I told her that as far as I could remember, the Byzantine brand of Christianity is a belief-system that is fundamentally different from the beliefs of the original primitive Christianity, and I added that I found the same differences reflected in Western traditions. "In early Christianity," I said to her, "the Christ was not perceived as an intermediary between God and man as it is perceived in the Roman/Byzantine model. Instead, the Christ was perceived in the original Christianity as the great Exemplar of the all-embracing unity that was recognized to exist between God and humanity. In the original Christian ideology, man thereby becomes elevated to God's level so that mankind was understood as being as co-equal in quality with God as the very reflection of God. This original Christian concept of man attributes great value to the human being, but it takes away the foundation for empires. The whole human scene became elevated by this original Christian perception of what a human being is. With that in mind, can you imagine how this revolutionary concept man as the reflected image of God, must have shook up the Roman Empire? It must have shook it to its very core? In this beautiful ideology society became unified by its humanity. Rome needed a humanity that is held captive by the power of empire. Consequently Rome had fought the Christian ideology of man. The Romans persecuted all who spoke of it and crucified its Exemplar. It was declared treason. But since the Romans couldn't kill the ideology itself they came up with a better idea. They turned it upside down and legalized it in a perverted form. They reengineered the Christian doctrine into a doctrine that didn't challenge the Empire, but gave it more power. It became the complete reversal of the original concept of Christianity. And that, Anton, is what the Byzantine doctrine was built on that took the concept further in the sewer of imperial insanity and away from the truth. This Roman and later the Byzantine doctrine presents a hierarchical structure that completely isolates God and man. It proclaimed that the Holy Spirit is passed from God the Father, through the person of the intermediary to be handed down in an authoritative fashion to poor humanity that exists at the bottom on the scale. The perverted doctrine assigns the role of the intermediary to Christ Jesus, the son, but since he was dead that role was represented by the Emperor who tells poor humanity what the truth is. It places mankind into the dust of the Earth, and infinitely distant from God, totally dependent on the Emperor. This deep hierarchical separation and isolation of man from God is the central feature of the Russian Orthodox doctrine too that is derived from the Byzantine root. And so, the Eastern Doctrine that you celebrate came out of this perversion and reflects it."

      "That's painful to hear, isn't it?" I added quietly. "But this is the truth as far as I can see the connections."

      "I don't shoot the messenger if I don't like the message," she said. "But now I know that there is something honest about you loving me. You told me the truth as I requested in spite of the risk that it might drive a wedge between us and might loose me, because of it. That is a wonderful kiss, Peter, and it honors me more than everything you had said before. But can you maintain this kiss? Can you tell me the connection to the Soviet Union that you see?"

      I told Anton cautiously that I recognized that the deeply rooted hierarchical imperial structure, which is centered on an imperial intermediary, is fundamentally reflected in the political makeup of the Soviet Union. I suggested that the Soviet State was taking on the role of the intermediary just as the Emperor once had, while the top-down controlling relationship remained virtually unaltered. I suggested that the Byzantine system that became the ruling Eastern Orthodox system, is basically a system of rape, as any imperial system is. It takes away the dignity and the freedom of the human being as the reflected image of God and subjects mankind to the pleasure of the imperial dictator. In the West this dictator is a self-appointed clown who lies through his teeth and thereby redefines the image of the human being as that of a pathetic slave, living without hope or help.

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Novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche