14 Religion

My thoughts on religion

I am occasionally a superstitious person (my most common internet identity is pjt013) but I am not a religious person. I believe Jesus lived, I believe Mahomed lived, but I do not know if there is life after death, or Heaven and Hell. I have been to the sites of Jesus' miracles, with great interest, but I cannot explain them. And I have been to the most serious Islamic and Jewish sites available to me in search of all of this, with positive impression. However I am interested in the subject and have had some considerable life experiences and interests in it and related cultural aspects.

Religious attitudes have changed very significantly during my life, but had probably already changed so much in past centuries that this is not surprising. My father's father's family came from Lincolnshire. I still visit there as relatives still live there and to visit there you see major Anglican churches seating 600 people. Since the population served by those churches was also typically only 600 it is clear everyone in town attended on Sundays, and virtually each had their own pugh.

The church above, St Mary the Virgin at Long Sutton, my grandfather's birthplace, is a case in point, and one sees big churches like this throughout the county.

In Australia, in the 1950s, people attended church in much larger numbers than now. Most people were easily identified by their religion, which church they went to, what schools their children went to, even sometimes which clubs they joined.

My father's father came from an Anglican background, but he married in turn two Methodist women. the first of whom was my grandmother, before she died, and so my father was raised as a Methodist. My mother came from a pure Anglican background (we used to call it Church of England), their marriage took place in an Anglican church and I was baptised that way and went to an Anglican Sunday School and Anglican Secondary School.

My parents would go to this local Anglican church on Sundays, and together I and my father were prepared for confirmation and confirmed on the same day, in the same service, by the Bishop of Adelaide, in the late 1950s. I in fact became one of the rostered altar boys for Holy Communions at St Francis of Assisi.

Our church was directly opposite a Catholic Church, St Anthony of Padua's, on South Road. Other children led me to believe that the (main) South Road, which divided the two churches, was equivalent to the iron curtain. We should never transgress. This attitude was never to my awareness promulgated by an Anglican Minister, nor by my own parents, to their credit. But it seemed to be a general community attitude, quite unlike today, when the Anglican and Catholic Churches appear to be quite allied.

Certain circumstances caused my relationship to loosen. Some of the incidents resulted from whatever I felt at the time to be authoritative rather than inclusive attitudes of the church. My loosening might have happened anyway. I now regard myself as culturally Anglican. Our children have attended Anglican schools and were exposed to Anglican religion as such.

Religion Experiences

In later life I have developed a lot of interest in various aspects of religion, particularly other religions, including Islam and Judaism. When travelling in Europe I find fascination with the great churches, cathedrals and basilicas, and in the Middle East and South East Asia the great mosques and shrines, many of which I have visited. I will start with three major religious experiences, all in the Middle East, then have a rather pictorial display of various religious sites.

2004: Iran

In 2004 I was invited to give a keynote speech at a conference in Isfahan. Lois came with me on this journey which included also Ramsar on the Caspian Sea, the Elburz Mountains above Ramsar, Shiraz, Persepolis and Tehran. All of these places are worthy of extra narrative, but here I wish to focus on an afternoon when Lois and I were in Isfahan and being shown the Emam Khomeinil Square, a beautiful and unique place, named by the UN as a World Heritage site. On this square are many things including the old Royal Palace from Shah Abbas of about 500 years ago, but in particular in one corner is the Emam mosque, the main mosque of Isfahan with two pairs of minarets. (Normally Shiite Mosques in Iran have one pair.)

Lois and I were accompanied by our guide Hojat and Bernard Hodgson, Secretary General of ICMI, the International Commission for Mathematical Instruction, who was also in Iran with us. Bernard is from Quebec. I can only quote here from my diary:

"We now go round to the main mosque, known as the Emam Mosque. We are told the mosque is closed as there is a three day period of fasting and prayer by 2000 men and 3000 women who are acknowledging the first birthday of the first Emam.

