This book examines and compares, from an interdisciplinary perspective of Religious Studies and International Relations, the conduct and rhetoric of the Orthodox Churches of Greece and Cyprus vis-à-vis the ¿Europeanisation¿ process. This study focuses on the conditionality of their «sense of belonging» in the European Union (EU) as their predisposition is dependent, in part, on their sense of «being», as well as on their perception of an ideal type of Europeanness. In this context, this book offers insights on how the Greek and Cypriot Churches, as soft power actors of domestic and European capacity, perceive Europeanness and Otherness; thereby, the compatibility of the personified Greek and Cypriot states with the EU as a post-Westphalian political-cultural entity comes into view.

Georgios Trantas specialises in Religion, Politics and Cultural Diplomacy in Southeastern Europe. He has earned his Ph.D at the University of Erfurt where he has also been a pre-doctoral and post-doctoral Fellow. His academic interests also include migration and the formation of religioscapes.

Church Cultural Diplomacy - The Europeanness «Problématique» - State Personification - Articulation of «Being» and Political Culture - Post-Westphalian Readjustment - Debt-Crisis Initial Reactions - Identity Ark - Ethnarchy; Heterodefinition - Geocultural Politics