Greek Orthodox Church Research Articles

‘Religion is the Opium of the People’: An FDA Analysis on the Construction of Religion by Young Greek Adults

This study examines the discourses constructed around religion in Greek society, focusing on the transition from conservative religious beliefs prevailing in micro societies to a more accepting discourse at the macro societal level. The research employs a qualitative approach, specifically utilizing Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) on 7 interviews of young Greek adults, to explore the evolving landscape in Greece and the power dynamics of religion influenced by education, social interaction, and relevant discourses, resulting in a diminished influence of religion over time. The findings reveal the presence of tolerance towards religious diversity, challenging the traditional conservative discourse, which is characterized by strict adherence to Orthodox religious practices and resistance to religious pluralism, while also highlighting the declining power of religion. The study demonstrates how individuals aligning with the acceptive discourse value their own religious beliefs while fostering co-existence with individuals of different religious groups, without being heavily influenced by the church. Notably, younger generations, shaped by an era emphasizing social interaction, exhibit a stronger alignment with this discourse. By illuminating the shaping of identities and orienting actions within these discourses, this research contributes to the understanding of religion in Greek society. It underscores the significance of religion as a subject warranting ongoing scholarly attention and highlights the need for future research to explore the complexities of religious beliefs and discourses across the country using varied methodological approaches. Keywords: Greek society, Greek Orthodox church, discourse analysis, conservative beliefs, religious tolerance, social interaction, power dynamics

Comparing the Past and Present Traces of Cultural Assets with the Reference of Literature and Architecture Arts to Each Other: Milas Greek Orthodox Church and Its Surroundings in Resat Nuri Güntekin s Novel Ateş Gecesi (Night of Fire)

Milas district, located in the province of Muğla, is a rich settlement in terms of historical and cultural monuments. Among the mentioned monuments in the settlement, especially religious monuments exhibit a great diversity and cover a wide range of historical periods. This diversity and historical range are directly related to cultural and religious communities that have lived in the region. However, some religious monuments in the district are disappearing or losing their architectural identities to a great extent due to reasons such as lack of preservation awareness, property issues, and neglect by users. One of the most important religious monuments that has largely lost its architectural identity in the Milas district is the Milas Greek Orthodox Church. This monument holds significant importance in Milas's cultural and religious inventory. The monument and its surroundings are also described in some parts of the plots in terms of some architectural features in Reşat Nuri Güntekin's novel Ateş Gecesi (Night of Fire), which was serialized in Yedigün Magazine in 1940 and published as a book in 1942. Although it has largely lost its architectural identity today, the Milas Greek Orthodox Church is still frequently mentioned in local legends, city memories, place and location names, and city literature, as can be seen in the pages of the "Ateş Gecesi" novel. The study aims to document and evaluate the changes that the Milas Greek Orthodox Church and its surroundings have undergone from past to present in the light of the "Ateş Gecesi" novel. The study was conducted in three stages, which involved examining the spatial and architectural descriptions mentioned in the Ateş Gecesi Novel, focusing on the narratives related to the Milas Greek Orthodox Church and its surroundings, and documenting and evaluating the current conditions of the spatial and architectural descriptions mentioned in the focused narratives. As a result of the study, it was determined that the Milas Rum Orthodox Church and its surroundings had largely lost their architectural identity over approximately a century, from the time the novel was written to the present day. However, within the interior space of the church structure, many elements related to the original architectural identity are still present. In contrast, it is considered that the outer walls, garden arrangement, and boundaries of the structure have lost their original qualities. It was also found that very few examples of traditional residential buildings that constitute the regional context have survived to the present day. In addition to its cultural and religious identity, the Milas Rum Orthodox Church necessitates the development of a comprehensive architectural conservation approach for its historical and archaeological context, monument, and immediate surroundings. Therefore, it is considered crucial to plan the region between the Milas Rum Orthodox Church and Milas Kartal Gazinosu, taking into account the Çaputçu Han section, with a comprehensive conservation approach.