"Hojat finally gets them to let Bernard and me in but they will not let Lois in. Lois appears visibly upset and some women become aware of this and come out and say she can go in to the women’s section wearing a chador. She disappears into the women’s section while Bernard and I go into the men’s section, reaching to the main area under the huge dome. We are continually approached and surrounded by these curious pilgrims, who tell us we are brothers and we all have the one God. Eventually they are called to prayer and we suggest we should withdraw completely rather than just watch. We are asked our emotions, and indeed we have to say we have found it a great honour to have let us in and a sign that we are all really of one type and we are all really friends. It has been an emotional time watching these pilgrims in what is a Moslem event fasting, and Lois has had similar experiences. In her case she was asked by a woman about 20 years old what she thought of the chador. Lois noted it was comfortable. The girl agreed, reinforcing with comment on how spiritually satisfying she found it."

This was definitely one of the most emotional experiences of my life and certainly for Lois also. It was quite incredible how these people came to me expressing such cross-denominational attitudes, indicating there was one God for all of us.

After this experience I asked my host what was the holiest place in Iran, believing Qom was presumably more important because it was the home of the Grand Ayatollah. I was told it was not, and that the distinction belonged clearly to Mashhad, the large city in the north east, near the Afghan border. This leads to the next experience of the trilogy.

2005: Iran

There are two distinct strands of Islam, as is well known. The (overall much) larger is the Sunni, which is found in various sub-forms, but which for instance are the main version in Saudi Arabia, and in most Muslim countries stretching from Morocco through to Indonesia. The Sunnis were led from the days of Mohammad by a line of rulers known as Caliphs. The Shiites, who dominate Iran, most of Iraq, almost all of Azerbaijan, and pockets of other middle eastern countries, including say Lebanon, Syria and parts of the Gulf States, were led by a line of Imams, dating from a marriage between one of Mohammad's children and a cousin. These Imams number twelve as shown below.

The 12th Imam, Mahdi, disappeared from earth, apparently in a way similar to the Jesus Ascension, and so there are 11 burials. Each of the burial sites is a Shiite Shrine. Four of these are in Saudi Arabia. According to Iranians who have been there, these are basically 4 grave sites which can be visited by Shiites, but are not otherwise elaborate. Six of the burials are in Iraq, and of these there are two double shrines and two singles. All are elaborate, but the Samara site was bombed by terrorists in the unstable period following the second Iraq war. And Iran has this one cherished site, for the 8th Imam, Reza, which is the holiest site in Iran, and a major pilgrimage place, now heavily developed.

In 2005 I was invited back to Iran, this time to give a plenary speech at the meeting of the Iranian Mathematical Society to be held at Ahvaz, a city near the Iraq border which had been attacked in the Saddam Hussein invasion of the 1980s.

I asked if I could visit the Shrine at Mashhad and I am very thankful that my hosts arranged it. Mashhad is a very holy city and all women wear the Chador, unlike their counterparts in Tehran and other cities, where the number can be less than a half. The shrine, topped with a Gold Dome, which can be barely seen in the above photograph, is surrounded by layers of rooms which perform many functions. The photograph above is the nearest I could reach with a camera, but I was permitted to go completely within the shrine.

2008: Israel

In 2008 I was invited to Israel to give a plenary talk at each of two successive conferences in Haifa, the first an invitational conference on multiple connecting tasks, and the other an international conference of the International Group for Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness. I stayed the 12 days in Haifa, which included three excursion days, including a visit to Jerusalem.

Above can be seen the Western Wall, the most holy site in Judaism, directly below the the (Gold) Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest in Islam. Nearby are also among the most important sites of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Church of the Ascension. I saw people from all three faiths walking past each other in peace, to their own sites, and hope that this is a symbol of how people can cooperate with their various faiths. I was able to stand near the Wall with the sound of the call to prayer from Al Aqsa coming directly overhead. It was a moving moment indeed.

Other religious sites seen in Israel are shown and discussed under a heading further below.

I could include St Peter's Basilica in Rome as a fourth major religious memory. When I visited this in 1976 it was the biggest impact a building and general experience had had on me. However it was a long time ago and I was inexperienced, so it is difficult now to compare. But my 1976 photo of the Basilica will appear below.

