HERCULES MOSKOFF THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE PhD THESIS CHURCH, STATE, AND POLITICAL CULTURE IN GREECE SINCE 1974: SECULARISATION, DEMOCRATISATION, WESTERNISATION 1 UMI Number: U194730 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U194730 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 *1ayrfM B S. I LiDfBty British UDfMy 111 Political ana Economic Scieno ABSTRACT This thesis explores the relationship between religion and politics in contemporary (post-1974) Greece, and the implications of this relationship for the secularisation, democratisation, and westernisation of Greek society. In Part One, the thesis uses an institutional and historical analysis of Church-State relations to explain how tensions and contradictions rooted in earlier historical experiences have paved the way for relations between Church, State, and political culture since 1974. Part Two presents three case studies of contemporary Church- related movements that have affected both relations between Church and State and today’s Greek political culture generally. Overall, the thesis will explore the major connections between the Greek-Orthodox Church and the political establishment, and determine to what degree they are affecting the process of modernisation. The main problems highlighted are: (a) the secularisation of Greek society and politics, and the ability of the Greek-Orthodox Church to resist or influence this process, especially within the context of the secularising policies of the government, Church-State separation, the contemporary resurgence of religion in public life; (b) the implications of Church-State separation for the democratisation process in Greece. The role of Orthodoxy in Greek politics is explored with the focus on foreign affairs, especially concerning the so-called “national issues” within the context of the modem Greek cultural and religious identity; c) the attitude of the Greek-Orthodox Church and its off-shoot movements towards westernisation, EU integration, and the increasing globalisation of the contemporary world. The main conclusions of the thesis concern the ability of the Greek- Orthodox Church to influence government attempts at secularisation, as well as those Eurocentric modernisation efforts that conflict with the deep nationalistic undercurrents of Greek society. In addition, future research areas of investigation in Greek political culture will be identified, mainly in the direction of a more systematic study of what seems to constitute the essence of Greek political culture, as well as of a more thorough analysis of the role of religion within that culture. 2 Contents Introduction 6 1. The Historical Background 27 1.1 Introduction 28 1.2 The Roman Era, the Great Schism, and Byzantine Hellenism (313-1453) 28 1.3 Ottoman Occupation and the Emergence of Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment (1453-1821) 34 1.4 Church-State Relations in the Byzantine and Ottoman Periods 37 1.4.1 The Byzantine Symphonia System 37 1.4.2 The Ottoman Millet System 39 1.5 Westernisation and the Greek Enlightenment 40 1.5.1 The 19th Century 45 1.6 Church-State Relations since the Foundation of the Greek State: The Constitutional Period (1821-1974) 50 1.6.1 The 20th Century 52 1.7 Summary 56 PART ONE: CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS: Secularisation, Democratisation and Westernisation 60 2. Church-State Relations 1981-1998 61 2.1 The 1975 Constitution 62 2.2 Church-State Relations 1981-1985 70 2.2.1 The Socialisation/Nationalisation of Monastic Properties, and PAS OK’s Dual Religious Strategy 71 2.2.2 Secularisation of the Civil Code and the National Education System 72 2.3 Church State Relations 1985-1989 75 2.3.1 The Conflict over Law NS 1700 76 2.3.2 NS 1700 and Democratisation 79 2.3.3 Open-ended Questions for the 1990s 83 2.4 The Situation in the 1990s 89 2.4.1 Historical and Theoretical Perspectives 89 2.4.2 The Fate of NS 1700 97 2.4.3 Democratisation I: Church-State Separation through Constitutional Amendments 100 2.4.4 Democratisation I I : State Interference in Church Affairs, and Church Interference in Politics (the Ieronymite Conflict) 102 2.4.5 The Westernisation dilemma: Church and State Relations, Secularisation, and EU Integration 107 2.5 Summary 112 3 3. The End of Serapheim’s Legacy, and the New Archbishop Christodoulos 114 3.1 From Serapheim to Christodoulos 115 3.1.1 The Election 117 3.1.2 The New Archbishop 121 3.2 Democratisation, Secularisation, and Church-State Separation 124 3.2.1 The Political Debate 124 3.2.2 The Intellectual Debate 133 3.2.3 Financial Issues 136 3.2.4 Education 139 3.3 Secularisation and the Westernisation Dilemma: Religious Pluralism and EU Integration 141 3.4 Christodoulos and