Η ταυτότητα και οι στόχοι της Ελληνικής Σλαβολογίας

Abstract

THE IDENTITY AND OBJECTIVES OF THE  GREEK SLAVOLOGYTo Greeks, the study of the history and civilization of the Slavic peoples, i.e. Slavology, is both a special duty and a welcome obligation. This is due to the fundamental fact that the Slavs began to develop intellectually and spiritually with the work of brothers Cyril and Methodius (9th cen.), a process which continued throughout the Middle Ages built from these very same materials: Greek culture and the Christian Orthodox faith. As a result, the Slavic intellectual life is part of Greek history, Greek literature and Greek civilization.This fact leads to two interrelated aspects of the Greek slavological viewpoint: first, that Greek Slavology is not a foreign science but rather one existing in continuity with the known and constantly cultivated throughout the Greek world (and beyond) Byzantinology; and second—an equally as important and indisputable aspect—that Greek slavologists are obliged to study with a sense of respect, without any bias, and with the appropriate sense of earnest commitment the product and outcome of this byzantinoslavic intellectual and spiritual convergence and joint creation, from its inception at the time of brothers Cyril and Methodius to this day and for as long as these elements may continue to endure.Furthermore, beyond the obvious duty of Greeks to study and cultivate Slavology, the aforementioned scholarly reality allows Greeks a special advantage over their international colleagues, in that the field of their study is already familiar and related to their broader area of interests, in contrast to their foreign (non Slavic) colleagues, who in order to engage in Slavology are required to study two fields foreign to them, i.e. the Greek and the Slavic scholarly field. For this plain reason, the presence and contribution of Greek Slavology within the context of the relevant international slavological scholarship is not only self-evident but also imperative