We are launching the first guest lecture of the HIEROTOPOI Lecture Series!! We are very excited about beginning the series with this marvellous scholar and his fascinating research on Dion. Do not miss it!! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 14h ago

🏛️ How did the natural landscape shape the sacred heart of the ancient Macedonian kingdom? Join us to kick off the #HierotopoiProject Lecture Series with Diego Chapinal-Heras (UAM, Spain)! 🗓️ Sept 14, 2026 📍 Hybrid (Vienna & Zoom) 🧵👇

Chapter 7 of the #HierotopoiLibrary is here, just in time for the August heat! 📚💧 Today we dive into the sacred waters of antiquity with Celeste Ray’s "Sacred Waters: A Cross-Cultural Compendium of Hallowed Springs and Holy Wells" (2020). Why was water so central to sacred spaces? 🧵👇

So excited about this! An excellent opportunity to present and discuss the ideas behind 'Relational Atheism' with @ishash.bsky.social All the details about the online webinar here 👇:

ISHASH@ishash.bsky.social · 6d ago

For our next webinar we’ll be hosting @rsoneira.bsky.social who will share insights from new book ‘Relational Atheism: Studying Unbelief in Ancient Greece’ on Wed 7 October. Save the date! atheismsecularismhumanism.wordpress.com/seminars/

🏛️ A secret women's sanctuary 200m underground? At Cova de les Dones (Valencia), archaeologists discovered a Roman temple with 120 female inscriptions dedicated to a forgotten goddess: Malaci, the Lady. @oeai.bsky.social @fwf-at.bsky.social Let's explore this underground sacred space! 🧵👇

🎉 Celebrating a major publication! Two of our HIEROTOPOI team members, María Cruz Cardete del Olmo (Co-editor/Author) & David Sierra Rodríguez (Author), have contributed to the newly released 'Pobreza, marginación y exclusión en la Antigüedad clásica'. 🏛️📖

This finding was truly fascinating. A possible cult of Odysseus in Ithaca during the Hellenistic period? 🤔 👇👇

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 3w ago

🎬 Did Nolan’s new film leave you wanting more of the Odyssey? Homer’s epic functioned as a map to real sacred spaces. Let's explore the physical locations where ancient societies actually worshipped Odysseus. 🧵👇 @oeai.bsky.social #Hierotopoi #Archaeology #TheOdyssey #Nolan

New on the #HierotopoiProject blog! 📝 "The Topographic Writing of Women’s Lives into the Sacred Landscape of the Argolid" How did the ancient polis regulate women's bodies through the natural environment? Let's dive in. 🧵👇 hierotopoi.hcommons.org/archives/448

At the ÖAI, the #HierotopoiProject studies how ancient societies sacralised their landscapes. We believe fostering a dialogue between ancient environmental thought and modern ecological challenges is vital for our future. 🏛️✨ Watch the full video here ⬇️⬇️⬇️: youtu.be/csYD4LyRPCs?...

Religare: Espiritualidad y religión en el siglo XXI

YouTube video by Instituto Cervantes Berlin

youtu.be

To be honest, it was incredible to take part as a moderator at this symposium alongside such prominent and inspiring scholars and thinkers. Take a look at the entire symposium on the Instituto Cervantes' YouTube Channel. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 4w ago

🌍 Can religion and spirituality help us solve the climate crisis? Last May, our Project Leader Ramón Soneira-Martínez raised this issue at the Instituto Cervantes Berlin during the 'Religare' symposium. Listen to his question to the panel! 🧵👇

Time for Chapter 5 of the #HierotopoiLibrary! 📚✨ Today we dive into one of the most influential books in religious studies: Jonathan Z. Smith’s "To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual" (1987). What actually makes a space sacred? 🧵👇

More about the brilliant team we have in @hierotopoi.bsky.social ⬇️⬇️⬇️

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · last mo.

Meet the Team! 👋 Today we travel to the underground sanctuaries of Rome to introduce Dr. Nirvana Silnović, pictured here inside the Mitreo delle Pareti Dipinte in Ostia Antica. She is a core member of the #HierotopoiProject! 🧵👇

Wonderful team!

