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 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.