There are several differences between the major bodies of Christianity, but some of them have been oversimplified. Roman Catholics and Orthodox (Oriental and Eastern) pray both for the dead, and to the dead. Lutherans, and many other Protestants pray for the dead, but do not pray to the dead. Roman Catholics believe that our experience of God is mediated. This belief is also true of most (but not all Protestants). This means that God comes to us through others, through the Bible, and through nature. Orthodox, Pentecostals, and Charismatics believe that our experience of God can be immediate (not mediated). Orthodox, Lutherans, and some others believe in what is called panentheism (i.e. that God is present in everything). Rome considers this to be a heresy. Rome uses some of the apocrypha, but ignores other parts (1 & 2 Esdras) that are included in the Protestant apocrypha. Some Protestants (Lutherans and Episcopalians) use the apocrypha, but not as heavily as Romans do. The Orthodox have a larger canon of apocrypha including 3 & 4 Maccabees. One branch of Orthodoxy includes books such as Enoch (quoted in Jude) and Jubilees. So if you were comparing churches on the size of their Bibles the smallest Bibles would be Free Church Protestants, then Roman Catholic, then High Church Protestants, then most Orthodox, and finally the Ethiopian Orthodox with the largest canon. Protestantism was started by Jan Hus about 1oo years before Martin Luther, as an attempt to bring the church in Bohemia and Moravia out of Catholicism and back to Orthodoxy, so one could look at Protestantism as being an attempt (at least in its inception) to return from Catholicism to Orthodoxy. The denomination that Jan Hus founded, the Moravian Church, has even been referred to as Orthodox by Orthodox priests.
Phil
