Tag: Erdogan
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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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The Death of Secularism: Russia, Turkey, and Western Cluelessness
by Aristotle Papanikolaou | ελληνικά | ру́сский | српски “Secular” is a tricky word. Most associate it with “no religion,” “absence of religion,” or “decline of religion.” At one time, it was pretty much the consensus in the Western world that with increased modernization, which usually meant technological and scientific advancement, religion would no longer really be needed and […]
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Hagia Sophia and the Challenge of Religious Freedom
by George Demacopoulos | ελληνικά | српски Christian leaders and secular governments around the world have condemned, with good reason, the recent decision of a Turkish court to reconvert Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Indeed, this ruling is just the latest step in a century-long effort by the Turkish government to erase both the history […]
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The Hagia Sophia: A Museum or a Place of Worship?
by Thomas Bremer I categorically refuse to pay an entrance fee for a church, out of principle. When I was in Bratislava, and the Catholic cathedral charged a very small fee, I did not enter. When I returned to the wonderful Cathedral Church in Trogir, Croatia, two years ago, it was selling entrance tickets—so I […]