The Greek world will continue in almost constant cultural revolution from the time of Homer to the day Rome brings Greece to its knees in the second … - Thomas Cahill

Even the special appurtenances of Christian monasticism—silence, meditation, chanting, distinctive costumes, beads, incense, kneeling, hands raised in prayer—all too likely go back to the Pythagoreans and beyond them to their influences, the Indian Buddhists and their predecessors.

We can understand Greek religion because, it operates on the same internal dynamic that fuels all (or certainly almost all) religion. The aboriginal Christian prayer Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy) is a Greek prayer far more ancient than Christianity.

Patrick... understood that, though Christianity was not inextricably wedded to Roman custom, it could not survive without Roman literacy.