Lebanon: Turn of Times in the "Cedar Republic"

The Research Center for Oriental Christiany - in close cooperation with the Endowed Chair of Theology of the Christian East - initiated a photo competition in autumn 2019 on the topic "Turn of Times in the Cedar Republic - Christianity in Lebanon between Duration and Change". To this end, a call for proposals was issued to various universities and partner institutions in Lebanon. First of all, the Université Saint-Esprit in Kaslik (north of Beirut) under the sponsorshiph of the Maronite Church should be highlighted. The Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt has maintained a partnership with Kaslik for many years, which goes back not least to the initiative of the former vice-director of the Research Center, Heinz Otto Luthe. The renowned iconographer Abda Badwi, who teaches at the Holy Spirit University, has been a gueat in Eichstätt on several occasions. The University of Balamand, sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, should also be mentioned. Elie Dannaoui is the director of the first Institute for Digital Humanities in the Arab world. Together with him, the Research Center has already realized a digitization project on Syriac manuscripts.

Young Christian Lebanese were thus asked to photographically record their world of faith. The main focus was on the reciprocal influence of everyday life and faith: How does the Christian faith influence my daily routine? Where is my faith visible in everyday life? Furthermore, interreligious aspects were asked about. But not only the encounter with Islam was considered. A representation of Lebanon would have been incomplete without taking into account the tense contact field of religion - politics/state. Creative photographs of architecture, devotionals, liturgy, rituals and much more were imaginable.

The exhibition now shows the contributions submitted by students from a wide range of disciplines, university staff, and also professional photographers. The spectrum ranges from portraits of charismatic individual personalities to landscape pictures in which monasteries are photographes as pilgrimage destinations, to shots of the private, interreligious "Herrgotteswinkel". Of course, the winning photo of the competition, which was awarded prize money, will also be on display. It was taken by Nouhad Kamel, a master's student in English language and literature at Kaslik. He captioned his photograph "Things Fall Apart". In the midst of Lebanon's political turmoil, Saint Charbel - the Maronite monk from a poor background is something of a national saint - looks out over his people, who are taking to the streets to protest rampant corruption and injustice. In the background, the towers of the Zouk Power Station - the country's largest electricity factory - stand ominously, releasing their toxic fumes into the atmosphere. The combination of the regional-political topic - the protests in Lebanon that have been going on since 2019 - and the environmental pollution discussed in world politics with a self-evident religiousness led to the decision to award this picture.