Orthodox Church and Science Education Policy in Modern Greece
- 1 Department of Primary Education, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present the influence the Greek Orthodox Church has on matters of Education Policy in the Modern Greek state, especially on Science Education. Historically, since its foundation, the Greek state is closely linked to the Orthodox Church, which is the institution of orthodox Christianity, the official religious dogma of the Greek state as it is explicitly mentioned in the Greek Constitution. Since the foundation of the Modern Greek state, nearly two centuries ago, the Orthodox Church plays a key role in every aspect of general policy, and especially in educational policy. It is characteristic that religious affairs and education are governed by the same ministry, the Ministry of Education, Research and Religions, and orthodox priests are public employees enjoying the status of civil servants. Historically, this interlink of the Church with the State can be easily explained by the privileged relation the patriarch had with the sultan in the Ottoman empire, a status that continued to exist in a different form in the epoch of the Modern Greek state. Due to its privileged position in the state apparatus, the Orthodox Church and its multitude of official and unofficial organizations could control the educational policy and especially the national curriculum. This control is more obvious in science education. The aim of this paper is to present the influence the Greek Orthodox Church has on matters of secular education policy in the Modern Greek state, especially on the curriculum of natural sciences. Here, we don’t refer to the parallel secondary education system organized by the Church, which is another point of confrontation between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek state in several occasions.
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