The Orthodox Church

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Summary: History of the Orthodox Church
Review: _The Orthodox Church_ by Timothy/KALLISTOS Ware is a history of the Orthodox Church first published in 1963. The first part of the book traces the Church's history from the First Ecumenical Council under the Emperor Constantine until the recent Communist regime in Russia and the ecumenical movement in which Orthodox churches have participated in. The main focus is on the Russian and Greek churches, and the account of the Russian Orthodox Church under Communism was particularly disturbing. The story of how the three Romes rose and fell was truly great: Rome fell apart and was overrun by barbarians, and Constantinople was ordained the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine, and Christianity became the official religion of the Empire. Constantinople in turn was taken by the Turks in the 1400s and became incoperated in the Ottoman Empire, which was officially Muslim but protected Christians. The Slavs and other peoples of Eastern Europe in the meantime were Christians at this time, and Moscow, the capital of Russia became the new "Rome" with the Grand Duke adopting the title "Czar" or "Caesar" in Russian. The second part of _The Orthodox Church_ outlines the doctrines, worship and positions of Orthodoxy and compares both their similarity and differences to Western Catholicism and Protestantism. The only shortcoming of this book was that it did not discuss the Nestorians and Mononphysites enough, as these ancient Christian sects broke off from the Church before the East-West schism of 1054 and remain very similar to Orthodoxy.