The Many Faces of Christianism

The 'Russian World' in Europe
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-73188-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 7, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 513 g

Reihe: Political and Public Theologies

Is the Russian invasion of Ukraine a ‘Holy War’? This book offers insights into the complex ideology of the Russki Mir or ‘Russian World’, which must be understood as Russian-shaped world order or peace – but above all, a claim to the sacred.

The collected essays describe how Far Right politics in Europe and its resonances with the Russian World nod to the changing meaning of Christianism, defying and transforming the categories of religion and politics, and challenging common conceptions of the role of Christianity in European politics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weitere Mitwirkende

van der Tol, Marietta

Johnson, Sophia

Kratochvíl, Petr

Grozdanov, Zoran

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Christliche Kirchen, Konfessionen, Denominationen Östliche & Orientalische Orthodoxe Kirchen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword

Acknowledgements

List of Figures and Tables

Notes on Contributors

1 The Many Faces of Christianism: The ‘Russian World’ in Europe Marietta van der Tol, Petr Kratochvíl, Sophia Johnson, and Zoran Grozdanov

2 Populism and Religion: Why the Twain Will Always Meet Petr Kratochvíl

3 When a Light Cloak Turns into a Pious Cage: Thinking National Identity with Karl Barth and John Paul II Zoran Grozdanov

4 Fratelli Tutti: A Failed Battle against Christian Nationalism? Anne Guillard

5 The Russian World, The Hungarian World, and Make America Great Again: Political Imaginaries and Their Spaces Marietta van der Tol

6 Russian World, Holy Russia: Towards a New Ideology? Veronica Cibotaru

7 Putinism and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Religious Motifs Dmytro Bintsarovskyi

8 From St. Paul and Carl Schmitt to Alexander Dugin: The Katechon as a Political Category in Empire Building Dustin J. Byrd

9 Between Religious Nationalism and Universal Familism: Anti-Gender Movement Values in Croatia and Serbia Ivan Tranfic

10 The Orthodox Church and the Greek Solution Party: A Stunted Political Relation between Adjacent Ideological Platforms Konstantinos Papastathis and Anastasia Litina

11 Belonging without Attending? National Identity and Contemporary Religious Patterns in Serbia Marko Vekovic

12 The Danish People’s Party and the Heritage of Tidehverv: A National Example of a European Tendency Erik Sporon Fiedler

13 Christianity, Religion and Christian Democracy Katharina Kunter and Leon van den Broeke

14 The European Union as a Space of (In)Securities: Analysing Political Reasoning by Lithuanian Catholics Rosita Garškaite-Antonowicz

15 Theopolitical Visions of National Belonging: Resisting the Totalising Tendencies of Inclusion Jenny Leith

16 The Contested Meanings of the Anglican Parish in Multireligious England Lauren Morry

17 Concluding Reflection: The Call for Political Theologies after Christendom Marietta van der Tol, Petr Kratochvíl, Sophia Johnson, and Zoran Grozdanov

Appendix 1: A Declaration on the “Russian World” (Russkii Mir) Teaching

Appendix 2: A statement of solidarity with the Orthodox Declaration on the “Russian World” (russkii mir) Teaching, and against Christian Nationalism and New Totalitarianism

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Marietta D.C van der Tol is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge, specialising in the comparative study of religion in politics, law and society. She is author of the book Constitutional Intolerance: The Fashioning of the Other in Europe’s Constitutional Repertoires (2025).

Sophia R.C. Johnson is a postdoctoral researcher at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany. Her research centres on the political uses of and influences on interpretation of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. She has published in journals such as Journal of the Bible and Its Reception and the Journal of Biblical Literature.

Petr Kratochvíl is a full professor at the philosophical faculty of Charles University, and a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. His research interests include the religion-politics nexus, theories of international relations, European integration, and Russian foreign policy.

Zoran Grozdanov is an associate professor at the University Centre for Protestant Theology Matthias Flacius Illyricus in Zagreb. He is author of Domovina slikana tamjanom: teologija nacionalnog identiteta [Homeland Painted with the Incense: Theology of National Identity] (2023) and co-editor of the volume Balkan Contextual Theology: An Introduction (2022).