Today we visited the Patriarch Orthodox Church. This church was created in the 5th century shortly after their divide with the Roman Catholic Church. In Turkey during the Ottoman takeover, Mehemet the Conqueror showed a tolerance to them much more so than the Catholics. Three days after the Turks invasion, they were promised officially to be protected from exile from city. The current leader of the Orthodox, Barthelomeos, has lived there since 1991. Their leaders are not like the Pope who is bishop of Rome, where other bishops have obligation to him in a hierarchy; the patriarch of orthodox is first among equals, differential and honorable but other patriarchs are not selected by head patriarch.
Above the church door in the frieze, a fenaf, a double headed eagle, represents the Byzantium empire with one body but a state and religion for its head. The interior has gold mosaics like Hagia Sophia, as well as relics of saints, an ornate aconistasass, a christ ponta crater on ceiling, looking down. Very much unlike the Hagia Sophia, there are icons everywhere, acting not merely memorials but windows to find holiness of God. Interestingly, the Pope was here in 2014, showing effort to make relations by their shared compassion over loss of Christians lives in Middle East.
Then we went to the city walls of Istanbul, which were mostly destroyed and used to be surrounded by sea. The bottom part is 5th century from the Byzantium era, until it was rebuilt by ottomans after their conquest in 1453 and it was never again attacked. It has only been worn by time; now it is surrounded by local people growing goods and belongs to public. This is an interesting comparison with how they treat old buildings in Turkey vs. the U.S. privatizes everything.
Biblical Heritage (Genesis, Exodus, Psalms)
The search for a calling is mysterious a task as one can imagine; however, learning that your vocation is to execute something much bigger than yourself, even bigger than this worldly existence, does not make the path to its completion more obvious or even less treacherous. As Abraham is called to go to a foreign country to establish a nation of God, his devotion to following God wherever his calling takes him is what makes Abraham the paradigm of faith. Through acts such as trusting in God's ability to impregnate a barren Sarah and sacrificing Isaac, his hesitancy and struggling with God does not turn to doubt. The sacrifice of Isaac strikes us most astonishing as it can seem to the reader that God is breaking his promise to Abraham that his defendants will be multiplied by making him kill his only son. However, Abraham holds no such accusation, perhaps because of his trust in God's promise of the future or Isaac's readiness himself to be a sacrifice to God. These parallels to God's sacrifice of his only son, Jesus, let's the reader know that this is a compassionate God that would not charge His people with a task that he himself could not do. Abraham's ability to abide by God's word and God's halting of Abraham because of his readiness only begin to highlight the unique relationship God has with His people.
Social World I (Aeschylus' Agamemmnon)
The question of justice that is a streamline in our course this summer is breached first the 3 plays of Aeschylus. Although the first "injustice" is enacted by Clymenestra as she kills her husband, Agamemnon, this was in response to another killing that she found unjust: the sacrifice of Ephigenia by Agamemnon for favorable winds in the Trojan War. Let's suffice it to say that Agamemnon had some issues with prioritizing, blinded by his kingly duties to be strong in war and neglecting his familial duties to be a decent father who doesn't kill his children. It's easy to see where Clymenestra gets upset; however, this rage evolves as he brings home Cassandra as a war prize and her jealousy of his affections towards her grows. Although quite hypocritical, as she has also taken a suitor named Aegisthus (who's most likely only into her for her power and his hatred toward the House of Atrius), she murders both Agamemnon and Cassandra. This only turns into a cycle of revenge as we will see on the next two plays. Her character is important, however, to compare to another Greek war hero's wife, Odyssseus' Penelope. Both with types of suitors replacing the present kingship of their husbands, both present a type of cunning that is likened to men. Their difference lies in the perception of the men they're compared to, however, where Penelope is compared to her honorable husband and Clymenestra is compared to beasts. Both of their sons also provide an interesting parallel as they both fulfill heroic roles in avenging their fathers. This leads to a comparison of the war heroes and kings: Odysseus and Agamemnon, who although underwent the same war, had very different journeys back and very different homes they were returning to. They both won the Trojan War, but who was successful in the long run? Agamemnon certainly does not for the bill due to his bloody homecoming and faithless family unit.
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