This lecture discusses spiritual dimensions of Christianity. It surveys the history of Christianity including the topics of priesthood, church, and civil society while demarcating the differences between the Eastern and Western parts of the Christian Empire. In the West, the Church and clergy were very involved in the political, cultural, and societal sphere of public life. The Church had control over the state and smothered civil society, whereas in the East, the state smothered the Church and religion was used as a tool of the state. Traces of these historical characteristics can still be seen today in the respective areas of the former Christian Empire.

William Thompson-Uberuaga