Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/515

Rh should be the founders of Christian doctrine. Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Methodios of Olympus, and the other Greek theologians, drew their ideas, not only from the Old and the New Testament, but also from Greek philosophy, in especial from Platonism and neoplatonism, but to some extent also from stoicism. Nor must we forget that the Greeks were early exposed to Asiatic influences, and that at the time when Christianity was developing, the influence of the religions of Asia was not restricted to the Old and the New Testament. Pari passu with the political and cultural detachment of Byzantium from the west and with the development of Byzantium into an oasis of civilisation owing to the inroads of the uncultured nations of Asia and Europe (and above all of the Turks), religious and cultural stationarism evolved as a manifestation of self-sufficiency.

Russia received her church and her religion ready-made from Byzantium. The significance of this was explained at the very outset of these studies. All that need be added here is that while the Russians adopted Byzantine religion they did not adopt Byzantine civilisation. They acquired a rich heritage, but their timidity led them to bury the talent in the ground. Moreover, their powers were not equal to the digestion of Greek theology, and after prolonged attempts they secured in this respect no more than a partial success (cf. §§ 2 and 3).

The Russians were no less isolated than the Byzantines, and it was because of this isolation that, like the Byzantines, they cherished ecclesiastico-religious tradition. At the beginning of the Kievic epoch there doubtless existed a certain cultural community with the west, but this was of brief duration. Russia, cut off from the west, and before long from the east as well, had her cultural and religious development arrested, all the more seeing that the unceasing need for defence against hostile neighbours tended to promote a one-sided development of the political and military activities of the Russian state. Books on canon law and various other subjects entered Russia from Constantinople and from the southern