Is Christianity an Eastern or Western religion?

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Thank you for all of your responses. I am more interested where Christianity originated, in the west or east. Maybe it really doesn’t matter. But for the sake of argument with my friend and for the sake of what the Church teaches, I am curious.

Is there an official Catholic Church document of any kind that might mention something about it?
It originated in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. That’s in the Holy Bible in the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. Would that be considered official? (Not meaning to sound sarcastic but I’ve always considered the Bible to be an official Church document:shrug:)
 
Also, it was at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). Antioch is in Turkey, near the border with Syria.
 
Also, it was at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). Antioch is in Turkey, near the border with Syria.
Yeah! Prior to that wasn’t the Church referred to as The Way?:confused:
 
There are groups and elements of both.

That’s why we have the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches. There are different methods of worship.

In the end, we are all followers of Christ.
 
Maybe I am just looking to see how the world classifies Christianity EAST OR WEST…but it should line up with how the Catholic Church classifies Christianity.

It is just when my Muslim friend said EASTERN RELIGION, it did sound right to me.

Maybe MIDDLE EASTERN RELIGION since in Israel? I don’t know.
 
Well, here’s what the Founder of Christianity said:
And people will come from all over the world–from east and west, north and south–to take their places in the Kingdom of God.
Luke 13:29
 
Maybe I am just looking to see how the world classifies Christianity EAST OR WEST…but it should line up with how the Catholic Church classifies Christianity.

It is just when my Muslim friend said EASTERN RELIGION, it did sound right to me.

Maybe MIDDLE EASTERN RELIGION since in Israel? I don’t know.
I suppose when it comes down to it, it’s a frame of reference.

I would think Muslims would consider Christianity WESTERN since Islam developed West of where Christianity formed.
 
Has anyone here on the thread defined what is meant by “eastern” and “western” religion?

Peace
James
 
Well it will soon be an entirely Western religion once America is done killing off all the Christians in the Middle East.

In more depth, I think what would make something a more Western or Eastern religion is how coherent it is with that geographic location’s worldview. So I could go to the US and practice sikhism, but that wouldn’t make it a Western religion. However, I feel Christianity is both a Western and Eastern religion because it exerts major influence in almost all spheres of life in both the classically perceived “West” (Europe, America) and the “Orient” (Middle East, Africa, India).
I suppose when it comes down to it, it’s a frame of reference.

I would think Muslims would consider Christianity WESTERN since Islam developed West of where Christianity formed.
Go read where many of the early Church Fathers come from. Additionally, realize there is Christianity apart from and older than Western Christianity. Muslims inherited many a religious ritual from Syriacs (the different prayer times, prostrations, initially facing Jerusalem changing the qibla after the occurrence of an event I can’t quite remember, etc.)
 
Well it will soon be an entirely Western religion once America is done killing off all the Christians in the Middle East.
I’m generally not too bothered by eccentric or weird statements made on this forum (not even the ones that seem downright crazy); but here ^^ I think you’re crossing the line.
 
The truth hurts, Peter. But while you’re offended, your brothers and sister in the faith are being murdered by some of the same people that the U.S. has long been supporting in the Syrian conflict.

are moderate…think

Granted, the ones we’re already backing are Islamists, so it’s clear we have no idea who is who over there, and supporting the FSA is also supporting violent jihadists, according to actual Syrian Christians who have seen their communities and churches obliterated by the “rebels”

p.s.- Homs, where Mother Agnes lived before she had to flee Syria, no longer has any Christians at all. There were 60,000-80,000+ before the fighting came to them. They’re all gone now. The churches are destroyed. Syria is a mess, and yes, the USA is supporting it despite those of us who have been paying attention knowing that Christians were being specifically targeted and murdered since the beginning of the so-called “revolution”. Read this report from March of last year. According to other sources, the last Christian in Homs was murdered last November. He was an 84 year old man who couldn’t leave the city because he had to take care of his disabled son.

The line was crossed when the USA and other Western powers started taking any moron who declared himself and his stupid group of violent psychopaths to be “freedom fighters” as a true representative of the common people of Syria (or Libya, or Egypt, or God knows where else tomorrow). These people are in truth no different than those that U.S. and other forces fought against in Iraq for years, and just like the “Iraqi” resistance, many of them are actually foreigners going into a destabilized situation and using it as a pretext to attempt to reshape the country religiously, so that the old secular regime will be done away with and the country can be the Islamic republic we all know God really wants it to be according to some guy from Saudi Arabia or Qatar or Iran or wherever these jerks are coming from that isn’t Syria.

I’d much rather someone on the internet be offended by the truth than comforted by a lie that “we” (~ our ignorant, dangerous, naive, and gullible “leaders” in Washington) aren’t knee deep in the blood of innocent Syrian people. And not just Christians, either. I remember reading months ago (I think it was even on Zenit, the Catholic news agency) a quote from a Syriac Orthodox bishop in Homs that the rebels we are supporting were fighting under the rallying cry: “Christians to Beirut; Alawites to the coffin”. I don’t know about the status of the Alawites in today’s Syria (though it can’t be good, as that is Assad’s sect), but they’ve sure got the ethno-religious cleansing of Christians thing going at full speed.

But you’re right…pointing all this out is really crossing the line somehow… :mad:
 
I define it like this

The West - Western Civilization - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Western_civilization
The East - The Eastern World - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_world

Did I get it right?

Is Christianity in the center? Or just call it a cross-cultural religion with roots it Judaism?
The links are more to “civilization” than “religion”…I’m more interested in how the OP and his friend determine what makes a religion “eastern” or “western”…🤷

Peace
James
 
I would recommend Lost Christianity by Philip Jenkins, while Western Europe was still Barbarian the Eastern Church was spread from Jerusalem to China and Tibet. That to me says Christianity is an Eastern religion.
 
…Go read where many of the early Church Fathers come from. Additionally, realize there is Christianity apart from and older than Western Christianity. Muslims inherited many a religious ritual from Syriacs (the different prayer times, prostrations, initially facing Jerusalem changing the qibla after the occurrence of an event I can’t quite remember, etc.)
The frame of reference I generally use for Christianity is it’s relation to the Roman Empire’s place in world history. Christianity grew in both the Eastern and Western empires so I generally see Christianity as both. Regarding Islam, it arose East of the Eastern Christians of the Roman Empire thus the inference that Islam would perhaps see Christians generally as Western.

Having said that, I understand that early Christianity had reached as far East as India and as far South as Ethiopia. However, Christianity saw it’s biggest growth in the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire and the former Western Roman Empire thus the frame of reference of most (IMO) as Christianity as being Western due to most of the world’s population coming from the East with Chistian Europe being on the Western end of civilization.
 
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