ABSTRACT
This chapter’s topic is among the most contested issues in social-scientific literature. Religion’s relationship to nationalism and the nation-state is multifaceted (Brubaker 2012). Orthodox Christianity is no exception. This chapter does not intend to offer an exhaustive account of this relationship or to describe in detail the precise nature of the entanglements between individual nation-states and Orthodox institutions. Space restrictions alone render such an attempt unrealistic. Instead, the chapter’s first section develops a theoretical approach that narrows the broad range of issues concerning the relationship between Orthodox Christianity and modern nationalism. It argues in favor of analyzing this relationship in terms of a model or blueprint. With the coming of the age of nationalism in the 19th century, Orthodox nation-states developed a modern synthesis of church and nation. The existence of this synthesis does not entail the endorsement of an “Orthodox exception” from broader European patterns. Most European states have articulated specific institutional frameworks for addressing the status of ecclesiastical institutions and faiths (Madeley and Enyedi 2003).
