of th ...
, also in
full communion with the
Pope in
Rome, and from the
Eastern Orthodox Church and
Oriental Orthodox Churches
The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are part of the Nicene Christian tradition, and represent ...
, which are not in communion with Rome. These other churches are part of
Eastern Christianity
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 terms "Western" and "Eastern" in this regard originated with geographical divisions mirroring the cultural divide between the
Hellenistic east and Latin West, and the political divide between the
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
and
Eastern Roman empires. During the
Middle Ages adherents of the Latin Church, irrespective of ethnicity, commonly referred to themselves as "Latins" to distinguish themselves from
Eastern Christians.
Western Christianity has
played a prominent role in the shaping of
Western civilization
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
.
[Caltron J.H Hayas, ''Christianity and Western Civilization'' (1953), Stanford University Press, p. 2: That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization—the civilization of western Europe and of America—have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo – Graeco – Christianity, Catholic and Protestant.][Jose Orlandis, 1993, "A Short History of the Catholic Church," 2nd edn. (Michael Adams, Trans.), Dublin: ]Four Courts Press
Four Courts Press is an independent Irish academic publishing house, with its office at Malpas Street, Dublin 8, Ireland.
Founded in 1970 by Michael Adams, who died in February 2009, its early publications were primarily theological, notably t ...
, , preface, se
accessed 8 December 2014. p. (preface) With the expansion of
European colonialism from the
Early Modern era, the Latin Church, in time along with its Protestant secessions, spread throughout the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with t ...
, much of the
Philippines,
Southern Africa, pockets of
West Africa, and throughout
Australia, and
New Zealand. Thus, when used for historical periods after the 16th century, the term "Western Christianity" does not refer to a particular geographical area, but is rather used as a collective term for all these.
Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity is not nearly as absolute as in Antiquity or the Middle Ages, due to the spread of
Christian missionaries
A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...
,
migration
Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration
* Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another
** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...
s, and
globalisation. As such, the adjectives "Western Christianity" and "Eastern Christianity" are typically used to refer to historical origins and differences in
theology and
liturgy, rather than present geographical locations.
While the Latin Church maintains the use of the
Latin liturgical rites, Protestant denominations and Independent Catholicism use a wide variety of liturgical practices.
History
For most of its history the church in Europe has been
culturally divided between the Latin-speaking west, whose centre was
Rome, and the Greek-speaking east, whose centre was
Constantinople. Cultural differences and political rivalry created tensions between the two churches, leading to disagreement over
doctrine and
ecclesiology
In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership.
In its early history, one of the C ...
and ultimately to
schism.
["General Essay on Western Christianity"](_blank)
''Overview Of World Religions''. Division of Religion and Philosophy, University of Cumbria. © 1998/9 ELMAR Project. Accessed 1 April 2012.
Like
Eastern Christianity
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 ...
, Western Christianity traces its roots directly to the
apostles
An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...
and other early preachers of the religion. In Western Christianity's original area
Latin was the principal language. Christian writers in Latin had more influence there than those who wrote in
Greek,
Syriac Syriac may refer to:
*Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic
*Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region
* Syriac alphabet
** Syriac (Unicode block)
** Syriac Supplement
* Neo-Aramaic languages ...
, or other Eastern languages. Though the first Christians in the West used Greek (such as
Clement of Rome
Pope Clement I ( la, Clemens Romanus; Greek: grc, Κλήμης Ῥώμης, Klēmēs Rōmēs) ( – 99 AD) was bishop of Rome in the late first century AD. He is listed by Irenaeus and Tertullian as the bishop of Rome, holding office from 88 AD t ...
), by the
fourth century Latin had superseded it even in the cosmopolitan city of
Rome, while there is evidence of a Latin translation of the
Bible in the 2nd century (see also
Vetus Latina
''Vetus Latina'' ("Old Latin" in Latin), also known as ''Vetus Itala'' ("Old Italian"), ''Itala'' ("Italian") and Old Italic, and denoted by the siglum \mathfrak, is the collective name given to the Latin translations of biblical texts (both ...
) in
southern Gaul and the
Roman province of Africa.
