The other implication is that when Christian revelation encountered the Graeco-Roman world, especially its educated members, far from being corrupted into something else, it embraced its culture, permeatted it, and, in many ways, renewed it. But never was the Christian message tainted by philosophy, since it is the very nature of philosophy to adapt to its object of study. We may call to mind the Cappadocian Fathers, and especially the two Gregories, or again Maximus the Confessor, who all made abundant use of philosophy to describe the mystery of Christ. When Christianity encountered Greek culture, it was understood by the Greek-speaking people in a Greek way; and since Greek culture had long been the dominant cultural force in the Mediterranean, it was all too normal that it should once again play this role with the new faith. Likewise Christianity would put on Roman clothes among the Romans, Slavic ones among the Slavs, Ethiopian among the Ethiopians, and so on, without the essential truth being corrupted by the encounter itself.
It may seem paradoxical to say that those who would like to see the Greek heritage of Christianity altogether eradicated, and who consider the import of Greek thought into Christianity a corruption, really hold the same opinion as those who only seek to eradicate Christianity as a destroyer of philosophy and classical culture. Yet, both beliefs rest on the same assumption that philosophy and the Gospels are incompatible, somewhat separated by an unbridgeable gulf. In a way, they continue to reflect Tertullian’s words, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” But as we saw, this is a misunderstanding of what philosophy itself is. This is not the view that prevailed in the Greek speaking-world, and even in the early days of Latin Christianity. This is why also Christianity could be absorbed by foreign cultures and be given a local flavor, without fear of endangering its essential message. The most telling and concrete illustration of this is the work of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. It is not surprising that the whole issue revolved around language, since it is language that conveys the innermost meanings of a particular culture, and that is the source of all philosophy. By allowing the Slavs to worship in their own language, the two brothers, who had an intimate understanding of the meaning of culture, implicitly acknowledged the central role played by culture–a role never destroyed, but rather elevated by faith.
