• Submit to Religions Login Register
• MDPI
• Journals A-Z
• For Authors
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• About
• Open Access Policy

• Abstract
• Full-Text HTML
• Full-Text PDF [396 KB]
• Full-Text XML
• Article Versions Notes

• Article Statistics
• Google Scholar
• Order Reprints

• Cite this article
• Export to BibTeX
• Export to EndNote

• [+] on DOAJ
• Roudometof, V
• [+] on Google Scholar
• Roudometof, V
• [+] on PubMed
• Roudometof, V

•  CiteULike
•  Facebook
•  Mendeley
•  Twitter
• More services

Open AccessThis article is

• freely available
• re-usable

Religions 2011, 2(2), 95-113; doi:10.3390/rel2020095

Article

Eastern Orthodox Christianity and the Uses of the Past in Contemporary Greece

Victor Roudometof

Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cyprus, PO Box 20537, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus

Received: 15 March 2011; in revised form: 12 April 2011 / Accepted: 4 May 2011 / Published: 11 May 2011

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Special Editors Issue)

Download PDF Full-Text [396 KB, uploaded 11 May 2011 10:45 CEST]

Abstract: The article examines the use of Orthodox Christianity in the debates over the cultural heritage of contemporary Greece. Since the birth of modern Greece, Orthodox Christianity has been used as one of the foundational cultural markers for the construction of Modern Greek national identity. This employment of religion is particularly evident in the case of history in its popularized format. In contemporary cultural politics, debates over the building of a mosque in Athens or the role of Orthodoxy in history textbooks offer particular illustrations of the public significance of Orthodox Christianity. This high profile role was particularly pronounced during the reign of the late Archbishop Christodoulos (1998–2008). The article suggests that the engagement and influence of the Church on public debates depends upon the nature of the affair: The Church enjoys more authority in ecclesiastical issues and is far less influential on issues of broader interest, such as geopolitical disputes.

Keywords: Eastern Orthodox Christianity; heritage; Greece; politics; culture

Article Statistics

Citations to this Article

Cite This Article