Investigating fundamentalist trends in the Orthodox Church of Greece: Balancing between traditionalism and fundamentalism

The purpose of this article is to investigate trends and variations of fundamentalism in the Orthodox Church of Greece. In order to achieve this, the article analyses discourses and practices of the Orthodox Church of Greece since the restoration of democracy in 1974. The main argument is that the church, as an institution, produces public discourses and adopts practices with regard to modernity, more specifically on social, political, moral and scientific issues, using both modernity and tradition in order to strengthen its place in Greek society. The church, also, tries to establish an official response to the gradual marginalisation of religion both at the political and social levels, through moral dualism and strict behavioural requirements; perceiving sacred texts in an absolute and inerrant way; and creating sharp boundaries between Greek Orthodoxy and other religious communities, non-religious groups and the West, leading this way to the establishment of an elect membership through superiority. The main outcome is that the Orthodox Church of Greece is primarily a traditionalist institution, but it also meets a great number of the fundamentalist characteristics responding this way to the privatisation and marginalisation of religion in Greek society.