The Legacy of Greece
Oxford University Press (1921)
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia

'I am striving to give back
the Divine in myself
to the Divine in the All.'

--- Final words of Plotinus
to Eustochius (C.270 CE)

The Legacy of Greece - Oxford University Press (1921)

	RELIGION
	by W. R. Inge, Dean of St.Pauls

	p.26


	"Greece for our purposes means not a race, but a culture,
	 a language and literature, and still more an attitude
	 towards life, which for us begins with Homer, and persists,
	 with many changes but no breaks, till the closure of the
	 Athenian lecture rooms by Justinian.

	 The civilization of the Roman Empire was not Italian but Greek.

	 It was lost to the West for nearly a thousand years. It was recovered
	 at the Renaissance, and from that time to this has been a potent
	 element in Western civilization.  The Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages
	 are the period in which the West was cut off from Hellenism ... These
	 were the ages of the Catholic theocracy; and if we choose one man as the
	 founder of Catholicism as a theocratic system, we should have to name
	 neither Augustine not St.Paul,still less Jesus Christ, but Plato, who in
	 the Laws sketches out with such wonderful prescience the conditions for
	 such a polity, and the form which it would be compelled to take."


	 Hellenism then is not the mind of a particular ethnic type, not of a
	 particular period.  It was not destroyed, though it was emasculated,
	 by the loss of political freedom; it was neither killed nor died a
	 natural death.

	 Its religion passed into Christian theology without any real break.
	 The early church spoke in Greek and thought in Greek.

	 p.29

	 It is quite unnecessary to look for Asiatic influences in a school
	 which clung close to the Attic tradition.

	 It should not be necessary to remind Hellenists that "Know Thyself"
	 passed for the supreme word of wisdom in the classical period,
	 or that Heraclitus revealed his method in the words "I searched myself".

	"The teachings of Plato", says Justin, "are not alien to those of Christ;
	 and the same is true of the Stoics." "Heraclitus and Socrates lived in'
	 accordance to the divine Logos" and should be recognised as Christians.
	 Clement says that Plato wrote "by the inspiration of God".

	 Augustine, much later, finds that "only a few words and phrases" need
	 to be changed to bring Platonism into complete accord with Christianity.

	 The ethics of contemporary paganism, as Harnack shows,with special reference
	 to Porphyry,are almost identical with those of the Christians of his day.

	 Catholic Christianity is historically continuous with the old civilization,
	 which indeed continued to live in this region after its other traditions
	 and customs had been shattered. There are few other examples in history
	 of so great a difference between appearance and reality. Outwardly, the
	 continuity with Judaism seems to be unbroken, that with paganism to be
	 broken.  In reality, the opposite is the case.


	 p.33

	 Further,too much is made of the conflict between the official cults of
	 paganism and Christian public worship.  It is forgotten how completely,
	 in Hellenistic times, religion and philosophy were fused. Without under-
	 estimating the simple piety which, especially in country districts, still
	 attached itself to the temples and their ritual, we may say confidently
	 that the vital religion of the empire was associated with mystery-religions
	 and with the discipline of the "philosophic life".


	 p.42

	 Their sacrifices were for the most part of the genial type, a communion
	 meal with the god. But even in Greece, we must remember the gloomy chthonian
	 rites, and the degradations of Orphism mentioned by Plato in the "Republic".

	 	"They persuade not only individuals but whole cities
	 	 that expiations and atonements for sins may be made
	 	 by sacrifice and amusements which fill a vacant hour,
	 	 and are equally at the service of the living and the dead;
	 	 the latter sort they call mysteries, and they redeem us
	 	 from the pains of hell, but if we neglect them no one
	 	 knows what awaits us."

	 This exploitation of sacramentalism was common enough in Greece; but the
	 characteristic Caesaro-Papism of Byzantium and modern imperium was wholly
	 foreign to Hellenism. It was introduced by Constantine as part of the
	 Orientalizing of the empire begun by Diocletian.  As Seely says:

	 	"Constantine purchaced an indefensible title by a charter.
	 	 He gave certain liberties and received in return passive
	 	 obedience. He gained a sanction for the Oriental theory of
	 	 government; in return he accepted the law of the Church.
	 	 He became irresponsible to his subjects on condition of
	 	 becoming responsible to Christ."

	 The Greeks never had a book religion, in the sense that Judaism became, and
	 Islam always was, a book religion. But they were in some degree of treating
	 Homer and Hesiod as inspired scriptures. To us it is plain that a long
	 religious history lies behind Homer, and that the treatment of the gods
	 in Epic poetry proves that they had almost ceased to be the objects of
	 religious feeling. Some of them are even comic characters, like the devil
	 in Scottish folklore. To turn these poems into sacred literature was to
	 court the ridicule of the Christians. But Homer was never supposed to
	 contain "the faith once delivered to the saints"; no religion of authority
	 could be built upon him, and Greek speculation remained far more unfettered
	 that the thought of Christendom has been until our own day.


	 p.45

	 Nothing can be further from the truth than to call the Greeks "intellectualists"
	 in the disparaging sense in which the word is now often used.  The object of
	 philosophy was to teach a man to live well, and with that object to think
	 rightly about God, the world and himself. This close union between metaphysics,
	 morals and religion has remained as a permanent possession of the modern world.


	 The Hellenistic combination of Patonic metaphysics with Stoic ethics is still
	 the dominant type of Christain religious philosophy.



	 Asceticism has a continuous history within Hellenism. Even Homer knows of the
	 priests of chilly Dodona, the Selli, whose bare feet are unwashed, and who sleeps
	 on the ground.

	 The worship of Dionysus Zagreus in Thrace was accompanied by ascetic practices
	 before Pythagoras. Vergetarianism, which has always played an important part in
	 the ascetic life, was obligatory on all Pythagoreans.


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