Compare

Compare two traditions

What they share, where they differ, how their histories relate and where they stand today. The Atlas shows the common ground and explains the differences; it does not keep score.

Any two of the 19 traditions can be compared (171 pairings). Some pairings have researched comparisons; the rest are composed from each tradition’s sourced records and say plainly where evidence is missing.

Researched comparisons

Schisms, reforms and reunions

30 records

All 30 historical relationships recorded in the Atlas, by kind. Christianity is not a single family tree: some separations were gradual, some churches became self-governing without any change of faith, and some movements describe themselves as restorations rather than breakaways. Each record has one full account, on the History tab of the tradition shown.

Separations and estrangements

Breaches of communion, sudden or gradual. A date here is never a founding date.

Schism
A breach of communion between churches. The Atlas never treats a schism as the founding of either side, and many developed gradually.
Gradual estrangement
Churches grow apart over a long period without a single act of separation. Any date given is a convenient marker, not a moment of division.

Restoration movements

Movements that describe themselves as restoring original Christianity, without institutional succession from an existing church.

Restoration movement
A movement that describes itself as restoring original Christianity, rather than reforming or continuing an existing church. It is not modelled as a schism.

Unions, communion and reconciliation

Unions, agreements of communion, reconciliations and formal recognition or non-recognition.

Ecclesial union
Part of one church enters communion with another while keeping its own liturgy, hierarchy and law.
Communion
Churches agree to share communion, often only in some regions or between some member churches.
Reconciliation
A formal act of reconciliation, such as lifting condemnations or asking forgiveness. It does not by itself restore communion.
Recognition or non-recognition
A decision by one church to recognise, or to refuse to recognise, another church’s sacraments, hierarchy or status.

Formal dialogue

Official theological conversations between churches.

Formal dialogue
Official theological conversation between churches. Agreed statements are recommendations until each church receives them.

What the families of churches inherit in common

21 statements

The opening of every structured comparison begins with one of these statements about received heritage. They describe shared inheritance, not institutional descent.

Show all 21 statements
Catholic and Catholic
One Catholic Church: the Eastern Catholic churches are self-governing churches sui iuris in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, sharing the Catholic faith and sacraments while keeping Eastern liturgies and their own canon law.
2 sources
Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
A shared first millennium: the 'full communion of faith, fraternal accord and sacramental life' that both churches recall from before their estrangement, including the ecumenical councils, the Nicene Creed and bishops in apostolic succession.
2 sources

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Catholic and Oriental Orthodox
The faith of the first three ecumenical councils and an ancient sacramental life; their churches parted in the century after the Council of Chalcedon (451), and in 1973 Rome and the Coptic Church confessed a common faith in Christ.
3 sources
Catholic and Church of the East
The faith of Nicaea and the church of the first centuries. The Church of the East grew up outside the Roman Empire and never received the Council of Ephesus (431); in 1994 Rome and the Assyrian Church of the East declared a shared faith in Christ.
3 sources
Catholic and Protestant
The Western (Latin) church: Protestant churches grew, directly or through later movements, from the 16th-century Reformation of the Western church, so until then their history and that of the Catholic Church is one history.
2 sources

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Catholic and Restorationist
Reverence for the Bible and for Jesus Christ, understood very differently. The restorationist movement describes itself as a return to original Christianity rather than a continuation of the historic churches, and does not accept the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity.
4 sources
Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox
One Eastern Orthodox communion: the same faith of the seven ecumenical councils, the Byzantine liturgical tradition and government by bishops in synod, organised as self-governing (autocephalous) churches.
2 sources

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox
The first three ecumenical councils and the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria. They parted after the Council of Chalcedon (451); in 1989–1990 a joint commission found that both families hold the same faith in Christ expressed in different terms.
2 sources
Eastern Orthodox and Church of the East
The faith of Nicaea and the church of the first centuries. The Church of the East grew up in the Persian Empire, outside the churches of the Roman Empire, and never received the Council of Ephesus (431).
2 sources
Eastern Orthodox and Protestant
No direct separation: Protestantism arose in the Western church in the 16th century, centuries after the West had become estranged from the Orthodox East. What they share is the Bible and the early Church as each receives it.
2 sources

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Eastern Orthodox and Restorationist
Reverence for the Bible and for Jesus Christ, understood very differently. The restorationist movement describes itself as a return to original Christianity rather than a continuation of the historic churches, and does not accept the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity.
4 sources
Oriental Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox
One Oriental Orthodox family: the first three ecumenical councils, the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria expressed as one united nature of the incarnate Word, and a shared refusal of the Council of Chalcedon (451).
2 sources
Oriental Orthodox and Church of the East
The faith of Nicaea and the Syriac-speaking Christianity of the Near East. The two stand at opposite poles of the 5th-century Christological debates: the Church of the East did not receive Ephesus (431), and the Oriental Orthodox did not receive Chalcedon (451).
3 sources
Oriental Orthodox and Protestant
No direct separation: Protestantism arose in the Western church more than a thousand years after the division that followed the Council of Chalcedon (451). What they share is the Bible and the early Church as each receives it.
2 sources

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Oriental Orthodox and Restorationist
Reverence for the Bible and for Jesus Christ, understood very differently. The restorationist movement describes itself as a return to original Christianity rather than a continuation of the historic churches, and does not accept the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity.
4 sources
Church of the East and Church of the East
The East Syriac tradition of the Church of the East.
2 sources
Church of the East and Protestant
No direct historical relationship: the Church of the East developed beyond the Roman Empire from the 5th century, more than a thousand years before the Reformation. What they share is the Bible and the faith of Nicaea as each receives it.
2 sources

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Church of the East and Restorationist
Reverence for the Bible and for Jesus Christ, understood very differently. The restorationist movement describes itself as a return to original Christianity rather than a continuation of the historic churches, and does not accept the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity.
4 sources
Protestant and Protestant
Both stand in the Protestant tradition, which grew from the 16th-century Reformation of the Western church, either directly or through later revival and free-church movements.
Source

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Protestant and Restorationist
Reverence for the Bible and for Jesus Christ, understood very differently. Both restorationist movements arose in the 19th-century United States amid Protestant revivalism, but describe themselves as a return to original Christianity rather than reforms of an existing church, and do not accept the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity.
3 sources

Provisional: broadly supported, but awaiting fuller checking.

Restorationist and Restorationist
Both arose in the 19th-century United States, in 1830 and the 1870s, and describe themselves as a return to original Christianity rather than continuations of any historic church. They are unrelated movements and do not share a doctrine of God.
4 sources

Start from a tradition

19 traditions

Catholic

Eastern Orthodox

Oriental Orthodox

Church of the East

Protestant

Restorationist