ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the case of Greece and its particular socio-religious identity. The role of Greece, in explaining the variation that exists in the religious landscape, is of increased importance, given that it offers a more coherent view of the European situation. If Europe has been described as an exceptional case in the modern world with respect to its religious profile, Greece has repeatedly been characterized as the exception to the exception. According to the classical model of modernization, Greece's transition to modernity was never completely achieved. In contrast to the rigid model of exceptionalism, which excludes communication between the two poles of tradition and modernity, the notion of distinctiveness takes into account historical specificities in order to explain the controversies of Greece's modernizing trajectory. One of the key issues raised by this trajectory is the position and role of Orthodoxy in Greek society and, consequently, the relations between church and state, between church and nation.
