Christian Subversion And Missionary Activities - 6

[Bharatvarsh2]

Small part of a review "The Passion of the Greeks: Christianity and the Rape of the Hellenes" by Evaggelos G. Vallianatos:

An edict of Zeno, published in 484,

reads thus: “Bishops and government agents should find and punish teachers of Hellenic studies. They should not be allowed to teach, lest they corrupt their students. But,

above all, Bishops and government officials should put Greek teachers out of business,

bringing the ‘impieties’ of Hellenism to an end. No one shall leave a gift or bequeath

anything to Greeks or to schools and other institutions supporting the ‘impiety’ of Hellenism.

All previous legislation against the ‘error’ of the Greeks is reaffirmed.”

Vallianatos comments on the imperial order that brought an end to the Olympics as

follows:



Here was a millennial tradition of athletic competition for arete (courage, virtue,

equality before the law, goodness, manliness, nobility and excellence) started by

Herakles, son of Zeus and the Greeks’ greatest hero, and Theodosios, thinking like a

barbarian, brought it to an end.

The Olympic agon (contest) was much more than a struggle between outstanding

men for physical excellence. It was, above all, a Panhellenic honoring of the gods.

It was an extraordinary effort to rein in the Hellenes’ passions for war and bring

them together from all over the world for the celebration of their common culture.

The overwhelming idea behind the Olympic contest was political. The Olympic contest

was an effort to build a Panhellenic polis and commonwealth, a united Hellas

under democratic governance. The Olympic agon was also building better and

nobler human beings. And yet the Hellenes’ greatest athletic contest and celebration

of national identity were buried . . . by a barbarian king who knew no better than

listening to the fanaticism of his Christian advisors.



The destructive work of Theodosius against the Greeks and their culture continued

by his successors and, with real zest, by Justinian, who closed down the schools of

philosophy in Athens in 529 and “brought barbarism to Greece.” According to John

of Ephesus, “In 546 Justinian’s agents discovered several illustrious and noble men,

grammarians, sophists, and doctors, who were worshiping the Greek gods. The government

of Justinian tortured, beat, flogged, and imprisoned these men who then rushed

to denounce each other. Some of them admitted their ‘false beliefs’ and became Christians.

One of these rich and powerful men, Phokas, committed suicide in prison rather

than face Justinian, who ordered that he ‘be buried like a donkey.’ ” Together with the

pagan Greeks, the Jews were targeted. For instance, St. John Chysostom considered

them, long before Hitler, as a “disease that had to be eradicated.”



Chapter 9 is titled “What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem?” The question has

been borrowed from Tertullian, a Christian fundamentalist and bigot, who represented

an extreme version of Christianity. He expressed deep suspicion and hatred of Hellenic

philosophy, which he considered the seedbed of heresy...



http://mq.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/19/1/97

Also an interesting remark in the review on page 7:

He iscritical of Polymnia Athanassiadi who, following the line of St. Gregory, sees in Julian a

fanatic man and “the very incarnation of evil.”3