ABSTRACT
This chapter has focused on the ways in which the Church is portrayed through official state discourse with emphasis on the education system as the most important institution responsible for the promotion of national identity. It illustrates the inter-relation of the explanatory processes, that is, the extent to which the Church obstructs the modernization process and external threat perceptions by examining the role of the Church in the Greek and Irish education systems respectively. The chapter argues that the teaching of history in Greece is particularly ethnocentric and supports the official narrative put forward by the Church, that is, that Greek national identity is under severe threat and the Orthodox Church is pivotal for the survival of the Greek nation. The role of Catholicism is downplayed and reference to Catholic Priests or clergymen as ethno-martyrs is avoided, as is any support or promotion for partisan and denominational politics. Finally, the link between religion and the established Greek State was retained.
