Page 174 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

ECUMENICAL ENGAGEMENT

The church has faced three major divi-
sions in the course of its history. The first
division was caused by the Council of Chal-
cedon (451), which was rejected by the
Oriental Orthodox churches because of its
dualistic tendency in respect to the unity
of the divine and human natures in Christ.
The second division was the Great Schism,
namely the separation between the Eastern
Church and the Western Church (1054),
which occurred mainly because of the pro-
cession of the Holy Spirit (filioque way) and
Rome's claim to universal jurisdiction. The
third division was caused by the emergence
of the Protestant Movement in the 16th
Century, led by Martin Luther, who pro-
claimed the Bible as the final authority of
all Christian doctrine (sola scriptura) and
questioned several key points of the Roman
Catholic teachings, including the primacy of
the pope, the role of Holy Tradition, and the
seven sacraments.
These divisions within world Christen-
dom affected, in one way or another, the
internal life and external relations of the
Armenian Church. It caused divisions within
the Armenian Church by creating Catholic