IRR seminar | Many Faces of Christianism + The Baton and the Cross

With Professor Catriona Kelly in the chair, the Inter-Religious Research seminar celebrates and discusses an edited collection in tandem with guest author Lucy Ash:

The Many Faces of Christianism: The ‘Russian World’ in Europe

Volume Editors: Marietta van der Tol, Sophia Johnson, Petr Kratochvíl, and Zoran Grozdanov | Political and Public Theologies 7. Brill, 2025. 

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.

The Baton and the Cross: Russia’s church from pagans to Putin

Lucy Ash, Icon Books, 2024

For more than a millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church has shown astonishing survival skills—from the Mongol yoke to tsarist demagoguery and enlightenment, from Soviet atheism to the chaotic 1990s. Now again, it is at the right hand of power, sanctifying Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Combining historical research with vivid present-day reportage, in The Baton and the Cross author Lucy Ash explores the impact the Church is having on millions of lives—from the tower blocks of big cities to far-flung villages in Siberia. Delving into the underbelly of politics, state security and big money, Ash shows how these forces have formed an unholy alliance with Orthodoxy in the dystopia of twenty-first century Russia.

Lucy Ash is an award-winning presenter of radio and TV documentaries. An expert on Russia and post-Soviet countries she was first sent to Moscow by the BBC in 1990 and has been covering the region’s social, political, and cultural issues ever since. The Baton and the Cross is her first book.

About the Chair

Professor Catriona Kelly is Honorary Professor of Russian and Soviet Culture in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, and a Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. 

Practicalities

This event will be hosted at Trinity College, Cambridge. Doors open 16:15. Drinks reception from 17:45. 

This event is organised as an extension of the Inter-Religious Research seminar series, convened by Professor Esra Özyürek, and in partnership with the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM.org).

Please note the later than normal start time.

To assist with logistics, kindly register via the Sign up button above (Microsoft Forms).