a public lecture by
Paschalis Michael Kitromilides
University of Athens
The lecture attempts first to outline the historical context within which the waves of nationalism reached the Orthodox Church in Southeastern Europe. It is pointed out that the encounter of the Orthodox Church with nationalism formed a part of a broader range of encounters with the ideologies of secularism. The first act of this drama was acted out in the encounter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the Enlightenment in the course of the eighteenth century. The Ecumenical Patriarchate faced the challenge of nationalism in its pastoral work in dealing with the emergence of national states in the Balkans, a development which posed serious problems of canon law for the Church. Nationalism also created serious problems for the Church in connection with the governance of the Orthodox community in the Ottoman empire in the age of Ottoman reforms. Finally nationalism caused serious complications in the traditional relations of the Church with the Ottoman state, once the new ideology was adopted under Sultan Abdul Hamid as a an efficient means of solidifying state power.
Paschalis M. Kitromilides is now Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens, Director of the Institute for Neohellenic Research at the National Hellenic Research Foundation and Secretary General of the Governing Board at the Centre for Asia Minor Studies. His research interests focus on the history of political thought and deal with issues of classical and modern political theory. He is concerned, more specifically, with the study of the Enlightenment and nationalism. His work includes a great number of articles published in academic journals and edited volumes. His latest works are: Eleftherios Venizelos. The Trials of Statesmanship (Edinburgh University Press, 2006); An Orthodox Commonwealth (Ashgate/Variorum 2007); Political Thinkers of the Modern Age [in Greek] (Sixth edition, Poreia, 2007); Adamantios Korais and the European Enlightenment (Voltaire Foundation, 2010).