How Western Christianity Drifted Step-by-Step Away From Orthodoxy

When we examine the history of the Church and current situation, we can observe that mankind has slowly drifted from knowing the living Incarnate God, Jesus Christ, as absolute Truth and began creating substitutes. In the West, after the Church split into East and West in 1054, faith in the Traditional (Orthodoxy) Church’s life was weakened, people began to move away from a Heaven centered life and replace God with something more human centered—first through philosophy and reason, then through endless divisions, and finally through a “god” of progress, science, or personal choice.  Fr. Seraphim Rose reminds us, the tragedy is that modern man has not lost his need for God, but he has exchanged the true God who saves for an idol of explanation and control in a secular society. A heavenly focus was lost.  Below is an attempt to create a brief outline how this change took place.

1. Orthodoxy: God revealed and worshiped

• In the original Church founded by Christ, God is known personally, through Christ, and faithful participated in His divinity in the life of the Church.
• They envisioned a future life in Heaven as their central concern: union with God (theosis).
• Knowledge of God was not a human construction but based on revelation, faith, humility, and ascetic struggle to prepare for this heavenly future.
• Their worldview was sacramental: everything is filled with God’s presence and oriented toward eternity, but their life was centered in the Church where God’s presence was concentrated for their healing.

2. The Great Divide: Rome separates from the East in 1054

• Pope of Rome becomes the Vicar of Christ in West
• Human centered reform is initiated by Pope.
• Church becomes a state and even calls an army and engages in War
• Looses original culture of the East and becomes a centralized clerical institution.

3. Scholasticism in the West: God becomes an object of Reason

• After the schism (1054), the West developed a different spirit. A shift to a human centered church based on the authority of the Pope emerged.
• With figures like Anselm and Thomas Aquinas, faith increasingly became framed in terms of logic, categories, and rational demonstration. Reason become more powerful than revelation.
• The emphasis shifted from mystery and communion to explanation and systematization.
• God was still confessed, but more and more as the “God of philosophy,” a belief, not a lived experience.
• This is the beginning of what Fr. Seraphim calls the “new god”—not encountered in humility but thought about in abstractions.

4. Renaissance & Humanism: Man at the center

• The Renaissance 15th - 17th century revived classical humanism.
• Attention shifted from God’s saving work to man’s capacities: art, science, philosophy.
• Faith was still present, but God began to fade into the background as culture glorified man’s reason and creativity.

5. Reformation: Fragmentation of Christianity

• The Protestant Reformation (16th century) reacted against abuses in Rome (now separated from the Eastern Church), but it also rejected Tradition and the sacramental fullness of the Church. Church was no longer accepted as source of authority for Truth. 
• “Scripture alone” placed authority in a text interpreted by the individual mind.
• Christ was reduced to an external legal transaction (penal substitution), and salvation was less about transformation and more about justification.
• This further secularized the Christian worldview: once you separate Bible from Church, interpretation becomes subjective, leading to endless denominations. Instead of an infallible leader like the pose each individual be an infallible to discern the Truth.
• Thus the Christian West lost a unified vision of God and salvation. Truth became relative.

6. Enlightenment & Deism: God as Watchmaker

• Philosophers of the 17th–18th centuries (Descartes, Locke, Voltaire, etc.) sought a purely “rational” god.
• Deism presented God as a distant architect—He created the universe but no longer acts within it.
• Revelation, miracles, sacraments, praying to saints and even salvation were dismissed as irrational.
• Religion was retained, but only as a moral framework for society, not as communion with God.
• God becomes fully recognizable as an idea, not a divine all-powerful Creator of All. A Heavenly focus is lost as organizing principle of society.

7. German Idealism & Romanticism: God as Idea or Spirit

• Kant and Hegel developed God as a philosophical necessity: either as the guarantor of morality (Kant) or as the unfolding Absolute Spirit (Hegel).
• God is no longer transcendent but absorbed into thought, history, or human progress.
• The living, personal God revealed in Christ is almost gone—replaced by concepts.
• Christian faith becomes mental requiring Bible study and only an affirmation of belief for salvation. Social justice and conforming to moral standards of society become the norm, fully a human centered religion.

8. Modern Secularism: The “death of God”

• By the 19th–20th centuries (Nietzsche, Marx, Freud), the “god-idea” itself was discarded.
• Nietzsche declared the “death of God”—meaning Western man no longer believed in the Christian God, nor even in the Enlightenment’s rational substitute.
• Science and technology now take the role of the “new god,” promising explanation, power, and progress.
• Hope for a better world placed in technological progress and material well being.
• Our current secular worldview is the end of this process: life without transcendence, lived as though man is autonomous and salvation is a distant thought or discarded entirely..
• We find a world focused son technological process and material well being but still, many seek for something more.

Putting it all together:

• Orthodoxy: God is Being, revealed in Christ, worshiped in humility. Salvation is communion with Him. Life focused on a future in Heaven.
• Scholasticism: God becomes an object of rational thought.
• Reformation: God’s Church is fragmented; authority shifts to the individual.
• Enlightenment/Deism: God is reduced to a distant watchmaker, useful only for “explanation.”
• Idealism: God is an Idea or Spirit, constructed by the proud mind.
• Secularism: Even the idea of God is abandoned. Man seeks meaning in science, business, politics, or self-expression. Heaven is no longer a focus of life.

This is what Fr. Seraphim explains in his book, Nihilism: modern man still feels the need for “explanation” but has lost a knowledge of the Heavenly realm and a desire for salvation.

