[ CONTENTS ]� George D. Metallinos
The elements, which compose a culture, are not simply the
folkloric ones that can be brought to the surface in certain cases
(festival, celebration, etc.), or dealt with in the artistic field. The
issue is not to recall elements of our culture (as peculiarities),
that can, for instance, be easily found in other languages. The problem of
identifying ourselves with our culture is when we cannot live without
these elements. Someone participates in his culture, by experiencing
these particular elements as something inseparable from his own existence.
Culture is the imprint, within historic reality, of the
consciousness, the expression and realization of the world of the soul. The
formation of the environment within these conscious limits, outlines a
specific culture. The conscience of a group is the same as its culture
Our culture, our historical existence and continuity, our
Hellenic identity and our Orthodox faith is at stake inside the European
Union. Our a-priori identification with Europe is a mistake. It is a
mistake to believe that European culture and our culture are
identical and equal. It is not an alliance, a simple sociopolitical
connection with mutual relations. It is a total induction to a new
framework of living. "Europe" means the transfer of our interests into
another area.
The established mentality of Europe is constantly anti-Hellenic.
The Culture and the Educational System of Europe appear to have an
ostensible slant towards ancient Greece, but an obvious countereaction, resistance and
hostility towards the new face of Hellenism.
Modern Europe is a product of Charlemagne, the greatest enemy of
Hellenism in history. It is founded on Charlemagne. It is not a product
of Helleno-Christian composition, but of Franko-Germanity. The various
Frankish groups (Franks, Teutons, Normands, Lombards, Burgundians, etc) are
still at the leadership levels of the European Union. Greece's Hellenic presence
is a foreign element among them.
The essence of the Western theological alienation is its
entrapment within ancient Greek thought, by philosophizing, legalizing
and rationalizing faith. They maintained this trend and turned it into their own
theology and faith. It is the legalistic approach to matters of Faith .
European Man also misinterprets Hellenism. Europe took
ancient Hellenism and altered it within its own standards. Ancient
Hellenism is not even preserved within European Culture. The Renaissance managed to attain to neither the Hellenic, nor even the Roman era, because there was
no continuity. The Renaissance was not created by the Romaic people of the
West, but by the Franko-German conquerors.
European Man bears no relation whatsoever to ancient man; he has nothing
of the relations preserved by the Holy Fathers and Mothers of our Church.
We have a culture that creates saints, holy people.
Our people's ideal is not to create wisemen. Nor was this the ideal of
ancient Hellenic culture and civilization. Hellenic anthropocentric
(human-centered) Humanism is transformed into Theanthropism (God-humanism) and
its ideal is now the creation of Saints, Holy people who have reached the state
of theosis (deification).
The Empire of New Rome (Romania or "Byzantium" as it was to be called later by scolars), with Constantinopole as the New Rome (11/5/330 A.D.) was
the new post Roman world. It was based on the triptych: 1)Roman state
structure, 2) Hellenic Education and 3) Christianity, which was
gradually shaped into Orthodoxy.
The entire Empire functioned, in the minds of its citizens, as the
"Church" (ekklesia), that is a gathering of believers in Christ, with Orthodoxy
serving as the common link betweenthem. Orthodoxy determined their nationality, so that the civil title Romaios meant
"citizen of the New Rome: Orthodox".
The religious feeling of ancient Greeks continues through
Orthodoxy. For instance, instead of Poseidon (god of the sea), who
is a non existent or even demonic entity, we have St. Nicholas with
proof of his historical existence, his miraculous activity and of his deified
state. It is not "another type of idolatry", since all Holy people are of the "Body of Jesus Christ" and the honor attributed to them, is always focused
on Christ.
The Orthodox conscience is defined by three points: the
first one is faith that the best and most authentic expression of our
culture is the life of our Holy Fathers and Mothers, our Saints. The
second is to be conscious of the superiority of the Orthodox culture, as opposed to
ancient Hellenic culture; ancient Hellenic culture is
baptized and reborn. The third point is to be conscious of the superiority
of Orthodox culture, compared to the European culture.
After the Frankish alteration of Western Europe its social development was carried out on a racial basis. The rights of the
conquerors were imposed through the feudal system, which however was not based on
land-owwnership as in the East, but of racial character. A class of nobility
was created and was considered "nobles by nature". The barbaric conquerors
declared themselves "nobles". The other class was that of the subjects,
those enslaved to the nobles. This very small minority conquers the
entire West and transforms the Romaic people into slaves in their
own land.
Another impact, apart from serfdom, is colonialism. Colonialism is
the extension of the internal structure of slavery to foreign parts. Western
individualism (individual domination at the expense of others) is
completely different from that of the East, which has a socio-communal
character. Western man says "Why don't they make me Prime Minister to solve all our
problems ?.Western Man lives within an environment which motivates
him to sacrifice others for his own benefit, not to sacrifice himself for others.
Europe used to have a civilization and culture the same as ours, but after the
barbaric invasions of the Franks Romaic Western Europe was enslaved and lost
this tradition. Thus, God apppointed us to be its guardians.
The cooperation between France and Germany (the two main Frankish
branches) in many fields, evident in our days, prooves that
there is an attempt underway to return to the unified European center of
time of Charlemagne.
http://w4u.eexi.gr/~antbos/ORTHEURO.HTMEnglish language editing by Marina M. Robb
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