The history of the christian church until the great schism of 1054 is a sincere and unbiased history of the church written by the russian historian and theologian mikhail posnov posnov through this study of church history discovered the importance of the teaching authority of the bishop of rome the book has been called a most valuable tool for students of christian church history the most important characteristic of the text is its original and profound use of primary historical sources . The history of the christian church until the great schism of 1054 by mikhail emmanuelovich posnov november 23 2004 authorhouse edition paperback in english. The history of the christian church until the great schism of 1054 is a sincere and unbiased history of the church written by the russian historian and theologian mikhail posnov posnov through this study of church history discovered the importance of the teaching authority of the bishop of rome the book has been called a most valuable tool for students of christian church history the most important characteristic of the text is its original and profound use of primary historical sources . The great schism of 1054 marked the first major split in the history of christianity separating the orthodox church in the east from the roman catholic church in the west until this time all of christendom existed under one body but the churches in the east were developing distinct cultural and theological differences from those in the west tensions gradually increased between the two branches and finally boiled over into the great schism of 1054 also called the east west . Until the year 1054 ad when the first unhappy division took place the church was as it should be one holy catholic and apostolic what happened after the division of course appears differently to the mind of every individual and the truth becomes hard to discern it is safe to say then that the only way of proving the truth of any contemporary interpretation of christianity is