Seraphim Rose wrote in 1960s: 

A "new god" is clearly required by modern man, a god more closely fashioned after the pattern of such central modern concerns as science and business; it has, in fact, been an important intention of modern thought to provide such a god. This intention is clear already in Descartes, it is brought to fruition in the Deism of the Enlightenment, developed to its end in German idealism: the new god is not a Being but an idea, not revealed to faith and humility but constructed by the proud mind that still feels the need for "explanation" when it has lost its desire for salvation.

From: Nihilism:The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age, p 25

Secularism: Does this weaken faith?

Today we live in an increasing secular world to fulfill the freedom of religion clause of our Constitution.  What is the implication of this?

Secularism is defined by the dictionary as "the doctrine that morality should be based solely on the well-being of mankind in the present life, to the exclusion of all considerations drawn from belief in God or in a future state." This means secularism is about a morality based on a Godless way of living. A secular state is one where our Christian faith is separated from our discussion about morality in our public affairs. This assumes that we can separate our religion from our discussions on moral issues. Is this possible?

A secular approach is based on a misunderstanding about the nature of religion. Our faith is about why we live the way we do. It informs us about the purpose of all our actions, why we are given life and then death. It is an essential part of our world view that allows us to interpret everything we sense in this world. Religion is essential to all people. Even if we do not understand what our religion is, we still have a religious world view within us. It is what give meaning to our life.

The attempt to take religion out of public discourse and activities is doomed to failure as it is not possible to separate our beliefs about life and our life after death from our actions or any discussion we have about about moral issues.

The reality of the world is that there are many world views based on differing belief systems. Anyone who says we can build a society based on a non-religious viewpoint in our public life and yet allow for us to privately practice our religion does not understand that they are asking us to build a society on their idea of religion, an atheist one. They are assuming that religion really is not important in our life and can be relegated to a small part of our life. Secularism implies a view that self-proclaims itself to be greater than all other religions.  It is another form of religion called secularism.  No religion teaches us to keep our beliefs separate from our public life. Secularism is simply a way for atheists to promote their world view.

If we want to have more meaning in our society we need to have sincere dialogue about our individual beliefs and seek ways to include them in our societal actions no matter how much they may differ. There are many issues where agreement may not be possible. We have great differences on issues like abortion. Is this be something a diverse society that protects freedom of religion can ever attain agreement? It deals with how we understand the very idea of sanctity of life and the impact of our choice in this regard to our status after we die.  For those who believe it's ok to kill a fetus, are they to be oppressed or restricted by those who see this a murder? Or, are we to leave such choices up to each individual based on their own faith? I as a Christian should be able to fight for the protection of the unborn based on my religious beliefs, not on some logical morality devoid of God.

We may ask, are we to be ruled by the Ten Commandments of Shria Law?  How do we resolve such issues? In a free society we must allow each to practice their own morality based on their faith after a meaningful debate on such issues. Otherwise, we violate the intent of the promise of freedom of religion. When we do not permit this kind of dialogue to take place in our public arena, we are reducing freedom of religion rather than increasing it. There should be no place or forum where we cannot express our religion and its beliefs. It is part of who we are. To make restriction is an attempt to marginalize our faith.

It seems that it is best if we recognize the diversity of our beliefs in the public sphere and permit individual freedom to reign as along as it does not limit actions dictated by another person's beliefs. Everyday we make choices  according to our religious beliefs. If we are an Orthodox Christians we daily examine our actions and seek forgiveness for all the times that we have not been able to follow the teachings of our Lord and God Jesus Christ. We know we cannot live up to them all, but also know that we are expected to strive for perfection in our moral behavior. The key for life as a Christian is to be able to live so we can freely pursue our faith and live according to the way Jesus taught us. This may mean we need to say a prayer before doing certain activities. We may need icons or other religious symbols in our work space. Christians are taught to accept those who have differing beliefs even though they disagree with them. So they should also stand up for the right of a non-Christian to say a prayer to their God or have display in their workspace a image of symbol of their faith.

We should have enough belief in our faith, in the power of God, that if we live according to the Truths taught us we will influence others and will bring others to the truth with His aid. This is what happened in the early days of Christianity. With fervent faith they were aided by the Holy Spirit. But  they had a greater faith in those times. They were willing to stand firm in their beliefs even when it did not fit with the norms of Roman society or against the will of a ruthless Emperor and meant death or torture.

We should expect to persecuted as the Scripture tells us, but we also know that to be united with God we must become humble, seeing our own sinful nature while we also see the image of God that is also in all others who do not share our beliefs. We do not want to interact with others is a way that would make them sinful.

So what is the answer? It makes no sense to try and take religion out of public debate as it is integral to who we are a persons. A Christian cannot accept this and  be true to their religion. We should work to expand our pubic discussion to include all our differences with respect for the rights of every one. We should allow each person to express their faith in their own way in public forums. Freedom of speech should never be compromised in the name of secularism.

Let's not shrink from standing from as a witness to our faith in Jesus Christ by expressing our faith in the public sphere and remaining true to who are and what we believe. In this way our faith will grow and not become weakened. If we succumb to secularism we will end up with a weakening our faith, succumbing to relativism where all faiths are seen as equally valid, and lack the strength and grace to become united with God. If we stand true to our faith, we will gain the grace of God and gain in our ability to live the life He taught us.  As we do this we will influence others to come to the truth we have.  But first we must not let our faith be marginalized by the well intentioned ideas of those who believe that a pure rational godless approach is superior to one that combines rationality with faith.