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I'm currently reading about Eastern Christianity as a part of my study.

Those are the churches that have existed since early times, such as the Nestorians, the Jacobites, the Coptics, and others. But not the Melkite/Orthodox Christianity (I don't include them as Eastern Christianity as in Keith Ward's categorization, he seems to separate them to another major branch besides Catholic and Protestantism).

The major differences between them and Western Christianity seem to be their agreement regarding the Council of Chalcedon, regarding the incarnation of Jesus. However besides of that, are there any other major differences? For example, what about the church hierarchy? Or do they have different political cultures?

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Consider editing your post and substituting "Eastern" with "Oriental". – zefciu Nov 20 '12 at 9:02
In a nutshell, eastern Christianity focuses on spiritual mysticism whereas western Christianity focuses on scholastic reason. Neither is meant perjoratively – Affable Geek Nov 20 '12 at 12:17

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The shift of the powerbase from the east to Europe caused a fundamental change in the worldview of the Western Church, not the least being from the influences of Greek Philosophy. Concepts such as Original Sin which find no place in Judaism and Eastern Orthodoxy began to find a foothold in Western Christian Theology, with further knockon results:

Quote from vision.org artice

Augustine’s association with Neoplatonic philosophers led him to introduce their outlook within the church. This had its effect in the development of doctrine. For example, Jesus was considered immaculately conceived —without sin in that His Father was God. But because His mother, Mary, had a human father, she suffered the effect of original sin. In order to present Jesus Christ as a perfect offspring without any inherited sin from either parent, the church had to find a way to label Mary as sinless. They did this by devising the doctrine of her immaculate conception, though this inevitably leads to further questions.

Other babies were not so fortunate. Some eight centuries later the Catholic theologian Anselm extended the implications of Augustine’s concept of original sin and claimed that babies who died, did so as sinners; as sinners, they had no access to eternal life but were condemned to eternal damnation.

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Honestly I don't think this is a convincing argument nor historically accurate. The doctrines in question can be traced back long before the time periods you suggest they were "introduced" and the split between East and West happened long before the power based moved: the things the OP here has lumped together as Eastern Christianity are largely composed of heresies condemned by either the first Jerusalem council (before Christianity had touched Europe) or in the following centuries (still before Christianity went West). – Caleb♦ Nov 20 '12 at 14:12
Its true that there have been differences in doctrine before the Great Western Schism (1054 AD), the actual physical split, which happened because of political differences, not because of irreconcilable differences in method or conclusions, but I think that the difference I focused on is very important. Dr George Eldon Ladd has written about it recently, and excerpts of his work are on the Web. – Footwasher Nov 20 '12 at 17:30
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That article has little to do with the OP's question. – Ignatius Theophorus Nov 20 '12 at 18:53
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I found great continuity between Judaism and Eastern Christianity, little between the former and the Western Church. My study led me to believe the cause for the break in ways of thinking was reinforcement of Greek ideas in the West. Many scholars are reaching the same conclusion. – Footwasher Nov 21 '12 at 5:23

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