Chapter 10: The Worlds of European Christendom

In this chapter we were provided with the knowledge about the religious conflicts that occurred during the classical era for the Byzantine Empire “The Third Rome”. “Europe eventually became the global center of Christianity, but that destiny was far from clear in 500 C.E. At that time, only about one-third of the world’s Christians lived in Europe” Page 270. The Western Roman Empire was permanently lost to Byzantium, and at this time the church was tied to the state. Economically, the Byzantine Empire was a central player in the long distance trade of Eurasian. During a period at this moment in time, Rome relatable to India’s caste system, to be in the system of power or to obtain social status becoming a part of God’s followers and being that status included religious empowerment meant an individual had elite status. With that saying most of this chapter covers Constantinople or Byzantium and how was split at this time between the Eastern Orthodox Church versus the Roman Catholics had disagreements upon the nature of the trinity, and one major issue involved the veneration of icons, popular paintings of saints and biblical scenes, this was critical controversy in a religious prospective because they felt that it “Distracted believers from the adoration of God himself” Page 275. The most significant expansion of the orthodox Christianity occurred among what is now known as Ukraine and Western Russia. Kievan Rus was a city formed and stimulated through trade but this society was loosely led by slaves, freemen, privileged people and commoners. Persia had already become a part of the Islamic world, but Prince Vladimir of Rus went into a wider network of communication, he actively considered Judaism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, and Greek Orthodoxy. Prince Vladimir rejected Islam because it prohibited alcoholic drinking in which he said “drinking is the joy of the Russes”. Eastern Orthodox Christianity thus came to Rus without pressure of military or occupation; it had eventually taken its account amongst the Russian society.