This is a dome window found at the Stavrovouni Monastery found in the community known as the Monastery of the Holy Cross.

The Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire had different kinds of Christianity. I wanted to find out more about the kind of Christianity found in Byzantine and how it changed everyday life of the people who lived there. In the Byzantine Empire they practiced Orthodox Christianity. The Byzantine Empire was influenced greatly by Orthodox Christianity, by this I mean their art and literature was based around their faith.

Icons are very important to Orthodox Christianity along with other traditions. Most of the artwork found in this Empire depicted saints and other figures from the bible. Most of the art was abstract and stood for icons, and normally took the forms of small panels. These panels were all over churches a long with crosses and the amazing Architecture. Most of the structures for churches in the Byzantine Empire had domes and were surrounded by many figures from the bible. The dome represents the expansion of the heavens; the Orthodox Christians believed the heavens were always expanding to allow more people to enter. A lot of the churches had colored/abstract panels and beautiful stained glass windows. There were two different forms of architecture for churches found in this Empire.

The basilica type had a long column shaped tower that was covered with a wooden roof, which formed a dome at the top. The other type was the vaulted centralized church. This had separate components that gathered under a central dome. It was very important for the Orthodox churches to have a dome shaped top because of its significance to the heavens. In most of the churches there was a variety of different shapes incorporate into the windows and floors.

I used information from http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?vendorId=FWNE.fw..by218900.a and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire.

The picture is found on this website: http://www.holytrinityindy.org/OurParish/AboutourByzantineTemple/AncientByzantineArtandArchitecture/tabid/243/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Roman and Byzantine Christianity

While the Western Roman Empire (west Europe) was struggling to hold on to their empire while Byzantine (east Europe) began developing, becoming a strong unified state. During this time Christianity spread rapidly, becoming a major religion in Europe for the first time. Both Western and Eastern Europe began developing different beliefs. The Eastern developed Orthodox Christianity and Western Europe developed the Roman Catholic church.

Byzantine was the first of the two to become fully Christian. This could be due to caesaropapism (the emperor's power is tied to church and state). The emperor was God appointed so he had the power to choose the church leader. The leaders of the church were important and were treated as if they were part of the "elite class".

The Roman Catholic Church of the west started off as a more localized religion mainly found in rural areas. Unlike the church of the east, caesaropapism was not practiced.Separation of church and state was important. The Pope is the leader of all Christians and he is a highly respected.

There were more distinct differences between the two churches. Orthodox Christians did not believe that the Pope had authority over all the Christians. The leaders of the church were able to get marry and have hair unlike the Roman Catholic priest who had to remain celibate. Some other key differences were their practice of theology, the Trinity and faith. Despite the difference of the church's political system they also have some similarities. Both churches believe in the same basic doctrines and they believe that the use of idols in worship is offensive.

Christianity has many different branches and a variety of beliefs. It is important for us to recognize that the spread of Christianity in Europe was important because it helped mode Europe in what it is today.

Ways of the World Robert W. Strayer, pg. 269-289