ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the tension between these two broad conceptions of Orthodoxy the ethno-national and the theological seeking to identify elements of continuity and of change over time in how Orthodox Christian Greeks in America experience their faith and their churches in relation to their ethnic identity. It examines continuity and innovation in terms of the link between ethnicity and faith, Greekness and Orthodoxy, and how interlinked religion and ethnicity are for Greek Americans. The chapter examines the empirical research conducted with members of a Greek Orthodox Church parish in Memphis, Tennessee. The historical ethno-national divisions within the Christian Orthodox Church began especially with the national revolutions against the Ottoman Empire in the early nineteenth century, in conjunction with the French Revolution and the particular nationalism it spawned. Attitudes to the annual Greek fest' is a case in point: Greek identity is celebrated, cultivated and shared with the broader Memphis society.