{"id":3082,"date":"2020-08-14T17:15:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T21:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/?p=3082"},"modified":"2020-08-14T17:15:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T21:15:14","slug":"hagia-sophia-cathedral-a-mosque-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/hagia-sophia-cathedral-a-mosque-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Hagia Sophia Cathedral – A Mosque Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Mosaic of the Virgin and Child, which is located on the half dome of the apse in the Hagia Sophia.<\/p><\/div>\n

The magnificent cathedral of Constantinople, completed during the reign of the Emperor Justinian I (483-565) and consecrated in 537 or 538, was dedicated to Jesus as \u201cHoly Wisdom\u201d (see 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:6-9). The Muslim encroachment upon the Byzantine Empire culminated with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The church was recognized as an architectural wonder and became a mosque until 1934. We recall that the Ottoman Empire disintegrated after World War I and under Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk\u2019s leadership, Turkey became a secular state. The Cathedral became a museum and later UNESCO declared it to be a World Heritage site.<\/p>\n

Although one might applaud the restoration of a place of worship to its purpose, the complications in this case are numerous! The<\/em> Wall Street Journal<\/em> of July 23, 2020 dedicated its weekly \u201cHouses of Worship\u201d<\/a> column to this event, under the title \u201cTurkey Retreats from Modernity.\u201d<\/a> On Friday, July 24th<\/sup>, the Journal\u2019s report by David Gauthier-Villars<\/a> includes the comments:<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning the site into a mosque again wouldn\u2019t compromise its complex cultural and religious identity, Mr. Erdogan has said. Orthodox Christians are unconvinced, including those in Russia and Greece, who revere the site\u2026 \u2018From our point of view, this decision violates the fragile interreligious and interconfessional balance that has been achieved in today\u2019s world,\u2019 said Metropolitan Hilarion, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> of July 24th<\/sup> presented a report by Carlotta Gall, \u201cErdogan Fulfills Cherished Goal, Opening Hagia Sophia to Prayers.\u201d <\/a>\u00a0This follows the editorial, \u201cThe Hagia Sophia Was a Cathedral, a Mosque and a Museum. It\u2019s Converting Again\u201d<\/a> on July 22nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

One might think that the return of a building to its purpose as place of worship would be greeted positively in the modern context of interfaith dialogue. However, in this case, Christians in Turkey and the world at large recall the tragic attacks on their lives and well-being from the 1800s until the end of World War I. Atrocities committed against the Armenian and Greek Christians by the Ottomans have not been acknowledged in Turkey, even as the crime of a past regime. The tiny Christian minority there today deserves the support of their brothers and sisters in faith. This expresses a principle enunciated by St. Paul: \u201cAs we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith\u201d (Galatians 6:10). We hope that the present decade and beyond will become a time when minority Christian communities will experience a deep sense of peace in their homeland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The magnificent cathedral of Constantinople, completed during the reign of the Emperor Justinian I (483-565) and consecrated in 537 or 538, was dedicated to Jesus as \u201cHoly Wisdom\u201d (see 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:6-9). The Muslim encroachment upon the Byzantine Empire … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sacred"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3082"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3090,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3082\/revisions\/3090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}