Low Complexity Deep Learning Framework for Greek Orthodox Church Hymns Classification

The Byzantine religious tradition includes Greek Orthodox Church hymns, which significantly differ from other cultures’ religious music. Since the deep learning revolution, audio and music signal processing are often approached as computer vision problems. This work trains from scratch three different novel convolutional neural networks on a hymns dataset to perform hymns classification for mobile applications. The audio data are first transformed into Mel-spectrograms and then fed as input to the model. To study in more detail our models’ performance, two state-of-the-art (SOTA) deep learning models were trained on the same dataset. Our approach outperforms the SOTA models both in terms of accuracy and their characteristics. Additional statistical analysis was conducted to validate the results obtained.

Holy Communion in Greek Orthodoxy in the Time of Coronavirus: Ideological Perspectives in Conflict

This article examines the controversy over the mode of distribution of Holy Communion that surfaced during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on debates that took place in the Greek Orthodox community. After describing and evaluating the role of secular and religious experts in the context of the pandemic, the paper analyzes three main perspectives on the issue of the Eucharist: (1) the secularist-rationalist viewpoint; (2) the religious–traditionalist outlook; and (3) the “Third Way” perspective. The paper argues that the Church’s Holy Communion controversy is indicative of a deeper struggle between religious and secular thinkers and among various voices in the Greek Orthodox Church concerning the latter’s place in, and influence over, the modern secular socio-political order.

Two Danish Artists—Two Not So Divergent Paths: C. C. A. Christensen, Carl Bloch, and the Evolution of Latter-day Saint Art and Aesthetics

Two Danish Artists—Two Not So Divergent Paths: C. C. A. Christensen, Carl Bloch, and the Evolution of Latter-day Saint Art and Aesthetics

The Greek Military Dictatorship: Revisiting a Troubled Past, 1967–1974 by Othon Anastasakis and Katerina Lagos, eds.

<i>The Greek Military Dictatorship: Revisiting a Troubled Past, 1967–1974</i> by Othon Anastasakis and Katerina Lagos, eds.

Greek Orthodox.

There are approximately 300 million members of the Greek Orthodox Church worldwide. It is the second-largest Christian church. Followers of this religion believe in eternal life. Thus, the church strongly emphasizes a positive outcome in death- "the deceased is alive with God." God is believed to be the healer of our souls and bodies, which is facilitated through prayer and participation in the life of the Church. Traditional medical interventions are generally accepted. Artificial life support is justifiable only when it offers a hope for meaningful recovery. Just as death should not be hastened, the natural dying process should not be prolonged. Timely advance care planning and early treatment goals discussions to help understand how the patient would define quality of life is paramount to setting limitations on what could be considered as nonbeneficial care. The medical team should not assume that all patients of the Greek Orthodox faith will feel the same around end-of-life beliefs and practices. This chapter aims to identify common themes and the historical contextual framework that may influence the way in which medical decision making is made by those who specifically subscribe to the Greek Orthodox faith.

The Presence of Christ in the Eucharist κατ' οὐσίαν. On the interpretation and the source of a fragment from the Homily of George Scholarios and its impact on the Eucharistic doctrine of the Greek Orthodox Church

The Homily On the mystical body of our Lord Jesus Christ by George Gennadios II — Scholarios (ca. 1400 — paulo post 1472) was the first original Orthodox theological text to use the word μετουσίωσις (transubstantiatio) as an ex professo Eucharistic term and to adopt the doctrine associated with it. In this paper I propose a new reading of the fragment, in which Scholarios writes that God communicates with the faithful in the Eucharist by substance (κατ’ οὐσίαν). I argue that this fragment was a paraphrase of the third paragraph of chapter 61, book four of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa contra gentiles and should not be interpreted in the context of Palamite theology as has been proposed hitherto. I find support for my case in the manuscript Taurinensis XXIII (C-II-16), a compilation encouraged by Scholarios in 1432 and which contained the translation of the Summa contra gentiles by Demetrios Kydones. In addition, I outline the post Scholarium history of the expression κατ’οὐσίαν (secundum substantiam), which played a key role for the later development of the Eucharistic doctrine of the Orthodox Church in the post-Byzantine period.

