ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between church and nation and more specifically the role of external threat perceptions in strengthening or weakening this relationship. It tests precondition 2, that is, that in cultural defence cases secularization is more likely if external threat perceptions decline. The chapter analyses two sets of perceived threats those emanating from the former Empire and Europe. It shows that decline in external threat perceptions weakens the relationship between church and nation in cultural defence cases. The collapse of communism and the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia have served to increase the sense of threat deriving from Greece's neighbours by significantly altering the country's Greece's geopolitical environment. The concept of territory in Irish nationalism has been significantly redefined since the Northern Ireland peace Agreement. The Northern Ireland peace process significantly improved relations between Ireland and Britain. In Greece, high external threat perceptions are reflected in a highly nationalistic narrative with Orthodoxy at its helm.
