Orthodoxy and the Formation of Greek National Identity

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe, analyse and explain the historical emergence of nationalism in Greece. Initially, and in accordance with the modernist approach, we will be arguing that the emergence of the nationalist phenomenon in Greece is inseparably linked with the objective conditions of modernity. The emergence of an educated Greek-speaking middle class, the development of trade and industry, and the diffusion of the liberal, secular and scientific spirit of the Enlightenment in the Greek peninsula, were instrumental factors for the construction of the idea of the nation. In that sense, the Greek nation- like every nation- is an historical and social construction, which emerges as a result of the fundamental split between the pre-modern and the modern.