Many Faces of Christianism

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).

"This is an important and timely book. It explores the complex relationships between values, culture, identity, tradition, history, and religion; and the uses made of them by national conservatism and populist nationalism. In a time of war in Europe driven by Putin’s idea of the “Russian World”, and of growing polarisation in many of the western democracies, this book will be of interest both to scholars and to general readers who wish to understand more about what lies behind the political headlines and slogans." — Sir Laurie Bristow, President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge University, UK Ambassador to Russia (2016-2020), UK Ambassador to Afghanistan (2021)

• ForewordAcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesNotes on Contributors1 The Many Faces of Christianism: The ‘Russian World’ in EuropeMarietta van der Tol, Petr Kratochvíl, Sophia Johnson, and Zoran Grozdanov2 Populism and Religion: Why the Twain Will Always MeetPetr Kratochvíl3 When a Light Cloak Turns into a Pious Cage: Thinking National Identity with Karl Barth and John Paul IIZoran Grozdanov4 Fratelli Tutti: A Failed Battle against Christian Nationalism?Anne Guillard5 The Russian World, The Hungarian World, and Make America Great Again: Political Imaginaries and Their SpacesMarietta van der Tol6 Russian World, Holy Russia: Towards a New Ideology?Veronica Cibotaru7 Putinism and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Religious MotifsDmytro Bintsarovskyi8 From St. Paul and Carl Schmitt to Alexander Dugin: The Katechon as a Political Category in Empire BuildingDustin J. Byrd9 Between Religious Nationalism and Universal Familism: Anti-Gender Movement Values in Croatia and SerbiaIvan Tranfić10 The Orthodox Church and the Greek Solution Party: A Stunted Political Relation between Adjacent Ideological PlatformsKonstantinos Papastathis and Anastasia Litina11 Belonging without Attending? National Identity and Contemporary Religious Patterns in SerbiaMarko Veković12 The Danish People’s Party and the Heritage of Tidehverv: A National Example of a European TendencyErik Sporon Fiedler13 Christianity, Religion and Christian DemocracyKatharina Kunter and Leon van den Broeke14 The European Union as a Space of (In)Securities: Analysing Political Reasoning by Lithuanian CatholicsRosita Garškaitė-Antonowicz15 Theopolitical Visions of National Belonging: Resisting the Totalising Tendencies of InclusionJenny Leith16 The Contested Meanings of the Anglican Parish in Multireligious EnglandLauren Morry17 Concluding Reflection: The Call for Political Theologies after ChristendomMarietta van der Tol, Petr Kratochvíl, Sophia Johnson, and Zoran GrozdanovAppendix 1: A Declaration on the “Russian World” (Russkii Mir) TeachingAppendix 2: A statement of solidarity with the Orthodox Declaration on the “Russian World” (russkii mir) Teaching, and against Christian Nationalism and New TotalitarianismIndex