Evidence of Dominican Imagery and Cultural Identities on Venetian Crete at the Time of the Revolt of St Titus

Abstract Current discourse on Latin imagery in rural Greek churches in Venetian Crete is habitually focused on images of St Francis. The explanations offered by scholars concerning his appearances in this context usually revolve around Francis’s perceived interconfessional appeal, but the introduction of another Latin saint from a different mendicant order into the monumental art of Byzantine character on Crete revises this picture significantly. The present article discusses images of Dominican saints found in Cretan churches of the Venetian period. With statutes promulgated in 1254 and 1256, the General Chapter of the Dominicans encouraged the veneration of Dominican saints through the dissemination of their images, and the representation of St Peter Martyr in his eponymous church in Candia clearly constitutes a visual testimony to this policy. At the same time, the portrait of St Peter Martyr in the Greek (Orthodox) church of St George in the village of Apostoloi in Pediada (in the wider Candia region) provides grounds for a discussion of cultural difference in Venetian Crete, as well as for the interaction between the Latin and Greek communities around the time of the revolt of St Titus. In my view, this representation, which is currently the only known example in a Greek church, should be re-examined in light of the prominent Venetian presence in the aforementioned region and the specificity of the local context.

Antioch's Last Heirs: The Hatay Greek Orthodox Community between Greece, Syria and Turkey

This study explores the identity dynamics of the Arabic-speaking Greek Orthodox community of the Hatay province of Turkey. Citizens of Turkey, members of the Greek Orthodox church and Arabic speakers, members of this small but historic community stood at the crossroads of three nationalisms: Greek, Syrian and Turkish. Following the urbanization waves that swept through the Turkish countryside since the 1950s, thousands of Hatay Greek Orthodox moved to Istanbul and were given the chance to integrate with the Greek minority there. The case of the Hatay Greek Orthodox community points to the resilience of millet-based identities, more than a century after the demise of the Ottoman Empire.

The Impossible Reformation: Protestant Europe and the Greek Orthodox Church

Abstract This article identifies one of the great but unstudied paradoxes in the history of early modern global Christianity: that the stronger the desire for a uniform Christian way of life burned, the deeper the fractures between different Christian denominations began to grow. It explores this issue by examining the learned exchanges between the infamous Greek Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris (1572–1638) and members of the Dutch Reformed Church. These efforts have often been seen as an expression of Christian ecumenism or as evidence that the early modern Middle East had become yet another arena for Catholic–Protestant rivalry. But once motivations on both sides are placed in the distinctly local religious climate that fostered them neither of these explanatory paradigms suffices. On the contrary: a decentred approach to this material reveals how Protestant and Eastern Christian understandings of what reform meant and how it could be attained were completely distinct and irreconcilable. It is thus imperative to resist any simple application to Middle Eastern Christianity of categories rooted in European Christian traditions and, instead, to tease out how different Christian denominations defined reform differently. Only then can we make good on our commitment to approach early modern global Christianity as a pluriform and multi-centred phenomenon.

Greek National Prevention Program for Thalassemia and Other Hemoglobinopathies and Contemporary Bioethical Reflections. The Experience of Northern Greece

Hemoglobinopathies constitute the most frequent monogenic disorders worldwide and are caused by gene mutations that affect the synthesis of the normal hemoglobin chains or contribute to structural changes of the Hb molecule. In Greece hemoglobinopathies are the most frequent genetic diseases and the Greek National Prevention Program for Thalassemia and other Hemoglobinopathies is the most typical international example of a voluntary prevention screening program. During a 20-year study period, gene interactions in 437 pregnancies were related with risk of β-thal major, sickle cell disease and Hb Bart’s hydrops fetalis. 437 prenatal diagnoses were performed and (22.2%, N=97) fetuses were homozygotes or compound heterozygotes for clinically significant mutations. The couples were informed of all the currently available therapeutic approaches for β-TM or sickle cell disease. The decision for the termination or continuation of the pregnancy was left to parental choice and the termination of the pregnancy was generally accepted and 91 from 97 affected pregnancies were terminated. The “success” of a prevention program depends on the commitment and the will of the governments, the consolidation of strong educational campaigns, the continuing public education and health professional awareness, the existence of reliable laboratories. Greek National Bioethics &amp; Techno ethics Committee gives a framework about the bioethical questions arising as well as the “Bio laws” in the Greek constitution. In our constitution the availability of prenatal diagnosis, the social bioethical framework as expressed by the National Bioethics committee, the contemporary role of religion in public life (Greek Orthodox Church less influential) and the existing legal frame of the termination of pregnancy in cases of severe hemoglobinopathies contributed to the success of the Prevention programme.

