Category: Religion and the Arts
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Woman of Peace, Temple of War
by Matthew J. Milliner The Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces was sprinkled with holy water by Patriarch Kirill in 2020, but that does not mean it is holy. It has forsaken the elegant curves of a traditional Russian dome to deliberately resemble nuclear missiles (which Russian priests have cheerily blessed). The classic two-dimensional […]
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Why Orthodox Art in Eastern Europe Matters
by Alice Isabella Sullivan and Maria Alessia Rossi | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски The Orthodox art of the predominantly Eastern Christian regions of Eastern Europe has much to offer, yet it has been relegated to the margins of inquiry. Outside of local communities and circles of academic specialists, […]
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Covid in the Prisons: The Ungrievable Neighbor
by Joni Zavitsanos | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Русский | Српски “Who is my neighbor?” This question, posed coyly by a slick lawyer looking for an easy answer, is most poetically answered by Christ in his parable of the Good Samaritan. The story involves a man who is robbed, beaten, and left for […]
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Anticipating Kassia’s Cosmic Hymn
by V.K. McCarty | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Русский | Српски In preparing to participate in the services leading to Pascha, a memorable element of the Liturgy for many of the faithful is the Hymn of St. Kassia (ca.810-ca. 865 CE), “Lord, the Woman Fallen into Many Sins.” It is remembered as a […]
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Contemporary Orthodox Fiction
by Katherine Kelaidis | ქართული | Ελληνικά | Русский | Српски The Brothers Karamazov is unarguably one of the greatest pieces of prose fiction ever written. It is also a distinctly Orthodox novel, that is to say a novel infused with the theology, customs, and culture of the Orthodox Church. Much of the work of […]
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The Meaning of Hagia Sophia: A Traveler’s Perspective
by Elizabeth Scott Tervo | Ελληνικά The church of Hagia Sophia was the preeminent monument of Christian architecture and an active church for almost a millennium until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, when the clergy and people were slaughtered as they celebrated their last Liturgy. Hagia Sophia was used as a mosque for Muslim […]
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George Seferis and the Freedom of Tradition
by Christopher Howell | ελληνικά “I belong to a small country,” said the great Greek poet George Seferis in his Nobel Prize winning speech in 1963. “It is small, but its tradition is immense.” As wrangling over the word “tradition” has become an idle pastime, particularly on that domain of debauchery known as social media, […]