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June 10th, 2013

Occupy Gezi, beyond the religious-secular cleavage

posted by Ateş Altınordu

Photo by Deniz DemirThe protests in Turkey started on May 27 with a modest resistance movement against the destruction of Istanbul’s Gezi Park and the planned construction, in its place, of a replica of the Ottoman artillery barracks that formerly stood there (which, however, was also to include a shopping mall). The Occupy Gezi movement has since grown exponentially and spread to other Turkish cities, largely in response to police brutality and to the inflammatory speeches of Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The unprecedented scope and duration of the protests—and, even more importantly, the emergent movement’s pluralistic composition and inclusive political style—make it a genuinely new phenomenon in the ninety-year history of the Republic.

Read Occupy Gezi, beyond the religious-secular cleavage
June 10th, 2013

An excursion through the partitions of Taksim Square

posted by Jeremy F. Walton

May 10th, 2013

The Vatican Spring?

posted by The Editors

March 5th, 2013

Prayer, imagination, and the voice of God—in global perspective

posted by Steven Barrie-Anthony

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June 10, 2013

An excursion through the partitions of Taksim Square

posted by Jeremy F. Walton

Untitled: by flickr user slavaTaksim Meydanı. Partition Square. Although it has taken on potent new resonances in recent days, the name of Istanbul’s throbbing central plaza commemorates a now-forgotten history, the function of the site during the Ottoman period as a point of distribution and “partition” of water lines from the north of the city to other districts. Already long the favored site of demonstrations in Istanbul, Taksim is now the scene of the largest anti-government protests in Turkish Republican history. And the name of the square speaks volumes—what better word than “partition” to describe the increasingly politicized cleavages that have defined Turkish public life over the past decade, finally achieving international reverberation with the current protests?

Read An excursion through the partitions of Taksim Square

Related: Occupy Gezi, beyond the religious-secular cleavage by Ateş Altinordu

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May 30, 2013

Ongoing Reverberations

posted by The Editors

"Pray": by flickr user electricnudeReverberations, the new digital forum on prayer produced in conjunction with the SSRC’s New Directions in the Study of Prayer (NDSP) initiative, continues to grow two months since its launch. Explore the unfurling multimedia portal curated by Anderson Blanton, “The Materiality of Prayer,” by watching Oral Roberts pray on TV; listening to songs at a Pentecostal church in Virginia; viewing some Catholic holy cards; and by reading about the “collapsing of physical distance through the performance of prayer.” Or spend some time understanding the intersubjective nature of Catholic prayer via Robert Orsi’s new portal, “Real Presences,” which has already garnered reflections from Jason C. Bivins, Timothy Matovina, Sarah M. Pike, and Ann Taves.

Visit Reverberations.

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