Orthodoxy the foundation of western culture?


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Posted by Ibrahim on April 26, 2002 at 04:14:52:

In Reply to: Access to FACTS is only a website away posted by Terry on April 25, 2002 at 19:16:15:

It amazes me how personal, some might even say offensive, some of these replies become. But as you freely and modestly admit
that you are an educated person I suppose in this case it must be alright.

Although I am obviously completely ignorant of west European cultural history, I always thought in my naive way that the
Renaissance was born out of the complex interplay between the Church's secular powers (Catholic, not Orthodox), aristocracy
and
the wealthy patrons of art. This often belligerent atmosphere led to an amazing and unique cultural and intellectual flowering. Now
of course there was contact with the East (just as there was with the West, just think of Spain, Ireland and Britain), but the positive
influence of Orthodoxy on the Renaissance or any other major west European development is negligible. If the Orthodox church
were the "hand that fed" the west, it makes you wonder why the Renaissance did not happen in Byzantium. Again, apologizing for
my ignorance, as for the history of the church, in no way can this be described by means of your "direct historical line". For this
would imply that from one Church came the other and so on and so forth in a linear succession. Of course, although this simplistic
model pleases those who believe that Catholicism derived from Orthodoxy, nevertheless it is false in historical terms. A truer
analogy is that of a tree, with diverse roots, and many, many branches. Just think of Lutheranism, Calvinism, Old Catholicism,
Catholic Byzantine Rite, the Protestant Reformed Churches etc etc. Catholicism is one major branch, Orthodoxy another, neither
can rightly claim to be the trunk, let alone the roots.





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