Eastern Orthodoxy: beliefs, history and sources

History & overview

The liturgy is heaven on earth; the goal is to become like God.

The communion of the Christian East: theosis — humanity transfigured into the divine likeness — icons as windows, and councils rather than a single bishop as the voice of the Church. Parted from Rome in the Great Schism of 1054.

DeitiesOne God in three persons

Founded1054 CE · Constantinople and the Christian East

AfterlifeResurrection; the soul's journey toward God

TextsBible · Writings of the Fathers

The map

Eastern Orthodoxy’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →

c. 1000 BCE Judaism 30 CE Christianity 1054 CE Eastern Orthodoxy

Core Tenets

3 — a sample of the center, never the sum Enter →

God became human so that humans might become god-like. Theosis — salvation as transfiguration, not acquittal. Go deeper — context →

The liturgy is heaven on earth. The Divine Liturgy does not represent the kingdom; it opens onto it. Go deeper — context →

Councils, not one bishop, speak for the Church. Conciliarity — the standing disagreement with Rome. Go deeper — context →

Rites & Ritual

what its people do — and when Enter →

The Divine Liturgy. Incense, icons, chant — heaven visiting earth on a weekly schedule. When weekly — and gloriously longWho priest, choir, congregation Go deeper — context →

Where next

the museum exit — every door leads deeper in

The Syriac Orthodox Church — 5 shared ideas, a different faith The Assyrian Church of the East — 5 shared ideas, a different faith Sikhism — 4 shared ideas, a different faith The Church of the East — 4 shared ideas, a different faith Branch Eastern Orthodoxy — inherit everything, change what you must The library of ideas — what Eastern Orthodoxy shares with every other faith A faith at random — somewhere you have never been