Ancestral Churches

Here I feature churches in other countries where my ancestors have either been baptised, married or buried. I will not go into details but all have applied within the last 6 generations.

England

Hainton, Lincolnshire

Hainton is the seat of the Heneage family, from whom the Taylors in Lincolnshire are descended. This is still the family church on the Heneage property and has a Norman tower.

England

Holbeach, Lincolnshire

Holbeach, All Saints, just a few kilomteres from Long Sutton (see below).

London

Kennington, St Mark. Near the cricket ground The Oval, Surrey.

Lewisham, St Mary. This is in the south eastern county of Kent, but now fairly much part of the metropolitan part of London.

Long Sutton, Lincolnshire

Long Sutton, St Mary the Virgin. My grandfather was born near this church, where Taylors some generations out are buried. The exterior of the church is shown further above. This shows the large interior for such a small town. St Mary's Church has a 13th-century lead-covered timber spire. It is of a similar design to Chesterfield's twisted spire, but Long Sutton's spire is straight. It is the highest, oldest and best-preserved lead spire in England and maybe Europe. Long Sutton is close to The Wash.

Orston, Nottinghamshire

Orston, St Mary the Virgin. My Lincolnshire cousin, Michael Taylor, and I, visited this small village speculatively en route to a cricket game at Trent Bridge, from his home in Lincolnshire, and unexpectedly discovered here the grave of a mutual ancestor, in my case 6 generations back, much to the interest of a husband and wife gardening couple working there as volunteers on the day.

St Ives, Cambridgeshire

St Ives, All Saints, has the grave with legible headstone of an ancestor 6 generations back.

Wisbech, Cambridgeshire

Wisbech, St Peter and St Paul. Close to Long Sutton and The Wash.

Germany

Hamburg

Hamburg, St Jacobi. One of the three big churches in central Hamburg. I have a great great grandmother baptised here.

Luechow

Luechow, St Johannis. This church was burnt down in the 1830s, with only the baptismal font surviving, and is now rebuilt. Luechow is a beautiful small town about a hundred kilomteres south-east of Hamburg, near the former East German border.

Uelzen

Uelzen, St Marien. My ancestors, the Hein family, have their own chapter in the history of Uelzen, a town between Hannover and Hamburg on the main rail line. There are references in history to the Hein family back to the early 1500s, when this church was built. It survives today as a dominant feature of the town and with ornate features.

Poland

Wroclaw (was Breslau, Silesia, Germany at the time)

Wroclaw, St Elisabeth. My great great great grandfather Emil Boehm, who later migrated to South Australia, was baptised in this church in the market square, when it was Lutheran. It is now a Catholic Church.

Scotland

Paisley

Paisley Abbey. My mother's mother's mother's mother was baptised in this grand church, ancestral church of the royal Stewarts, in Paisley, now an outer suburb of Glasgow.

SIGNIFICANT RELIGIOUS SITES

Finally here I feature a collection of religious sites, mainly churches and mosques, which I have been fortunate to see. I arrange them below in alphabetic order of country and then within alphabetic order of city.

Austria

Vienna

Vienna, St Stephan's Cathedral.

Brazil

Brasilia

Brasilia Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Aparecida.

Brunei Darussalam

Bandar Seri Begawan

Brunei Sultan Mosque.

This is the Mosque named for the current Sultan's father.

Bulgaria

Plovdiv

Plovdiv St Mary.

Sofia

Sofia St Alexander Nevski.

Sofia, Turkish Mosque.

Chile

Puerto Montt

Puerto Montt, Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Punta Arenas

Punta Arenas Sacred Heart Cathedral

Santiago

Santiago, Metropoltan Cathedral, completed 1800, still under Spanish rule at the time, reminds me very much of the Palatial Cathedral of Bogota.

China

Beijing

Beijing, Temple of Heaven

Colombia

Bogota

Bogota Palatial Cathedral.

Bogota, Church Carrera.

Croatia

Zagreb

Zagreb Cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of Mary and to kings Saint Stephen and Saint Ladislaus.

