Abstract
This chapter analyzes the secular and the religious components of the Greek civil religion, as well as the basic features of the sponsored, by State and Church, civic religions of Greece up to 1974, the year the junta regime gave way to the Third Greek Republic, and new definitions of the nation and the political community. In all, it argues that the complex populism-collectivism, which characterizes Greek politics today, emerged during the junta regime (1967–1974), in the form of an authoritarian civic religion which glorified the authenticity of rural life, and the virtues of the ‘common folk’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
- 2.
As Bellah and Hammond argue (ibid.), nationalism is not necessarily a form of civil religion. Secular nationalism, such as the Mexican one, does not constitute a civil religion. To be so, nationalism needs to be organically attached to transcendental, religious, symbols, texts, and rituals.
- 3.
As Weber indicates, salvation is not to be found in all ethical religions. Confucianism, for example, certainly has a religious ethic, but it has not a need for salvation. The reluctance of post-war China to incorporate in its civic religion cultural-traumatic events, such as the Nanking massacre (Alexander and Gao 2007), which entail sacrifice with salvationist overtones, could be attributed to this propensity. Christianity, on the other hand, is deeply salvationist, and thus civil religions that appear in Christian countries are affected by, and incorporate, visions of salvation. See Hayes (1960, 164–167).
- 4.
For example, see a series of case studies in Harrison and Huntington (2001).
- 5.
The term was coined by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson (1935) to describe forms of self-destructive competitive social interactions; that societies can be stuck for a long time in a state where unity is broken, and yet the schismatic social components are forced to stay together, producing an unpleasant and violent existence.
- 6.
Interestingly enough, redemption is not part of this recurring discourse. It assumes that the Greek nation never sins. This is a crucial omission from the moral equation used in public discourses. We delve on this very crucial peculiarity at a later point.
- 7.
- 8.
See William McNeill (1978); also, Nikos Kalapothakos’ analysis of popular culture after WW II. https://jaj.gr/readings/%E1%BC%95nas-%E1%BC%A5ros-m%E1%BD%B2-panto%E1%BF%A6fles-1958-senario-skinothesia-%E1%BC%80lekos-sakellarios/.
- 9.
The presence of this fusion of civility and religiosity made itself visible during the police ID cards crisis in 2000 when millions of Greeks demonstrated against the political decision to remove the recordation of the citizens’ religious affiliation from them.
Bibliography
Alexander, Jeffrey C., and R. Gao. 2007. Remembrance of Things Past: Cultural Trauma, the ‘Nanking Massacre’ and Chinese Identity. In Tradition & Modernity: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Yan Shaodang et al., 266–294. Beijing: Peking University Press.
Bateson, Gregory. 1935. Culture Contact and Schismogenesis. Man 35 (December): 178–183.
Bellah, Robert, and Philip Hamond. 1980/2013. Varieties of Civil Religion. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Coleman, John. 1970. Civil Religion. Sociological Analysis 31 (2): 67–77.
Cristi, Marcela. 2001. From Civil to Political Religion: The Intersection of Culture, Religion and Politics. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Gazi, Efi. 2011. Fatherland, Religion, Family—A History of a Slogan [Πατρίς, Θρησκεία, Οικογένεια - Ιστορία ενός Συνθήματος]. Athens: Polis.
Harrison, Lawrence, and Samuel Huntington, eds. 2001. Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. London: Basic Books.
Hayes, Carlton. 1960. Nationalism: A Religion. New York: Macmillan.
Karamouzis, Polykarpos. 2009. Religion and Dominant Ideology in Modern Greek Society [Θρησκεία και κυρίαρχη ιδεολογία στη νεοελληνική κοινωνία]. Science and Society [Επιστήμη και Κοινωνία] 21: 83–102. https://doi.org/10.12681/sas.453.
McNeill, William. 1978. The Metamorphosis of Greece Since World War II. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Paparizos, Antonis. 2000. Enlightenment, Religion, and Tradition in Modern Greek Society. In Greek Political Culture Today [“Διαφωτισμός, Θρησκεία και Παράδοση στη Σύγχρονη Ελληνική Κοινωνία” στο Η Ελληνική Πολιτική Κουλτούρα Σήμερα], ed. Nikos Demertzis, 97–108. Athens: Odysseas.
Prevelakis, Nikolas. 2003. The Spirit of Greek Nationalism: The Greek Case in the Light of Greenfeld’s Conceptual Framework. 1st Ph.D. Symposium on Modern Greece, London School of Economics. http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/hellenicObservatory/pdf/1st_Symposium/N_Prevelakis_paper.pdf.
Ramfos, Stelios. 2011. Yearning for the One; Chapters in the Inner Life of the Greeks. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press.
Smith, Anthony. 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Taylor, Charles. 1989. Sources of the Self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Marangudakis, M. (2019). Civil Religions of a Secular Communitas. In: The Greek Crisis and Its Cultural Origins. Cultural Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13589-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13589-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13588-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13589-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)