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Christian History Magazine—Issue 54: Eastern Orthodoxy is unavailable, but you can change that!

Orthodoxy rarely gets positive press in the West—and it’s not hard to see why. Themes of victory and theosis (divinization) take the place of Western theological strongholds like justification. Beliefs crystallize into images rather than ideas, into stories rather than statements. The incomprehensibility of God causes Easterners to celebrate while Westerners grow anxious. This issue of Christian...

Latins thought primarily of Christ the victim on the Cross, Greeks of Christ the victor over death. Latins talked more about redeeming sinners, Greeks, about the deification of humanity. There were also a few practical differences: the Greeks allowed married clergy; the Latins insisted on priestly celibacy. The two sides had different rules about fasting. The Greeks used leavened bread in the Eucharist, the Latins unleavened bread, or “azymes.” Still, these two distinctive approaches were not in