Czech Republic

Brno

Brno, St Peter and Paul. St Peter and Paul at elevation have a remarkable influence on the landscape of this beautiful city.

Denmark

Copenhagen

Copenhagen Vor Frue. This is the church in which Australian-born Princess Mary married Crown Prince Frederick in 2004.

Roskilde

Roskilde, Cathedral, where Danish Kings, Queens and other members of the Royal family are buried.

Egypt

Cairo

Cairo Citadel.

Cairo Mosque Ar Rifa'i

Cairo Mosque Sultan Hassan

Cairo Khan el Khalili, mosque at right.

Old Cairo Mosque of Amr ibn al-As

Old Cairo Hanging Church.

Old Cairo St George Greek Orthodox Church

Old Cairo Holy Family Church

Siwa Oasis

Siwa Mosque, about 50km from the Libyan border.

England

Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston St Botolph Stump.

Cambridge

Cambridge Kings College Chapel.

Durham

Durham Cathedral, my cousin Michael Taylor in foreground.

Ely, Cambridgeshire

Ely Cathedral.

Lincoln

Lincoln Cathedral. My cousin Michael Taylor also is in this, to the right.

Liverpool

Liiverpool Cathedral. This is a 20th century cathedral, very large.

London

St Paul's Cathedral.

Westminster Abbey.

Trafalgar Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Louth, Lincolnshire

Louth, St James.

Worcester

This Cathedral overlooks the picturesque Worcester Cricket Ground.

York

York Minster.

Finland

Helsinki

Helsinki Cathedral.

Tampere

Tampere Russian Church.

France

Paris

Notre Dame.

Paris St Severin.

Toulouse

Toulouse, Basilica St Sernin.

Toulouse, Cathedral St Etienne.

Germany

Berlin

Kircheneintrittsstelle Berliner Dom. Berlin Evangelical Cathedral.

Dresden

Dresden, Katholische Hofkirche.

Hamburg

Hamburg, Gertrudkirch.

Munich

Munich, Dom Frauen-kirche.

India

Delhi

Delhi, Jama Masjid Shah Jehan Mosque.

Lucknow

Lucknow Nawab of Agoud Palace Mosque.

Iran

See further above for information on Iran's holiest site, the Mashhad Shrine for the Imam Reza.

Ahvaz

Ahvaz, in the south-west, near the Iraq border. Mosque at Shoradi Square.

Isfahan

Note that the important Emam Mosque is featured further up this page.

Isfahan, Jame Mosque, the oldest of the main mosques in Isfahan.

Isfahan, Lotfollah Mosque, on Emam Khomeinil Square.

Isfahan, the Vank (Armenian) Cathedral.

Isfahan, Theological Mosque.

Isfahan Shaky Minaret.

Isfahan, Zoroastrian Temple. Unfortunately, because of the light in the late afternoon, this photo has not come out well. Zoroastrian is an ancient religion with still a number of followers in some parts of Iran.

Shiraz

Shiraz, Vakil (Regent's) Mosque.

Shiraz, Nasir-ol-Molk Mosque.

Ireland

Killarney

Killarney, St Mary's Cathedral.

Israel

Acre

Acre, El-Jazzar Mosque. Acre is in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border. This mosque might rank number two in Israel after Al Aqsa.

Acre, Zeituna (Olive) Mosque.

Acre, Sinan Pasha Mosque.

Caesarea

Caesarea, Bosnian Mosque. Caesarea, on the Mediterranean, was a Roman town with significant remains including the chariot racing stadium.

Galilee

Jordan River Baptismal site. This site now has a strong influence of Australian Eucalypts,

Galilee, Church of Seven Springs. Site of Miracle of bread and fish.

Galilee, Mount of the Beatitudes. This is the site of the Sermon on the Mount.

Galilee, Church of the Primacy of St Peter. Where Peter was ordained to go forth.

Haifa

Haifa, Bahai Gardens. This is one of the two holiest sites of the Bahai religion.

