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The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity (Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Religion)

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Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, and India over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to describe all Christian traditions which did not develop in Western Europe. As such the term does not describe any single communion or common religious tradition (indeed some Eastern Churches have more in common historically and theologically with Western Christianity than other Eastern Churches).

The terms Eastern and Western in this regard originated with the division between the Eastern and Western Roman Empire and the cultural split that this caused. The term Orthodox is often used in the same way as Eastern in referring to church communions although, strictly speaking, most churches consider themselves part of an orthodox and catholic communion.