The Modern Revival of the Ancient Hellenic Religion and Philosophy
BY : Juliet Muir
Hellenismos is a contemporary revival movement of the ancient Greek polytheistic religion and culture. Followers celebrate the ancient gods, culture and philosophy.
READ MORE / USC StorySpace
The Meaning of a Mosque: Muslims in Athens Await Official Place of Worship After Centuries Underground
BY : Priyadarshini Sen
After years of praying underground and in other hidden worship sites, Muslims in Athens eagerly await the opening of the city's first official mosque.
READ MORE / GroundTruth Project
This Woman Planned to Spend 45 Days in Greece, But She Stayed for Nearly a Year to Help Refugees
BY : Lauren Day and Catherine Clark
An American Mormon goes to Greece for a short-term volunteer stint and ends up running a refugee camp in Athens.
READ MORE / Annenberg Media
The Rescued Jewish tombstones of Thessaloniki
BY : Renee Gross
Jews in Thessaloniki rescue tombstones that were scattered when Nazis destroyed their cemetery; used for construction projects, the fragments find a resting place in a new Jewish burial site.
READ MORE / Public Radio International
About The Project
In Spring 2017, USC Annenberg’s J585 Reporting on Religion course focused on Greece’s economic, political and spiritual crises. In preparation for our trip to Greece, we reported on the local Greek, Orthodox and Muslim communities since we planned to cover, among other stories, the plight of Syrian refugees in Athens, the rise of a Neo-Nazi party, and the future of Greek Orthodoxy. During our eight days away, we visited Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city and a longtime crossroads for Christians, Muslims and Jews. Among our stories were reports on Greece’s opioid problem, Athens’ first drag club, the resurgence of the “evil eye,” and one musician’s campaign for the environment. This year’s partnerships with the GroundTruth Project and KPCC were augmented by publications in outlets ranging from Public Radio International to the Daily Beast and from Killing the Buddha to Bustle.