With the
decline of the Roman Empire
The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...
, distinctions appeared also in organization, since the bishops in the West were not dependent on the
Emperor in Constantinople and did not come under the influence of the
Caesaropapism in the Eastern Church. While the
see of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...
became dominant throughout the Emperor's lands, the West looked exclusively to the
see of Rome, which in the East was seen as that of one of the five
patriarchs of the
Pentarchy, "the proposed government of universal
Christendom
Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwin ...
by five
patriarchal sees under the auspices of a single universal empire. Formulated in the legislation of the emperor
Justinian I (527–565), especially in his
Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
131, the theory received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the
Council in Trullo
The Quinisext Council (Latin: ''Concilium Quinisextum''; Koine Greek: , ''Penthékti Sýnodos''), i.e. the Fifth-Sixth Council, often called the Council ''in Trullo'', Trullan Council, or the Penthekte Synod, was a church council held in 692 at ...
(692), which ranked the five sees as Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem."
Over the centuries, disagreements separated Western Christianity from the various forms of Eastern Christianity: first from
East Syriac Christianity after the
Council of Ephesus (431)
The Council of Ephesus was a council of Christian bishops convened in Ephesus (near present-day Selçuk in Turkey) in AD 431 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. This third ecumenical council, an effort to attain consensus in the church thro ...
, then from that of
Oriental Orthodoxy after the
Council of Chalcedon (451), and then from
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical" ...
with the
East-West Schism of 1054. With the last-named form of Eastern Christianity, reunion agreements were signed at the
Second Council of Lyon
:''The First Council of Lyon, the Thirteenth Ecumenical Council, took place in 1245.''
The Second Council of Lyon was the fourteenth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convoked on 31 March 1272 and convened in Lyon, Kingdom of Arl ...
(1274) and the
Council of Florence
The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1449. It was convoked as the Council of Basel by Pope Martin V shortly before his death in February 1431 and took place in ...
(1439), but these proved ineffective.
Historian Paul Legutko of
Stanford University said the
Catholic Church is "at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call
Western civilization
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
". The rise of
Protestantism led to major divisions within Western Christianity, which still persist, and wars—for example, the
Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 had religious as well as economic causes.
In and after the
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafaring ...
,
Europeans spread Western Christianity to the
New World and elsewhere. Roman Catholicism came to the Americas (especially South America), Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Protestantism, including Anglicanism, came to North America, Australia-Pacific and some African locales.
Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity is now much less absolute, due to the great migrations of Europeans across the globe, as well as the work of
missionaries worldwide over the past five centuries.
Features
Original sin
Original sin, also called
ancestral sin
Ancestral sin, generational sin, or ancestral fault ( grc-koi, προπατορικὴ ἁμαρτία; ; ), is the doctrine that individuals inherit the judgement for the sin of their ancestors. It exists primarily as a concept in Mediterranean r ...
,
is a
Christian belief in a
state of sin in which humanity has existed since the
fall of man, stemming from
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
's rebellion in the
Garden of Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming the
forbidden fruit from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Theologians have characterized this condition in many ways, seeing it as ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without
collective guilt
Collective responsibility, also known as collective guilt, refers to responsibilities of organizations, groups and societies. Collective responsibility in the form of collective punishment is often used as a disciplinary measure in closed insti ...
, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as
total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.
Filioque clause
Most Western Christians use a version of the
Nicene Creed that states that the
Holy Spirit "
proceeds from the Father and the Son", where the original text as adopted by the
First Council of Constantinople had "proceeds from the Father" without the addition of either "and the Son" or "alone". This Western version also has the additional phrase "God from God" (in
Latin ''Deum de Deo''), which was in the Creed as adopted by the
First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325.
This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
, but which was dropped by the First Council of Constantinople.
