The Orthodox Church of Greece: policies and challenges under Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens (1998-2008)

This article concentrates on the discourse on the 'return of the Church' which came to the forefront of public life in the late 1990s with the enthronement of Archbishop Christodoulos (1939-2008) as Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. His career will serve as a case-study of an attempted...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal for the study of the Christian church Vol. 10; no. 2-3; pp. 192 - 210
Main Authors Oulis, D., Makris, G., Roussos, S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 01.05.2010
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
autocephaly
Byzantium
Christodoulos (Archbishop)
Church-State relations
Culture
Greek civilization
Helleno-Christianity
Helleno-Orthodoxy
Ideology
nationalism
neo-puritanism
Populism
Religion & politics
Religious orthodoxy
Rhetoric
synallilia
Greece
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Summary:This article concentrates on the discourse on the 'return of the Church' which came to the forefront of public life in the late 1990s with the enthronement of Archbishop Christodoulos (1939-2008) as Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. His career will serve as a case-study of an attempted ecclesiastical resurrection, during a period of progressively conservative change in the mood and politics of Greek society. More specifically, the article will discuss (a) Christodoulos's specific understanding of Orthodoxy as a political and cultural tradition, (b) the rhetorical manipulation by which this 'Orthodoxy' discourse contributed to the further development and re-inscription of modern Greek national ideology, (c) Christodoulos's populist approach to the youth as an unprecedented kerygmatic trope and (d) his ambiguous attitude towards post-modernism that problematised the very identity of Eastern Orthodoxy.
ISSN:1474-225X
1747-0234
DOI:10.1080/1474225X.2010.490123