What are the essential doctrines of orthodox Christianity?  In other words, ...?
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Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and He is God.\nJesus lived a sinless life, then died on the cross in our place.\nJesus rose from the dead, conquering death and sin for us.\nGod the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, (the Trinity) is the one and only true God.\nPersonal relationship with God.\nLive a life laid down.  Strive to follow Jesus in all you do.\n\nto william r - That's the old Jewish religion.  Christianity is much simpler.  Jesus fulfilled the OT law.
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Read the "Catechism of the Catholic Church."  It's readily available in bookstores and explains Christian doctrine very well.
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Where to begin...the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Patriarch of Rome has universal authority while the Orthodox Church teaches that no bishop has authority outside his diocese.\nThe Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Holy Spirit proceeds in essence from both the Father and the Son and illegitimately changed the creed, while the Orthodox Church teaches that God the Father is the essential source of both the Son and the Holy Spirit.\nThe Roman Catholic Church teaches that we bear the actual guilt for the disobedience of Adam and Ever whereas the Orthodox Church teaches that we suffer the consequences of their disobedience but are ourselves not culpable for it.\nBecause of the RC's teachings on original sin they have made up the doctrine of the immaculate conception, which is not the same thing as the virgin birth, whereby she was born free of the guilt of original sin, or is somehow different than other humans to explain how Mary could be able to give birth to God. Of course they wouldn't need to make the Virgin Mary free of the consequences of Adam and Eve's disobedience if they hadn't construed it the way they had in the first place.\nThe Roman Catholic Church requires preistly celibacy whereas the Orthodox Church allows married priests, only bishops and monks are required to be celibate.\nThe differences go  on and on, these are just some of the essential ones.\nBy the way the difference between the Roman Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Catholic Church is that the Ukrainian Catholic Church uses the liturgy of the Orthodox Church and has married priests while still being in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and accepting the authority of the Pope. It is an Eastern Rite, or Uniate, church.\nIf you have more questions feel free to ask me. I am Orthodox.
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It began with the Apostles.  Until the 16th century, it was all of Christianity.  Orthodoxy isn't really a different Church, it is a schism within the Church.  It is the Church that still sings the services left to us by James, Peter and Mark.  It is the Church that selected which books would go into the New Testament.  It is the Church that first described the Trinity.  It exists because it has existed since Pentecost.  Protestantism is very new, most of its ideas are completely contradictory to the views of the early Church.  Most people on this board should read the early writers so that they have a context to place the bible in.\n\nIt exists because, when Judas died, the Apostles replaced him with Mathias, the first bishop and successor to an apostle.  Each bishop is a direct successor to someone personally chosen by Jesus.  Their role is to proclaim the word, as it was left by Jesus and proclaimed by the Apostles.  They serve the same role, the Twelve held, with one exception, they cannot create doctrine not taught in early Christianity.  Some people believe Catholicism was invented at some point after Pentecost, but that is to completely ignore the historical documents.  It ignores all of the martyrs, it ignores all of the correspondence among the first churches.  It is trying to reinvent history to justify separation.\n\nIt is as it was, it doesn't get to vote to see if you can have gay marriage, it doesn't get to vote to see if women can be clergy, it doesn't get to vote to see if Jesus is God, it doesn't get to vote on its beliefs.  It only votes to determine the best understanding of the early beliefs.  "What do we believe was revealed in the early Church?," is the only criterion.\n\nProtestantism is a protest of the corruption of the 16th century that spiraled out of control.  It went from a valid protest to a process invented in the minds of the various founders of the various Protestant groups.  Most doctrines of Protestantism cannot be found before the 16th century, or if they are found, are often tempered by other teachings so they are not so extreme.\n\nWhich of the 46,000 Protestant denominations is the correct one, or are the Catholic or Orthodox correct who still sing the first century services and keep the first century documents and who proclaim the entire bible in its service so that Christians will hear all of the bible, not just the parts a preacher wants to talk about.\n\nIt has been since Jesus left us and the Spirit came.
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Like most Roman Catholics I pay lip service to my faith and am terrible about attendance.  Orthodox members take seriously the obligations of the sacriments and of course the holy days of obligation.  The orthodox do not recognize the Holy Father as Christ's Vicar on Earth.
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Gnosticism agrees with the teachings of just about every religion in the world.  Orthodox Christianity is the only one with that dying for sins nonsense.  I don't know, in my opinion the truth is within us, not within a book, if it is in us all, it would be universal.  The actual words of Jesus are universal.  All that other nonsense came from Paul and is not.
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I say sure, why not!  You will of course never get that widely accepted, but for your personal spiritual life, you can use those.  In the early days of Christianity, different communities had different writings that they held sacred.  It was not until quite late that our modern-day canon was chosen and then enforced.  And when that canon was chosen, it was chosen by what were considered "Orthodox" Christians, but who is to say that just because they styled themselves "Orthodox" that they represented the true, or only version of Christianity?  There may indeed be much of value in the Gnostic Gospels, and there is no need to get rid of the Canonical Gospels in order to benefit from them, in my opinion.