Jerusalem

See above for an earlier discussion on Jerusalem, including the Western Wall.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Dome of the Rock. A deeply significant site in Islam, Judaism and Christianity, administered for Islam by the Kingdom of Jordan. It is from where the Angel Gabriel may have taken Muhammad to Heaven and where Abraham supposedly prepared his son Isaac for sacrifice, among many other events. It is placed on the Temple Mount.

Al Aqsa Mosque and Mount of Olives. The Church of the Ascension can also be seen.

Church of the Ascension and Mount of Olives.

Nazareth

Nazareth Basilica of Anunciation.

Nazareth Mary's Well. The well where Mary was visited by the Angel Gabriel.

Nazareth St Gabriel Greek Church

Italy

Florence

Florence Cathedral. The dome inspired Sir Christopher Wren to build St Paul's

Florence, Basilica San Lorenzo. This basilica of the Medici family has arches which inspired the Sydney and Melbourne buildings in Canberra.

Milan

Milan Cathedral.

Milan, St Marie della Grazie. The Last Supper is to be found here.

Modena

Modena Cathedral.

Montichiari

Montichiari, Cathedral Santa Maria del Anunciation.

Pisa

Pisa Cathedral and Leaning Tower.

Rome

Rome, St Peter's Basilica.

Salo' del Garda

Salo' del Garda,on the western side of Lake Garda, with Venetian influence.

Venice

Venice, St Mark's Basilica.

Kakakhstan

Astana

Astana, a mosque.

Astana, another mosque.

Latvia

Riga

Riga St Peter. Tourists can go up to the tower to view the old city around.

Riga Russian Cathedral.

Lithuania

Vilnius

Vilnius Cathedral.

Vilnius Russian Church.

Another Vilnius Russian Church.

Malaysia

Johore Bahru

Johore Bahru, Sultan's Mosque.

Malacca

Malacca, Christ Church. From former Dutch occupation

Mexico

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza Mayan pyramid.

Merida

Merida Cathedral de San Ildefonso. Typical example of the Spanish style.

Merida Iglesia de Jesus.

Merida Santa Ana Church.

Mexico City

Mexico Cathedral, in the National Square.

Mexico City's Old Basilica, with architectural problems of sinking, but still functional.

Mexico City New Basilica, immediately adjacent to the Old Basilica.

Aztec Pyramid of Sun, third highest pyramid in world, behind another Mexican pyramid and Cheops in Egypt..

Monterrey

Monterrey Cathedral, a modest statement in a remarkable city of modern architecture.

Netherlands

Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Basilica St Nicholas, the main Catholic Church in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, The Old Church (Oude Kerk), a Calvinist Church and oldest building in Amsterdam.

New Zealand

Christchurch

Christchurch Cathedral, symbol of the city, before its destruction in the 2011 earthquakes.

Norway

Trondheim

Trondheim Cathedral.

Oman

Adam

Adam Mosque, inland Oman.

Bahla

Bahla Mosque, inland Oman.

Jalan Bani Bu Ali

Jalan Bani Bu Ali Mosque, inland Oman. This is an interesting old mosque featuring spheres. This is an inland town well south of the dhow-building port of Sur.

Muscat

National Mosque.

University Mosque.

Ruwi Mosque.

Nizwa

Nizwa Mosque, inland Oman.

Rustaq

Rustaq Mosque, inland Oman.

Poland

Wroclaw has been covered above under the heading of Ancestral Churches.

Krakow

Krakow Cathedral. This was the seat of John Paul 2 before he became Pope.

Nowy Sacz

This building was the Nowy Sacz Synogogue until World War 2. When I visited in 2005 local people told me that Jewish business dominated the market square into World War 2 and one day they were all missing.

Wadowice

Wadowice Basilica and adjacent birthplace of John Paul 2

Romania

Bucharest

Bucharest, an Orthodox church

Russia

Kaliningrad (formerly Koenigsberg, Germany)

Koenigsberg Cathedral, restored. Koenigsberg was the main city of East Prussia, and home to philosopher Immanuel Kant and Euler's Seven Bridges. I was fortunate to visit Koenigsberg in 2000 and an account of the visit is Chapter 10.

Moscow