Religious, National, European or Inter-Cultural Awareness: Religious Education as Cultural Battlefield in Greece

Abstract

Religious education (RE) is an interesting case study into ways of dealing with religious and cultural diversity in a society with a historical record of factual as well as imagined homogeneity. The analyses, in this chapter, of proposals for a new RE in a multi-religious society is primarily based on discussions regarding Europe's Christian heritage and Greece's European heritage. Questions of citizenship come to the fore in the debate as a discussion concerning the compulsory nature of RE. The debate over RE in Greece is a discussion where religious diversity and 'cultural identity' are highly at stake. The chapter approaches the debate from the point of view of Christian Orthodox theologians and secondary school religion teachers. The chapter discloses the strategies of the 'original' religious community in coping with the contested question of cultural identity and the place of religion in times of increasing pluralization and globalization. Keywords: Christian Orthodox theologians; cultural diversity; Europe's Christian heritage; globalization; Greece's European heritage; religious education (RE)