East and West have a different
perception of what the Church is, how it functions, what is the true meaning of
its existence. Also, they use different definitions in order to better
understand the Church and the faith in general. The West uses a legalistic language,
whilst the East prefers the use of a more medical terminology.
The Orthodox “say that the Church
is not an organisation, but the Divine-human Organism. The organism is a living
body, which means that it has life primarily. It can also be characterised by
definite laws, but in the end it is life itself that comes first. The
composition of an organisation becomes a basis for a legal process. That is to
say, the legal composition comes first. We can see this difference between
Orthodoxy and Papism”[1].
“For the westerners, God’s
relationship with man and the world
could only be ethical and not one of grace and life. The sacraments, and
especially the Divine Eucharist, Baptism and ordination become juridical means
for salvation. The Church is reduced to a legal institution supplying salvation
and created grace. In the establishment of the Church the legal institution
comes before the sacramental composition. In Orthodoxy, on the contrary, the
sacramental composition of the Church precedes, and the Church is protected and
expressed through the Canonical institutions”[2].
[1]
Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos, The
Mind of the Orthodox Church, (Levadia, Birth of the Theotokos Monastery,
1998), p. 168
[2]
Kapsanis, George, Orthodox Tradition and
Papism, (Holy Mountain, 1979), p. 12
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