"Yazijioghlu 'Ali on the Christian Turks of the Dobruja''

In this study, Paul Wittek explained how the Gagauz community left Anatolia and settled in Dobruca based on historical resources. Dobruja was the homeland of the Gagauz community, who were Turkish-speaking Christians belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church. Gagauz community was defined as a separate group among Turks because of their religion. Wittek explains the origin of the Gagauz and their conversion to Christianity by using the Ibn Bibi’s sources which contain the history of XIII. Century, and the Seljuk-name of Yazicioglu Ali as a reference; he supports them with Byzantine and Islamic chronicles.

Alison G. Salvesen and Timothy Michael Law, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint

Alison G. Salvesen and Timothy Michael Law, eds. <i>The Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint</i>

Tox and Detox

Tox and Detox

Sweet Greeks: First-Generation Immigrant Confectioners in the Heartland

Before reading this book, I mistakenly believed that the author was writing a family hagiography. A self-described “independent scholar,” I assumed that Ann Flesor Beck would not be up to the task of writing a well-documented, researched, and quality study of successful Greek immigrant confectioners to small-town central Illinois during the early twentieth century. I could not have been more wrong. Clearly, Beck has done her research, as evidenced by the fifty-six pages of notes and thirty-one-page bibliography, which includes many prominent immigration historians. She effectively uses a rarely explored rural niche to broadly discuss Greek immigration. As part of the Heartland Foodways series on “midwestern food traditions and practices” (p. ii), this book encourages the reader to investigate their other seven offerings.The first five chapters present an appropriate background for the following three that cover local Illinois history. Within those beginning chapters, Beck captures the essence of Greek immigration by discussing Greek history and geography, the reasons for leaving the homeland, the importance of the Greek Orthodox Church, the negative reception endured by southern Europeans in the United States, “Americanization,” and the initial immersion in an urban environment. By reviewing only arrival in Chicago and St. Louis, the way stations en route to central Illinois, Beck successfully traces the history of many Greek immigrants that acquired capital by laboring in those respective cities to eventually begin businesses in rural areas. This introductory portion also encompasses many well-known immigrant experiences including chain and circular migration, places such as Hull House in Chicago, and “padrones” like those included in Gunther Peck's Reinventing Free Labor.The fifth chapter, “Greeks vs. Goblins,” presents a comprehensive history of the Ku Klux Klan and particularly the organization's impact in central Illinois. Beck adeptly characterizes the Klan by emphasizing the “ordinariness” of members within small-town communities. Klan believers dominated many of these small towns throughout the Midwest by capitalizing on fraternal interest as well as the “100-percent Americanism” ideology that emanated during the post–World War I era in reaction to “foreign” peoples and ideas. Resultingly, many Greeks suffered discrimination, but others were able to withstand this offensive by becoming viable economic and social members of the community.The final three chapters provide detailed information about Beck's grandfather, the originator of the family confectionery in Tuscola, Illinois, in addition to a thorough review of both small cities and towns in the central portion of the state. Although the depth of reporting through the use of personal interviews, publications, census and draft records is impressive, it is also exhausting and confusing due to the overlapping of communities and families. Beck has compiled a wealth of information, but a more focused approach on a few personalities and less speculation may have made for a more readable book. Nonetheless, Greek migration to small-town America is the most original and important aspect of Beck's study.While Beck and her sister appear to have successfully rejuvenated the family business in Tuscola after a thirty-year absence, this is not the case in most small towns across the Midwest, if not the United States. Growing up in a northern Illinois small town and working in retail management from the 1970s to the early 2000s, I have personally witnessed this demise many times over. While opening stores and malls during the 1980s and 1990s, I observed downtown businesses similar to Beck's in Tuscola pay the price of “progress.” Moreover, just as Beck is encouraged that this dynamic may be changing with the advent of more emphasis on local economies during the last two decades, I concur based on movements generated by “farm-to-table” restaurants and other local initiatives. Beck mentioned that some of this localism resulted due to fears associated with 9/11; perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic and fears of urban unrest will add to this anxiety as people return to their hometowns in rural communities.

