-I do not dispute that the Fathers of the Church borrowed certain rhetorical figures from ancient authors, replied the Vezirtzis. However, they were deadly enemies of classical education and the culture of the ancients. [...] The humiliation of Hellenism by the Church was so systematic that the Greeks were forced to change their name, renaming themselves as Romans, Romioi, or Graikos.

In certain frescoes of Mount Athos, various philosophers are depicted alongside saints and angels, including Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and Pythagoras. They all wear crowns, have long beards, and are dressed like Byzantine princes.

It is well known that the Church sought to co-opt the ancient sages, at least those it could not bury, by distorting their thought. Do secondary education students not learn that antiquity passed the baton of culture to Byzantium? Christianity, my dear friend, does not continue antiquity; it simply follows it as night follows day. Theology negates philosophy. The former answers everything, while the latter mainly knows how to ask questions.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]