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Many Christians begin to learn about the Trinity through knowledge of Baptism. This is also a starting point for others in comprehending why the doctrine matters to so many Christians, even though the doctrine itself teaches that the being of God is beyond complete comprehension. The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are structured around profession of the Trinity, and are solemnly professed by converts to Christianity when they receive baptism, and in the Church's liturgy, particularly when celebrating the Eucharist. One or both of these creeds are often used as brief summations of Christian faith by mainstream denominations.\n\nOne God\nGod is one, and the Godhead a single being: The Hebrew Scriptures lift this one article of faith above others, and surround it with stern warnings against departure from this central issue of faith, and of faithfulness to the covenant God had made with them. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD" (Deuteronomy 6:4) (the Shema), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Deuteronomy 5:7) and, "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel and his redeemer the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6). Any formulation of an article of faith which does not insist that God is solitary, that divides worship between God and any other, or that imagines God coming into existence rather than being God eternally, is not capable of directing people toward the knowledge of God, according to the trinitarian understanding of the Old Testament. The same insistence is found in the New Testament: "...there is none other God but one" (1 Corinthians 8:4). The "other gods" warned against are therefore not gods at all, but substitutes for God, and so are, according to St. Paul, simply mythological or are demons.\n\nSo, in the trinitarian view, the common conception which thinks of the Father and Christ as two separate beings, is incorrect. The central, and crucial affirmation of Christian faith is that there is one savior, God, and one salvation, manifest in Jesus Christ, to which there is access only because of the Holy Spirit. The God of the Old is still the same as the God of the New. In Christianity, it is understood that statements about a solitary god are intended to distinguish the Hebraic understanding from the polytheistic view, which see divine power as shared by several separate beings, beings which can, and do, disagree and have conflicts with each other. The concept of Many comprising One is quite visible in the Gospel of John, chapter 17, verses 20 through 23.\n\nGod exists in three persons\n\nThe "Shield of the Trinity" or "Scutum Fidei" diagram of traditional Western Christian symbolism.This one God however exists in three persons, or in the Greek hypostases. God has but a single divine nature. Chalcedonians — Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants — hold that, in addition, the Second Person of the Trinity — God the Son, Jesus — assumed human nature, so that he has two natures (and hence two wills), and is really and fully both true God and true human. \n\nIn the Trinity, the Three are said to be co-equal and co-eternal, one in essence, nature, power, action, and will. However, as laid out in the Athanasian Creed, only the Father is unbegotten and non-proceeding. The Son is begotten from (or "generated by") the Father. The Spirit proceeds from the Father (or from the Father and through the Son ).\nIt has been stated that because God exists in three persons, God has always loved, and there has always existed perfectly harmonious communion between the three persons of the Trinity. One consequence of this teaching is that God could not have created Man in order to have someone to talk to or to love: God "already" enjoyed personal communion; being perfect, He did not create Man because of any lack or inadequacy He had.\nAnother consequence, acc
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We have a copy of the canon law (Roman Catholic).  Have you checked your local Christian book store? Even if they don't have a copy they can order one for you.\n\nI assume when you say Orthadox you mean Eastern.  Here's a link that I found which my help: http://experts.about.com/q/Eastern-Orthodox-1456/canon-versus-inspired.htm
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go to\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianism
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I found a ton of valuable information at the following site on Patristics :   (good luck)\nhttp://religionfacts.com/christianity/history/church_fathers.htm
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The foundation of Christian religions is belief in Jesus. It is the single most important thing. If you remove that there isn't alot left.\n\nAnd the non-Christian  religions is a huge category that is hard if not impossible to cover in any real depth in this venue.
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Christianity is a religion.  What you listed are denominations within "Christianity".
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Although the meaning of the word seems to be different depending on the outlook of the asker "Orthodox Christians" seem to believe much like the Catholic faith. They are not in the same boat as Roman Catholics, which are united with the Pope in Rome, (they are not). But the faith seems to be similar.
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What exactly do you mean by "orthodox"?\n\nAs to a child's place in the church, Deuteronomy  31:12 says - "Congregate the people, the men and the women AND THE LITTLE ONES and your alien resident who is within your gates, in order that they may LISTEN and in order that they may LEARN, as they must fear Jehovah God and take care to carry out all his words. "\n\nSo, according to the Bible, children should be with their parents while attending congregation meetings.  They should all be learning together, unlike many churches where the children are removed and taught separately.\n\nFor additional scriptures about a child's place see the following:\n* Deteronomy 6:6,7\n* Exodus 20:12\n* Colossians 3:20\n* Ephesians 6:1-4\n* 2 Timothy 3:15\n* Proverbs 22:6\n* Deteronomy 8:3\n* 1 Timothy 5:8\n* Proverbs 20:7\n* Proverbs 8:33\n* Hebrews 12:4-11\n* Proverbs 22:11\n* Proverbs 29:15\n* 1 Corinthians 15:33\n\nand many more.  When you search the Bible, you will find out how God feels about children in the church.
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Being a devote Christian myself, this source comes from a friend of mine.  I believe this is along the lines of what you are looking for and if not, it is something that may interest you.  My friend was explaining the Gnostic beliefs/ideas to me and let me this web address (see sources)
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Faith is what you believe in and have a "sense" that it sits squarely with you.\n\nReligion is however you act out your worship of God; which denomination fits the most closely to how you think is the correct way to worship Him.\n\nSome Christians think you MUST be baptised by immersion.\n\nSome Christians think you MUST be able to speak in tongues.\n\nSome Christians think you MUST follow a certain code of ethics.\n\nSome Christians are so liberal you can't separate what they believe is right from what non-Christians believe is right.\n\nI believe a person must find the "religious" practices they most closely feel right about and go for it.....because:\n\nThe Bible says all Christians are a different part of the body of Chirst. The hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears.....we all serve a very different and very important purpose. \n\nHope this helps.