Wittenberg and Byzantium: Lutheran Incentives to Correspond with the Patriarch of Constantinople (1573–1581)

Since the publications of Ernst Benz's Wittenberg und Byzanz (1971) and Dorothea Wendebourg's Reformation und Orthodoxie (1986), the late sixteenth‐century correspondence between the Greek Orthodox Church and Lutheran theologians from Tübingen has become more popular in historical and ecumenical scholarship. Accordingly, this article primarily builds upon the research of Wendebourg, Asaph Ben‐Tov, and Richard A. Calis. arguing that three interlocking incentives drove the Lutherans to engage formally with the Patriarch of Constantinople from 1573 to 1581. First, Lutheran interest began with Martin Luther's polemic with Rome and grew with his comrade Philip Melanchthon. Second, within the context of the unitive efforts of Jakob Andreae and the Formula Concordiae (1577), the Lutheran theologians earnestly sought to promote their theological convictions while equally desiring to gain the Eastern Church as an ally. And finally, the correspondence provided a sub‐context for Martin Crusius, arguably the most important Lutheran correspondent, to advance his knowledge of the Greek language and culture. Crusius's interests, while remaining thoroughly Lutheran, allowed him to keep a cordial disposition throughout, and even beyond, the correspondence. Such an irenical bent was critical to maintaining a line of communication between these two Christian traditions which substantially disagreed on various doctrinal matters.

Greek Tragedy or Gestation Period: Future of the Modern Church in Greece

Greek Tragedy or Gestation Period: Future of the Modern Church in Greece

The Cypriot Affect: the first Pride Parade in Cyprus and the Queering of Cypriot Culture

In May 2014 the first ever Gay Pride Parade was held with tremendous success in Cyprus, a society that is still by-and-large very conservative. At the same time, in an adjacent street, the powerhouse that is the Greek Orthodox Church, organised a counter-parade comprising of far-right individuals, nuns and priests which, both in terms of numbers and influence, failed spectacularly. This paradox spurred a wave of analyses and examination of the way in which Cypriot society and culture seem to be changing until today, 7 years later, engaged as it would seem in a queering process, as well as on issues such as gay activism and civil partnership. My article analyses the ways in which the Parade’s expressed queer desire and the participants’ performativity starting in 2014, gesture towards a significant socio-political change in Cyprus. This analysis is largely based on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of desire as a machine that generates reality, as I approach the Parade’s “queerness” as an expression of Cypriot society’s polyvalent socio-political manifestations which intentionally include the disenfranchised and provide new answers to questions of belonging. It is ultimately argued that, the way in which performative imagination seems to be able to generate reality, gestures towards a better understanding of the weak points of a dominant structure, becoming thus much more influential than the way in which Michel Foucault understands the notion of “power”. In other words, that the participants’ actions, choices and played-out desires lead to a final, dual performance that is the Parade and the counter-parade on the “stage” that is Cyprus. The Parade’s cultural performativity then, can be read as a site of vital performances, a kind of Bakhtinian carnivalesque that can lead to an understanding of a new socio-political identity which entails hope for the future. Thus, the dynamics of non-heteronormative sexual identities in Cyprus and their political potentials are explored vis-à-vis their capacity to interrogate hegemonic discourses, all of which gestures towards the queering of Cypriot culture.

What Does Theology, Actually, Do? The Interpretation of the Bible in the East in the Life of the Greek Orthodox Church: An Overview of Current Status — Tomorrow’s Prospects

What Does Theology, Actually, Do? The Interpretation of the Bible in the East in the Life of the Greek Orthodox Church: An Overview of Current Status — Tomorrow’s Prospects