Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Fair enough. I always kinda thought of Russia as a tangent of Western culture.
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That’s a common error.
As Christianity spread north to the lands now identified with Russia from the eastern Roman Empire, the cultural influences were Byzantine, not Roman (even when the east was fully incorporated in the empire there were differences). In an effort to promote learning, especially of their religion, early missionaries devised a script for them which was based on Greek, as this was their language. Notably, not Latin. Language and even the way languages are written can isolate one culture from another. Had the land been evangelised by Roman clerics rather than Byzantine ones things might have been very different.
---------- Post added at 20:30 ---------- Previous post was at 20:25 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Fair enough. I always kinda thought of Russia as a tangent of Western culture.
---------- Post added at 20:18 ---------- Previous post was at 20:10 ----------
Will do.
The culture and influence derived from Christianity is different to the branches that then followed isn't it?
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To take an example, Protestant and Roman Catholic theologies (which I know more about than Orthodox) lead to quite different views about what an individual’s responsibility is towards their religion and their community. In fact strongly individualistic conceptions of the self within a community are very much a hallmark of Protestant rather than Catholic countries.