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Meet the Team! 👋 Today we introduce Dr. David Sierra-Rodríguez, a core member of the #HierotopoiProject at the @oeai.bsky.social He specializes in the intersections of collective memory, religious landscapes, and gender in ancient Greece. 🧵👇

Check out my new post in @hierotopoi.bsky.social connecting Plutarch with Homer, Socrates, and the Hebrew Bible ⬇️⬇️⬇️

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When the philosopher Plutarch suffered the tragic loss of his daughter, he told his grieving wife he was not "born from oak or rock." 🌳🪨 But why did ancient Greeks turn to botany & geology to express human vulnerability? Read our new #Hierotopoi post! 👇 🔗 hierotopoi.hcommons.org/archives/425

The #HierotopoiLibrary continues! 📚✨ Today, we add a crucial social dimension to our study of sacred spaces with Susan Guettel Cole’s "Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space" (2004). Did gender dictate how ancient communities interacted with nature? 🧵👇

Time for chapter two of the #HierotopoiLibrary! 📚✨ Today we move from architecture to human experience with a monumental text: Christopher Tilley’s "A Phenomenology of Landscape" (1994). How do we experience sacred space? 🧵👇

Here some reflections on religion, philosophy and natural landscapes in Ancient Greece. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Did ancient Greek philosophy only happen in the Agora? 🏛️ Not quite. In our latest #Hierotopoi blog post, we explore how sacred landscapes and pilgrimage routes were the true backdrops for some of antiquity's greatest thoughts. 🧵👇 hierotopoi.hcommons.org/archives/383

Let’s meet the researchers behind the #HierotopoiProject! 👋 We are starting with our Project Leader at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Dr Ramón Soneira-Martínez. Ramón specializes in the Ancient History of Religions and the theoretical frameworks for studying relationally ancient unbelief 🧵👇

A little glimpse of last week's event at the @institutocervantes.bsky.social in Berlin. Fascinating discussions on spirituality and religion in the 21st century. Thanks to the incredible panel! #Religare #ReligiousStudies

For our team at the @oeai.bsky.social, Scully's approach is essential. A sanctuary is a dialogue between human architecture and organic nature. In that way, topography becomes readable and meaningful. 🌿

Before Scully, temples were studied as isolated art objects. Scully radically shifted the paradigm: he argued that temples were built to interact with the sacred landscape of the earth. The place itself was the original monument. ⛰️🏛️

The #HierotopoiLibrary is officially open! 📚✨ Every fortnight, we share the theoretical foundations of the #HierotopoiProject. Today we start with the cornerstone of sacred landscape studies: Vincent Scully’s "The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods" (1962). 🧵👇

Here we go! Stay tuned 😉

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Our first official team meeting is underway, and we could not be more excited to share what we will be our future research. Watch the trailer below for a sneak peek into the next 3 years of our project! 📽️👇 ✨ Follow our progress in hierotopoi.hcommons.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCxq...

Wonderful news! I will moderate "RELIGARE: Spirituality and Religion in the 21st Century" on May 6th at the @institutocervantes.bsky.social in Berlin, alongside Paco Bernal. We will be in dialogue with amazing scholars in a stellar panel. Check it out! 👇

Did ancient Athens treat foreign ideas like a disease? 🦠🏛️ I'm thrilled to present my paper, "Sophistic 'Epidemics': Itinerant Sages and Their Reception in Classical Athens," at MAGOS Conference. Check out the full program below! 👇📜 #ClassicsSky #AncientHistory #GreekPhilosophy

🚨 Attention international #ReligiousStudies and #Humanities community: The ONLY public undergraduate degree in Religious Studies in Spain (at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid - @ucm.es ) is facing extreme threat of closure due to institutional budget cuts. 🧵👇 www.larazon.es/opinion/salv...

Salvar las Ciencias de las Religiones en España

La supresión de estos estudios sería una tragedia académica no solo para los estudiantes y la universidad, sino para toda nuestra sociedad, que es la principal beneficiaria de los estudios sobre la historia y la diversidad religiosa, y, más allá, para la cultura académica

larazon.es

As a historian of religions, walking into the Ernst Fuchs Museum in Vienna isn't just an art tour—it’s entering a modern syncretic sanctuary. 🏛️👁️ Let’s explore how the co-founder of Fantastic Realism merged Christian mysticism, Kabbalah, and esoteric myth into his art. A thread 🧵👇

I am thrilled to announce that my new monograph, 'Relational Atheism: Studying Unbelief in Ancient Greece' (Kohlhammer), is officially OUT! 🏛️📖 👇 The official publisher flyer is attached below.

Yesterday, I passed by the Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church) in Vienna (Austria). To the casual tourist, it’s a Baroque gem. To a religious scholar, it’s a masterclass in the construction of sacred space. 🏛️✨ #AcademicSky #ReligiousStudies 👇🧵

🔴NEW PUBLICATION🔴 "Becoming Non-Religious: Exploring the Emotional Experiences of Apostasy and Refugee Status Determination" by Lucy Elizabeth Potter. Read the Open Access paper here: 🔗 secularismandnonreligion.org/articles/10.... #NonReligion #RefugeeStudies #HumanRights #Sociology #AcademicSky