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Is it more about worship of relics and in songs or is it about great spiritualism? Or traditional such as catholics?
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from what? What do you mean by "regular"? Protestant? That's only been around for a couple hundred years, in the longest denominations. Orthodoxy has been around for about 2000 years... I think Orthodoxy IS regular Christianity.
I think the most significant difference between EO and Western Christianity is the conceptions of Sin and Salvation.
Western Christianity basically sees sin as a sort of crime against God and Jesus dying on the cross was essentially him paying the bail for those who were faithful to him. Thus, those who did their best to follow God's Law were saved.
EO on the other hand sees sin as an addiction which is the result of our fallen nature from eating the apple and which caused God to forsake us. But Jesus essentially restored the bond between man and God and made it possible for man to restore his original nature by resisting sin.
These may seem like petty distinctions but they have major philosophical implications. In my opinion, the legalist view of western christianity makes one obsessed with death. One follows dogmas strictly because not doing so will anger God and have you sent to hell. In EO on the other hand, while salvation is important, the idea of theosis means keeping the faith is one and the same as self-improvement as by following the guidance of Jesus one actually becomes more fully human. These distinctions to me means that Western Christianity is a religion of Death, while EO is a religion of Life.
Now thats the answer I was looking for thank you for this reply. I come from western Christianity and it is very much viewed as what we must do to get to heaven and we need to stop sinning and repent so that we may survive our judgement
To be clear, the repentance of sin and so on is still there in EO, I just view it as more for the purpose of working to improve in the future.
For the West, sin is a crime, but for Orthodox, sin is a disease. Christ chose to die for us not to appease an angry God the Father, but rather to give us a chance to survive death and have a new lease on eternal life.
Relics and icons are only there because they have a purpose, not as objects of worship. St. John of Damascus said it best when describing the Cross "I venerate the Wood because Christ was nailed to It, but if these two planks separate, then I burn them because they are useless". What he meant was that he venerated the Cross because of its significance to our salvation. Icons are there as windows into heaven, not as objects to be worshipped, though by venerating icons we express respect for those depicted therein.
The Orthodox Church is very much traditional, both in an uppercase- T sense (Holy Tradition) and in a lowercase- t sense (local customs).
Orthodox Christianity is regular Christianity
Yes i know its christianity but what is done differently
It is the original Christianity as taught by Christ and practiced by the Apostles, without innovation or alteration of doctrine. That is what separates it from other expressions of Christianity.
On a high level, the difference between Orthodoxy and Western Christianity is Orthodoxy approaches our relationship with God as mystical and ineffable. We believe that the only way to know God through persistent prayer. Western Christianity, as I understand it, relies on human understanding of the Bible. That’s why you find folks who take Bible literally (e.g. the earth is 6,000 years old) or they even invent new concepts to suit their needs (e.g. Immaculate Conception and wine actually means grape juice).
Orthodox Christianity is regular Christianity. It is the continuation of the ancient church.
A) we worship the Holy Trinity, not relics, not the Theotokos, not saints, not icons. ONLY the Trinity
B) Music is different, usually a capella
C) Orthodoxy does seem to be more spiritual than any Protestant denomination I've seen. Protestantism seems to be more about head knowledge. Orthodoxy is about living the faith.
D) As the form of Christianity closest in practice and beliefs as what the apostles practiced and beieved, I would say it's the most traditional out there
Using the word "regular" does no one any favors. It normalizes Protestantism, which may be big culturally in many parts of the world, but it's by no means typical of Christianity throughout the ages. Even Lutheranism, the oldest one out there, is only a few hundred years old.
I just want to know the traditions of orthodox Christians. What do they do differently in their faith compared to lutherans or catholics or protestants and non denominational Christians
There’s really no way to explain in a Reddit comment. You might want to start with Wikipedia and come back with a little more specificity.
One resource is the Community Information of this subreddit. Lots of info and resources.
On the level of praxis, the difference to me is sight, sound, and smell (icons, chant, and incense). There’s a full body poetry engaging all the senses that I haven’t experienced in the liturgies of other denominations.
In a “loftier” sense, the difference to me is the difference regarding the view of sin (missing the mark/illness in need of healing vs. violating a contract), heaven and hell (presence with God vs. everlasting lake of fire and brimstone), and the emphasis on apophatic vs cataphatic theology.
We are the regular Christianity, it’s the western “innovators” who are the modifications, you see.
The differences between us and others are complicated but a good window into the differences between us and the rest can be summed up as:
How the Trinity works
Palamist theology (as opposed to the later Thomist and protestant stuff)
Salvation as healing, as opposed to the later legal interpretation (makes more sense when you look at what Jesus did; he was healing the sick and disabled, not burning their legal records)
How church hierarchy works and why (pentarchy, not papacy or democracy)
Noetic prayer is a practice somewhat unique to us, though some forms of Catholic contemplative prayer are similar
Honestly depends on what you are comparing it to. If you want to go more in detail I would recommend the podcast Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. It gives the differences between Orthodoxy and most (all major and some minor I want to say) other Christian denominations.
Basically, here is the answer to your question in the form of a book.
What's that you're saying - you didn't want an entire book? Well... um... I really don't think anything shorter can really do it justice.
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