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Originally Posted by Plethon
Hm, not sure about that, since European culture is an intreplay between Greek thought, Roman law AND Christianity.
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Well, yes, though it's not clear how much of this is specifically related to Christ himself (or very early Christianity) since as you point out a bit later, Greek thought came in almost from the start and, equally importantly, other allegorical, mystical, and superstitious elements (from Asia Minor and Europe) also came in right from inception. The idea of the Trinity is one such conception; there are many others.
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I must say, first time I took the Old Testament into my hands and started reading it, it seemed to me as a hideous book, from many aspects. However, its stories are to be understood allegorically, as they have always been throughout history in the Christian theology.
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One is forced to ascribe an allegorical interpretation to these stories to lend them a universalist aspect; they were originally very literal stories, histories, and superstitions. Even the god described seems to be a vengeful, local deity, caught up with the interests of a certain group, and only much later becoming an abstract divinity. And how can one give an allegorical interpretation to "A begat B, who begat C, who begat D, who begat E" and so on?
It's interesting to speculate on how Europe would have evolved without this impact. My (admittedly biased) opinion is it would have done better.
One important distinction I want to make is between Christianity and Christendon. Christendom was a bureaucratic affair organised by a bureaucratic church and with only lip service paid to Christ and Christianity. The Church was effectively a bureaucratic custodian to Europe culture while Europe went through its dark period. Another poster has stated that without "Christianism" we'd have been turkified a long time ago. It's difficult to agree with this. What really kept the Turks and Mongols and Moors at bay was an evolving European identity based ultimately on genetics. Christendom was a facade for this deeper reality. Say, for example, a Turk converted to Christianity five centuries ago: he would still not become part of Christendom as the genetic basis wouldn't be there. This is just another way for me to reiterate that I think our folk cultures, traditions, legends, and beliefs are a more authentic mirror of our various European identities -- based on the historical interaction between our genes and and our European homelands -- than anything from abroad. Perhaps I'm mistaken.