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Secularism in Context: The Relations between the Greek State and the Church of Greece in Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

Evangelos Karagiannis
Evangelos Karagiannis*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Anthropology, University of Zurich [karagiannis@access.uzh.ch].
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Abstract

The present article addresses the question of secularism in Greece. It discusses the prevalent modernist and civilisationist explanations of the recent crisis in state-church relations in Greece. Based on the idea that there is neither a single route to, nor a single pattern of, modernity and secularism, the article argues that the entanglement between state and church in modern Greece does not necessarily indicate either incomplete modernity or incomplete secularism. The paper emphasises both the structural weakness of the Orthodox Church in the modern Greek state and the secularisation of the church's ideology as core dimensions of the particular pattern of secularism in this country. The recent crisis is interpreted as a result of the twofold challenge of democratisation and globalisation that this historically grown pattern of secularism is facing over the last decades. Further, the article seeks to demonstrate that the nationalist stance of the Church of Greece should not be seen as persistent blind traditionalism and anti-modernism.

Résumé

Il s'agit de la sécularisation en Grèce. L'article s’écarte des interprétations modernistes et civilisationnistes prévalentes de la crise des relations entre l’Église et l’État. Tenant pour acquis qu'il ne saurait y avoir un modèle unique de modernité et de sécularisme, l'article entend montrer que l'imbrication État/Église dans la Grèce moderne ne signifie ni modernité incomplète, ni sécularisation incomplète. La faiblesse structurelle de l’Église orthodoxe est au cœur du modèle très particulier de sécularisation. La crise résulte du heurt avec démocratisation et globalisation. Le nationalisme de l’Église ne doit pas être vu comme traditionalisme aveugle ou antimodernisme.

Zusammenfassung

Die Säkularisation Griechenlands steht im Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung. Moderne und zivilisatorische Aspekte der kürzlichen Krise der Staat-Kirche-Beziehung werden diskutiert, wobei es kein Einheitsmodell gibt, das zu Modernität und Säkularisation führt. Die griechische Staat-Kirche-Beziehung kann deshalb weder als unvollständige Modernität noch als unvollständige Säkularisation betrachtet werden. Dieser Beitrag untersucht sowohl die strukturelle Schwäche der orthodoxen Kirche des modernen Griechenland als auch die griechische Säkularisation der Kirchenideologie. Die kürzliche Krise ist ein Ergebnis der doppelten Herausforderung von Demokratisierung und Globalisierung. Desweiteren kann der Nationalismus der Kirche weder als blind noch als antimodern betrachtet werden kann.

Keywords

SecularismState-church-relationsModernityNationalismEastern OrthodoxyGreeceSécuralismeRelation État/ÉgliseModernitéNationalismeOrthodoxie orientaleGrèceSäkularisationStaat-Kirche-BeziehungModernitätNationalismusÖstliche OrthodoxieGriechenland
Type
Research Articles
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , April 2009 , pp. 133 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2009

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