ABSTRACT
The impact of Karás’s teaching cannot be fully comprehended without placing it in the broader perspective of a renewal of interest in Orthodox theology within the church of Greece which, starting in the 1960s, peaked in the next decades. In this framework, and in the context of the turn to Orthodox values described above (p. 33), young people, often intellectuals with leftist leanings, developed an interest in Orthodox spirituality and monasticism. Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, became a popular destination for the 1970s youth seeking spiritual guidance, and saw its ranks of monks increase in number and educational level and decrease in average age (Ware 1983). Theorists and monks from the Holy Mountain spoke at universities, thus initiating public discussion. A student of Karás at the time, later involved in paradosiaká, recalls how they would rush off from chanting classes to attend such talks. The revival of Orthodox consciousness provided the Greek church with an opportunity to combat the popular alienation resulting from its accommodation with the dictatorship.1
