From: Photis Kontoglou, Works, v.
6 (Mystical Flowers), Athens 1992, 4th edition, pp. 31-42.
Introduction and translation by
Ellopos
WHEN
the time of the Fall was near, and the Emperor was after Western help which
he never received, Byzantines, people and clergy, were just saying that “we
prefer the turkish turban from the latine tiara”, remembering what
Byzantium suffered with the
sack of Constantinople by papal crusaders in 1204; compared with that, a
spiritual rather than material damage, even Turkish atrocities seemed
better. Here follow excerpts from a text by Photis Kontoglou explaining some points of the aversion of Byzantium for papacy, and the relative sympathy
for Islam, despite even islamic violence.
So long as Orthodoxy
exists in the hearts of people, this aversion will increase as the Orthodox clergy (the genius heads of it) turn to a union with
Papacy, a union that will end with the destruction of Orthodoxy and all
Christianity as such, leaving faith to be an object of vain scientific
observation and equally vain keep of some customs by the clergy, a living
reality in the hearts of only a few, absent from society as such, as happens
already in the West.
Kontoglou, Christianity and Islam
“Eastern peoples are more religious”, an ancient writes, wishing to say
that Easterners are more religious than people in the West, in Europe. Note
that East is also the Balkans together with Russia.
To an Easterner feeling is more intense than reasoning,
while the opposite happens with a European; and since faith regards heart and not
reasoning, Easterners are more religious than Europeans, and thus religions
were born in the East, none of them in the West.
Westerners are rationalists, which is why they were devoted to positive
knowledge, to sciences, and made a progress there, today leading the whole
world to their way. Those among them that make a difference and they don’t
believe only in their senses, turn to the East, because they discover there
a spring to drink, who are thirsty for mysteries beyond the investigation of
reasoning.
