Orthodox Christianity is the third branch of christianity,
along with
Catholic and
Protestant Christianity.
All three branches differ radically not only in liturgical
and dogmatic matters, but they also have differing outlooks
on life.
Basically, Orthodox Christianity takes the view that the
purpose of christianity is personal growth towards a more
spiritually rewarding existence; "sin" is simply when
somebody "misses the mark", does not live up to
expectations. (Indeed, the Greek word for sin roughly
translates as "missing the mark".) For that reason Orthodox
Christianity tends to be more tolerant and readily welcomes
"born again" people even if they previously sinned a great
deal. (For example, it is not at all uncommon to see
recovering drug addicts find a safe refuge in Orthodoxy.)
Orthodoxy is also unique in that it takes a wholly
mystical view of religion, that is, the view that a truly
earnest faith can be experienced only on an
irrational, emotional level. Orthodox Christians generally
believe that any attempts to rationalize faith is
flawed and usually incompatible with christianity.
Finally, Orthodox Christians believe that salvation
is a life-long process; to be saved you need to constantly
work on yourself, improving your spiritual health.
Typically, Orthodox Christianity is the most conservative
church, in the sense that any changes take place extremely
slowly and gradually. (This does not mean that the
Orthodox Church condones conservative political
ideology, though.)