Why Orthodoxy? Religion and Nationalism in Greek Political Culture

Abstract This paper is a contribution to the analysis of Helleno‐Christian nationalism in Greece. It seeks to investigate the reasons for the politicization of religion and the Church, to account for the production, development and propagation of religious nationalism and the sacralisation of politics in this country, and explain the paradoxical way in which the Greek Church was constructed as a nationalist political and cultural institution, while its canonical tradition, the Gospel, and its Byzantine past were inherently ecumenical in character. The aim of the article is to offer a coherent and convincing narrative about the political processes whereby the Helleno‐Christian ideology attained a hegemonic status in Greek political culture, and account for the present eminence of this prominent type of Greek nationalism, by ‘blending’ the theoretical frameworks of ethno‐symbolism and discourse theory.