Cultural Populism 153 3.5 Summary 160 PART TWO: RELIGION, POLITICS AND CULTURE: Three Case Studies 162 4 Aspects of Orthodox Fundamentalism in Contemporary Greek Political Culture 163 4.1 Historical and Theoretical Perspectives 165 4.1.1 The Origins and Basic Characteristics o f Fundamentalist Brotherhoods in Contemporary Greece 165 4.1.2 Ideological and Political Considerations 168 4.1.3 Zoe and the Junta 171 4.2 Secularisation, Democratisation and Civil Society 175 4.2.1 Secularisation: Bishop Kantiotis, the Schengen Agreement, and the Antichrist 175 4.2.2 Fundamentalism and Democratisation: Church- State Relations and the Rotonda Affair 181 4.2.3 Anti-ecumenism, Chauvinistic Nationalism, and Xenophobia 186 4.3 The Impact of Fundamentalism on Contemporary Politics 191 4.3.1 Fundamentalism and the New Greek Right 191 4.3.2 LAOS and Karatzaferis the Greek Haider? 194 4.3.3 Fundamentalism and the New Archbishop 196 5 The Neo-Orthodox Movement 199 5.1 Historical and Theoretical Perspectives 200 5.1.1 The Generation of the 1930’s, and the Origins ofNeo-Orthodoxy 200 5.1.2 Intellectual personalities and Basic Conceptualisations 203 5.1.3 Neo-Orthodoxy and Political Culture: From Marxism to Patriotism 210 5.2 Orthodoxy Versus a Supra-National Culture 213 5.2.1 Ethnic Identity and Politics 213 5.2.2 Neo-Orthodoxy and Huntington’s Civilisation Paradigm 217 5.2.3 Neo-Orthodoxy and Human Rights 220 5.3 Neo-Orthodoxy as a Patriotic Political Intervention 226 5.3.1 Network 21 and Civil-Society Politics 227 4 5.3.2 Neo-Orthodoxy and Socialism: PASOK’s Patriotic Faction, Charalambidis’ New Party, “Orthodox” Communists, and the “Red” Archbishop 234 6 The Orthodox Academy of Crete 246 6.1 General Profile and Dempartments (EYC, ITE) 247 6.2 The OAC and Democratisation 252 6.3 The OAC and Secularisation 263 6.4 The OAC and European Integration 265 6.5 The Theological Dimension 270 6.6 Biographical and Autobiographical Notes on Three Orthodox Leaders 274 7 Conclusion: Greek Orthodox Political Culture and Modernity 283 7.1 Concice Comparison of Part I and Part II 285 7.2 The Secularisation Thesis in the Greek Context 288 7.3 Democratisation, Westernisation and Modernisation 290 7.4 The “Civilisation Paradigm” in the Greek Context 292 7.5 Proposals for Future Research 298 List o f A bbreviations 307 Bibliography 308 Historical Timeline 318 Map o f Greece 321 5 Introduction Today’s resurgence of religion in Greece’s political culture is a phenomenon with far-reaching consequences. The concept of political culture is here identified with the growing interest in the irrational character of political systems - essentially, the role of the unconscious in politics to the detriment of reason. Political culture is used as a conceptual tool so as to enhance our understanding of important but little explored aspects of both western and non-western political systems focused on values, symbols, and beliefs. Forces as distinctive as the recrudescence of Islamic fundamentalism and Orthodox nationalism have shaped the politics of developing or recently emerged countries. The pervasive vitality and dynamism of religion in the constitution of political culture has created a new challenge for sociologists trying to understand the affinity between religion and political transformation, and for politicians attempting to manage the tension and turmoil around this dynamic affinity. Changes in the conceptualisation of both religion and politics have generated a renewed interest in the meaning of secularisation and modernisation, the sacred and profane sources that inform and articulate national culture, and the impact of the interpenetration of the religious and political spheres on social change. This thesis will explore how the integration of political culture and religion, specifically Eastern-Orthodox Christianity, has affected the modernisation process in post-1974 Greece. Despite the widespread resurgence of nationalist politics and religiously defined conflicts in the Balkans since the end of the Cold War, Eastern Christianity has remained terra incognita in most analyses dealing with social change. The region is simply relegated to the category of late-developers with few prospects for successful democratic modernisation. Both US and EU policy making institutions have largely ignored the possibly constructive ways in which the Orthodox Churches might contribute to democratic modernisation, and use a pejorative discourse that explains the putative non-European nature of the Balkan societies in terms of the Byzantine Orthodox legacy, which is considered an inherently non-democratic religious tradition. This hypothesis is analysed and tested throughout the thesis in terms of both its theoretical presuppositions and empirical reality.