Ορθοδοξία, εθνικισμός και πολιτική κουλτούρα στη σύγχρονη Ελλάδα: Καινούριες προσεγγίσεις ή εσωτερικοποίηση δεδομένων παραδειγμάτων;

Abstract

This article explores the impact of Orthodox Christianity on the construction of nationalism and political culture in contemporary Greece. Specifically, the article takes issue with the representation and interpretation of the links between Orthodoxy-nationalism-culture in current social science debates centered on the Civilization Paradigm, ft argues that the standard conception of Orthodoxy as the motive force in the development of reactionary nationalism and traditional political culture suffers from methodological weaknesses, which undermine the rigor of larger theoretical claims about the incompatibility of Orthodoxy and modernity. In the form of a critical response to the arguments of Thanos Libovats, who has laid out a psychologically oriented formulation of the Civilization Paradigm’s claims, the article points to methodological and empirical factors which suggest that past and future possibilities for a constructive engagement between Orthodoxy and modernity in Greece (and throughout Europe) depend on: the application of intellectual constructs which analyze Eastern Christianity as a way of life; an analysis of the implications for democracy of a religious tradition where person- hood is understood in terms of relationality and freedom; the ways in which the legitimacy crisis of the Greek state have led to the appropriation of the Church and Orthodoxy for political purposes; and the ways in which competing groups’ within the Church have attempted to renegotiate the ecclesiastical power structure as well as the Church’s role in the public domain in Greece.