The Vision of the ‘Byzantine Commonwealth’ as Model for Religiocultural Diplomacy and the Case of the Greek Orthodox Church under Archbishop Christodoulos (1998–2008)

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos (1998–2008) sought to co-shape the European Union. Seeing the EU both as a project and as a cultural-civilizational family of common integral, constituent elements of identity, he wished to affect the process of Europeanisation by enhancing the influence of its Eastern Orthodox flank. The emergent pattern of his aspiration resembled that of a unitary Eastern Orthodox bloc within the EU, functioning in concert so that to be able to exert influence and co-determine the direction of the Europeanisation process along the lines of its own values. That culminated in the archbishop’s exclamation that Russia should eventually join the EU: thus, a rhetorical reminiscent of the ‘Byzantine Commonwealth’ would counterbalance the Westernist overarching model, to no avail though; after all, all Orthodox Churches pursue their own individual/national agendas at a European level. However, creed is a central element of identity perception and even though the Orthodox Church of Greece has significantly readjusted its policies, the deep-rooted religiocultural element of identity, evidently, was expected to have a sway during Christodoulos’ era, and that the Greek-Orthodox collective imaginary would conflate a sense of kinship to Orthodox Russia, with a vague, romanticized geocultural strategic agenda

Christian Religioscapes in the Levant: The Question of Geo-Religious Materiality of a Minority in Decline

The Levant has diachronically been a highly contested region in terms of rights and entitlement, and, ultimately, in terms of sovereignty over territory. This is not a new phenomenon, particularly in a region that is laden with history. Religion has been, and still is, central in the demarcation and distinction of territorial custodianship, administration, and ownership, as it codetermines the terms and limits of boundaries by way of materiality in the public sphere. Antitheses and frictions are frequent over disputed territories and spatialities, where religioscapes overlap or intersect in a non-harmonious fashion. Especially at times of political unrest, religion, as a value system, as cultural heritage and as a collective identifier of self-perception, has a central role in the signification of (pre)dominance over territory. This holds true particularly for the Christian minorities in the Levant, with immediate consequences on their religious sites and their overall religiocultural heritage. In this light, I argue that this issue deserves extensive further study, to better understand and explain the complex georeligious landscape in the region, and specifically the place of Christianity therein by way of its materiality, given that the latter is mutatis mutandis under threat

Temporal Trends in Diagnostic Hemodynamics and Survival of Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension: A Single-Center Study

Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension (PH) have gradually improved the disease course. This retrospective cohort study aims to explore the diagnostic hemodynamic profile and survival of PH patients and their temporal changes, as well as investigate potential prognostic factors. Overall, 257 adult patients were diagnosed with PH following right heart catheterization (RHC) from January 2008 to June 2023 according to the hemodynamic cut-off values proposed by the corresponding ESC/ERS guidelines at the time RHC was performed. Of these patients, 46.3% were Group 1, 17.8% Group 2, 14.0% Group 3, 18.0% Group 4, and 3.0% Group 5 PH. Temporal improvement in both diagnostic hemodynamic profile and survival of patients with PH and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was identified after 2013. Survival analysis demonstrated 5-year survival rates of 65% in Group 1 PH (90.3% in idiopathic PAH) and 77% in Group 4 PH. PAH patients being at low risk at diagnosis presented a similar 1-year all-cause mortality rate (12.4%) with high-risk ones (12.8%), primarily due to non-PH-related causes of death (62%), while high-risk patients died mostly due to PH (67%). The observed improvements in diagnostic hemodynamic profiles and overall survival highlight the importance of timely diagnosis and successful treatment strategies in PH