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1.
IF WE DEFINE
religion as the experience of the relationship between man, the cosmos and the
Divine; or, perhaps, as man’s “ultimate concern,” to borrow the words of Paul
Tillich; then, religion is the basis of culture, not the product of it. Culture is the manifestation of religion.
Historically, Orthodoxy, in whatever culture she has been incarnated, has
become the new substance, displacing the old, which the cultural forms reveal.
Today she is everywhere challenged by the religion of secularism.
In
the first millennium of her existence, the Church spread to numerous cultures
which explains, in large part, the diversity of customs, rites, calendars (1),
while, nevertheless, sharing “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5).
Diversity of cultures did not translate into diversity of creeds, precisely
because the cultures were transformed by the religion they welcomed --- the
reverse of what is occurring today.
For
example, East and West Christian Rome, whatever their cultural differences,
shared the same Orthodox Faith. Thus,
the Easterner, St Justin Martyr, founded a catechetical school in Rome. Disciple of St Polycarp of Smyrna, St
Irenaeus, became bishop of Lyons in Gaul. St Firmilian of Caesarea supported St
Cyprian of Carthage in his struggle with Pope Stephen. St Athanasius of Alexandria ignited the
monastic movement in the West. The
Scythian, St John Cassian, ordained to the deaconate by St John Chrysostom, visited
the Egyptian thebaid, carrying its wisdom to the West in order to advance “the
highest philosophy.” The monastic ideals of St Benedict of Nursia were inspired
by the works of St John Cassian and St Basil the Great. A Benedictine monastery will eventually come
to Mt Athos. The Latin Father, St Jerome established a monastery near Bethlehem. Several writings of another Latin Father,
the Orthodox Pope, St Gregory the Great, were translated into Greek. St Theodore of Tarsus became the first
Archbishop of Canterbury.
During the seventh and eighth centuries most of the
Popes of Rome were Greeks. Pope Gregory IV, despite the vehement objections of
the iconoclastic emperor, Theophilus, called upon the entire Church to
celebrate the feast of All Saints (instituted by his predecessor, Gregory III),
in honor of those who died for the sacred icons. After the restoration of the icons (843), the West continued to
paint icons, as we observe from its temples (e.g., St Mark’s in Venice) and
book illumination (e.g., the St Gall and Lindisfarne Gospels).
Interesting,
too, is the marriage of the Byzantine Princess, Theophano, to Otto II of Saxony
(973-983). She filled the Aachen palace with icons --- the malignant legacy of
Charlemange notwithstanding. Later, in
Rome, at the coronation of Otto III (983-1002), the new emperor offered the crown
of the German empire to the Greek monk, St Nilus the Wonderworker. Naturally,
he declined the generous offer. We are
aware of the missionary work in the West by two Greeks, Sts Cyril and
Methodius, with the Pope’s permission. Such occurrences demonstrate, despite
many disputes between Rome and Constantinople, that the Church possessed a
single Faith. Culture, sometimes an obstacle, did not alter the common life in
the Body of Christ.
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