Serafim Seppälä

Temple of Non-Being

The presentation deals with a central memorial site in Jerevan, commemorating the genocide of Armenians in 1915, its aesthetic, historical and religious aspects. As a background, pilgrimages and holy places were an essential part of traditional Armenian culture before 1915. After the destruction of all the traditional structures of communal (religious) activity, however, even proper remembrance of what was lost was not possible (for political etc. reasons). Finally, the memorial complex Tsitsernakaberd was created in Soviet Armenia in 1960’s. The main question dealt with is thus: How does this Soviet era structure fulfill its role as a kind of substitute of hundreds of holy places and their memory?

Serafim Seppälä is Professor of Systematic Theology and Patristics at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu and an ordained monk and priest in the Orthodox Church of Finland. His broad research interests include Christians in the Middle East, Patristics, mysticism and spirituality within Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as religion and the arts, aesthetics and philosophy, and gender perspectives. He has published widely in Finish and English on these themes, including the books Armenian kansanmurhan perintö [The legacy if the Armenian Genocide] (2011), Kauneus. Jumalan kieli [Beauty. The Language of God] (2010) and Ikonin filosofia [The Philosophy of the Icon] (2014). Website: https://wiki.uef.fi/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=24284579