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Greece, Greeks, and Hellenism
The culture of the Roman Empire --- its literature, art, philosophy, and
social mores ---
was essentially Greek, and ancient elites as far away as India also
adopted Hellenic
fashions. Because of this, Hellenism has an unusual role in Orthodox
history. On the
one hand, it was the way of thinking with which the gentile Church mostly
had
to contend --- "Greek" and "pagan" remained synonymous for some Orthodox
writers
(including Greek Orthodox ones) as late as the XIX Century. On the other
hand,
the success of the Apologists in finding
what was
already or potentially Orthodox in Greek thought and the use of Greek
philosophical
terminology as the official vocabulary of Orthodox theology, not to
mention the adoption
of Christianity as the state religion of the Empire, meant that Hellenism
and Orthodoxy
soon developed a far less adversarial relationship. The Church
transformed classical culture
deeply from within, but classical culture also more superficially came to
pervade the Church;
barbarians adopted the Faith in part to enjoy the benefits of a more
advanced civilisation.
In the West, the Latin Church acted as the main custodian of that
civilisation after its
secular embodiment disintegrated; in the East, the Greek church adopted a
less rigidly
classical stance, allowing the use of vernacular languages, but in fact
secular Hellenic values
were invariably and inevitably transmitted alongside Christian ones,
mostly to the great benefit
of the converted peoples. The fall of the Eastern Empire, the emergence
of a new Western
culture, and the ascendancy of Westernising emperors in Russia
changed this situation somewhat in the Orthodox world at large. In Greece
itself, nationalist
writers drew on the pagan and Byzantine past in equal measure, and the
unique role of Hellenism
in Orthodox history has given a special character to the Greek versions of
those nationalistic and
phyletistic tendencies which have arisen in the all national Orthodox
churches. Nevertheless, it
remains true that the best aspects of the Hellenic inheritance are part of
the universal
Orthodox heritage and Greece's particular gift to the Church.
Norman Hugh Redington
- ABOUT:
-
Hélène Ahrweiler:
The Hellenic Europe -- Problems of Greek Continuity.
A chapter from The Making of Europe,
Livanis, Athens, 2000.
--- Myriobiblos
- Marilyn Rouvelas:
A Guide to Greek Traditions and Customs in America,
(2002).
Bethesda, Md.: Nea Attiki, 2002. An exceptionally
comprehensive popular handbook of modern Greek
culture as lived on a daily basis by emigrants.
- RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS:
0
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