Date of Easter
The
date of Easter
As a moveable feast, the date of Easter is determined in each year through a calculation known as (). Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (a fixed approxim ...
usually differs between Eastern and Western Christianity, because the calculations are based on the
Julian calendar and
Gregorian calendar respectively. However, before the Council of Nicea, various dates including Jewish Passover were observed. Nicea "Romanized" the date for Easter and anathematized a "Judaized" (i.e. Passover date for) Easter. The date of observance of Easter has only differed in modern times since the promulgation of the Gregorian calendar in 1582; and further, the Western Church did not universally adopt the Gregorian calendar at once, so that for some time the dates of Easter differed between the Eastern Church and the Roman Catholic Church, but not necessarily as between the Eastern Church and the Western Protestant churches. For example, the Church of England continued to observe Easter on the same date as the Eastern Church until 1753.
Even the dates of other Christian holidays differ between Eastern and Western Christianity.
Lack of essence-energies distinction
Western denominations
Today, Western Christianity makes up close to 90% of
Christians worldwide with the Catholic Church accounting for over half and various Protestant denominations making up another 40%.
Hussite movements of 15th century
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohe ...
preceded the main Protestant uprising by 100 years and evolved into several small Protestant churches, such as the
Moravian Church.
Waldensians survived also, but blended into the
Reformed tradition
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calv ...
.
Major figures
Bishop of Rome or the pope
Relevant figures:
*
Clement of Rome
Pope Clement I ( la, Clemens Romanus; Greek: grc, Κλήμης Ῥώμης, Klēmēs Rōmēs) ( – 99 AD) was bishop of Rome in the late first century AD. He is listed by Irenaeus and Tertullian as the bishop of Rome, holding office from 88 AD t ...
(fl. c. 96), one of the apostolic fathers of the church.
*
Pope Leo I
Pope Leo I ( 400 – 10 November 461), also known as Leo the Great, was bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death. Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo's papacy "was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church's history."
Leo was ...
*
Gregory the Great
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregor ...
The Reformers
Relevant figures:
*
Martin Luther (1483–1546), the most famous reformer and theologian in the Reformation and in the 15th century.
*
Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415), one of the most relevant theologian in the 14th century.
*
John Calvin (1509–1564)
*
John Knox (1514–1572)
*
Hans Tausen
Hans Tausen (Tavsen) (1494 – 11 November 1561) was the leading Lutheran theologian of the Danish Reformation in Denmark. He served as Bishop of Ribe and published the first translation of the Pentateuch into Danish in 1535.
Background
H ...
, Bishop of
Ribe (1494–1561), leading theologian of the
Reformation in Denmark and Holstein.
*
Laurentius Petri,
Archbishop of Uppsala and all Sweden (1499–1573), along with his brother
Olaus Petri were regarded as the main Lutheran reformers of Sweden, together with the king
Gustav I of Sweden
Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson of the Vasa noble family and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm ('' Riksföre ...
*
Primož Trubar (1508–1586), mostly known as the author of the first
Slovene language printed
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...
book,
the founder and the first superintendent of the Protestant Church of the
Duchy of Carniola, and for consolidating the
Slovenian language
Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding speake ...
*
Jiří Třanovský, sometimes called the father of Slovak hymnody and the "Luther of the Slavs"
*
Mikael Agricola
Mikael Agricola (; c. 1510 – 9 April 1557) was a Finnish Lutheran clergyman who became the de facto founder of literary Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden, including Finland, which was a Swedish territo ...
bishop of Turku
The Archdiocese of Turku ( fi, Turun arkkihiippakunta, sv, Åbo ärkestift), historically known as '' Archdiocese of Åbo'', is the seat of the Archbishop of Turku. It is a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and its see city is ...
(1554–1557), he became the de facto founder of literary Finnish and a prominent proponent of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden, including Finland, which was a Swedish territory at the time. He is often called the "father of literary Finnish".
Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all England
Relevant figures:
*
Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury (early 6th century – probably 26 May 604) was a monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.Delaney '' ...
(597–604)
*
Thomas Cranmer (1533–1555), one of the major reformers in England
*
Matthew Parker (1504–1575),(Parker was one of the primary architects of the Thirty-nine Articles)
Archbishop of Lyon and primate of the Gauls
Relevant figures:
*
Irenaeus of Lyon (died c. 202)
Patriarch of Aquileia
Relevant figures:
*
Chromatius of Aquilea
See also
References
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Christian terminology
Filioque