Orthodox Christianity is not Slavic but HELLENIC

[poiuytrewq0987]

Therefore all OrthodoxSlavs must recognize their part-Greek heritage and admit that we have been partially Hellenized.

[Марко Краљевић]

Christianity as a whole has a significant Greek influence, ranging from Hellenized names of first saints like Peter, Paul, John etc., to Greek being the second language in which New Testament was written, while gospel by John was entirely written in Greek.

Of course, the influence of Hellenic culture is further deepened in Christian Orthodoxy than in the case of western Christianity. This is especially seen through ever present mysticism which western Christianity lacks.

However, Christian Orthodoxy is very much Slavic, too. Due to its different philosophy and lack of possibility to rely on Byzantine army, which was needed on the east to stop islamic invasions, unlike in the case of catholic missionaries who could count on Frankish sword, Orthodox missionaries had to adapt and be more flexible towards native populations and accept parts of their customs and way of life into Orthodoxy. Christian dogma didn't change however. This led to Bible being translated into Slavic languages centuries before west abandon Latin. Byproduct of this was formation of national Orthodox churches in medieval Europe around which Slavic nations were formed, while at the same time powerful Roman catholic church stemmed towards universality which for a consequence allowed national languages into sacral business only from 16th century onwards, and then only under pressure of reformation.

Therefore, Orthodoxy significantly helped in shaping Eastern Slavic nations. For instance, Russian language derived from Old Church Slavonic language, in order to achieve canonical unity Russian nation was born. In the case of Serbians, Orthodox church help preserve old customs, culture, language as well as helping in creation of national epic poetry around which national remembrance was created, all that during half of a millennium of islamic dominance.

[Gaztelu]

Can someone post samples of Serbian poetry?

[Monolith]

...to Greek being the second language in which New Testament was written, while gospel by John was entirely written in Greek.
I think all of New Testament was originally written in Greek.


However, Christian Orthodoxy is very much Slavic, too. Due to its different philosophy and lack of possibility to rely on Byzantine army, which was needed on the east to stop islamic invasions, unlike in the case of catholic missionaries who could count on Frankish sword, Orthodox missionaries had to adapt and be more flexible towards native populations and accept parts of their customs and way of life into Orthodoxy.
You are mistaken. There's a myriad of pre-Slavic customs that Roman Catholicism had assimilated; like praying to st. Elijah (ex-Perun) to stop the thunderstorm, numerous fire-related customs (like Ivanjski krijes, Badnjak, etc.), easter eggs (pisanice), twinning (matkanje), decorating wells with flowers, carnival (poklade) and many others.

Also, Byzantine army was able to protect the Orthodox believers for roughly four hundred years, which was followed by a period of three hundred years when the Orthodox were pretty much helpless. At the end of that period, Imperial Russia assumed the role of its Byzantine predecessor.


This led to Bible being translated into Slavic languages centuries before west abandon Latin. Byproduct of this was formation of national Orthodox churches in medieval Europe around which Slavic nations were formed, while at the same time powerful Roman catholic church stemmed towards universality which for a consequence allowed national languages into sacral business only from 16th century onwards, and then only under pressure of reformation.
That's not entirely correct. Out of all Catholics, only Croats were given special permission by Pope Innocent IV to use their own language and Glagolitic script in liturgy.

For instance, Russian language derived from Old Church Slavonic language, in order to achieve canonical unity Russian nation was born.
It was not derived from OCS, but was rather significantly influenced by it. For example, Old East Slavic epic poem 'Slovo o polku Igoreve' was written in a language without some characteristic OCS structures and lexicon. At that time, East Slavic languages/dialects were already linguistically close to their southern counterparts.

Can someone post samples of Serbian poetry?
You'll have to use Youtube if you're interested in Serbian medieval poetry, since they don't have anything written from the Ottoman period. Those parts of their pre-Ottoman and Ottoman occupation culture they managed to preserve now exist in their oral tradition.

It looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liuPklxGrRg

You can ask some of the Serbian members here to translate it for you, or at least to provide a better(?) example.

[Guapo]

Can someone post samples of Serbian poetry?

http://www.rastko.rs/bogoslovlje/slovo_ljubve.html

http://www.srpsko-nasledje.co.rs/sr-l/1998/05/images/27_f1copy.jpg

[Monolith]

http://www.srpsko-nasledje.co.rs/sr-l/1998/05/images/27_f1copy.jpg
Here's a larger image:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6464/graphic11k.jpg

Can you provide a transliteration of the original text? I can't read old Cyrillic, though I recognize some Church Slavonic letters.

[poiuytrewq0987]

In my opinion, Orthodox Christianity should be used a tool to complete the process of Hellenization of Haemus linguistic Slavs.