Culture influences religion via setting the issues that need to be addressed and eh acceptable solutions. Politics influences religion by setting the boundaries of what answers are acceptable and what answers are to be censored out of existence.

In the case of Christianity, where I am currently working on a book, the Greco-Roman culture defined the issues in terms that the general society deemed acceptable, even as those issues differed from the historic Jewish ones that gave rise to Christianity. Roman victory in the 1st Jewish War hardened the cultural influences by firmly censoring what writings were allowed to survive. The gospels of Mark and John show clear evidence of having been edited at some time, Mark has four known endings, and John appears to have two. Thus, while for a time after the early 70's CE the true initial message of the Chruch was known, political survival dictated that the message be acceptable to the Roman overlords and thus the original message eventually became lost and only the Roman acceptable version remained.

That in today's world there are questions about the earliest church and its writings that have multiple, often contradictory, answers is a direct result of adjusting the message to fit political requirements