Hellenic Polytheism in Contemporary Greece and the Symbolic Struggle over Identity

Vor­trag von Efs­tathios Kessar­eas im Rah­men der Mon­day-Lec­tures, die gemein­sam von Max-Weber-Kol­leg, Sem­i­nar für Reli­gion­swis­senschaft sowie dem The­ol­o­gis­chen Forschungskol­leg t³ The­olo­gie — Tra­di­tion — Trans­for­ma­tion ver­anstal­tet wer­den.

In this lec­ture I will first pro­vide a descrip­tion of the mul­ti-lay­ered scene of Hel­lenic poly­the­ism in con­tem­po­rary Greece, and of the social and his­tor­i­cal con­text of its for­ma­tion. Then I will focus on the hos­tile rela­tions between the fol­low­ers of the ancient Greek reli­gion, on the one hand, and the pro­duc­ers of offi­cial ide­ol­o­gy and the Ortho­dox Church on the oth­er hand, pay­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion (de)legitimization strate­gies employed by these reli­gious and ide­o­log­i­cal com­peti­tors. Final­ly, I will demon­strate and explain why their con­flict, rather than being lim­it­ed to reli­gious issues, is extend­ed to the def­i­n­i­tion of eth­no-cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty.