The Icon Museum & Study Center: Featured Exhibit: Spirituality in Eastern Christianity Spirituality in Eastern Christianity

 
Spirituality in Eastern Christianity: Images of a Living Tradition – Photographs by Alain de Lotbinière
September 22, 2023—March 3, 2024
https://www.iconmuseum.org/
 
 
The Icon Museum and Study Center presents Spirituality in Eastern Christianity: Images of a Living Tradition, an exhibition of photographs by Alain de Lotbinière, September 22, 2023–March 3, 2024. The 26 images that compose this exhibition were taken during the course of several trips to Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Russia, as well as during visits to sites in Turkey and Egypt. 
The history of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Churches trace their roots to the very earliest days of Christianity, such that by the fourth century CE it had taken root not only within the Roman and Byzantine Empires, but also in countries that today include Syria, Iraq, Iran, India, Egypt and Ethiopia. The much later schism of 1054 CE that resulted in the separation of the Eastern and Western Catholic faiths, also resulted in fundamentally different expressions of spirituality as defined by their respective churches. Whereas in the Western Christian tradition it is taught that the way to know God is mainly through the word of the Bible and the light of human reason, the Eastern approach is decidedly experiential, the image of God being contained in the “Nous”, or heart, of a person’s being. Eastern Christian spiritual traditions teach that it is through the experience of the Holy Mysteries that a direct knowledge of God is possible, the emphasis in the West being on faith and intellectual reasoning.