Christianity’s relationship with culture and the state has always been fluid, and developments over the past half a century have led to the rise, fall and return of Christendom in some old and new places. How those changes will impact the church’s view of war and violence is the focus of this blog.
 
[Note: “Christendom” is a term used to describe a church-state relationship marked by (1) the state identifying as Christian, (2) the church having a place of privilege over against other religions, (3) the church and state working in some sort of symbiotic partnership, and (4) the church being the primary shaper of culture.]

My blogs on media in wartime are done. Now it is time to deal with the just war tradition and claims that it should be relegated to the dustbin of history. 

British historian David Cannadine has rightly stated, “The older I get the more I’m convinced that it’s the purpose of politicians and journalists to say the world is very simple, whereas it’s the purpose of historians to say, ‘No! It’s very complicated.’” 
 
If you think getting to the truth is complicated in peacetime, it is even worse in of times of war. The following are some final thoughts on the media and war. More specifically, there are three periods and two issues that need to be noted.

Today I presented my paper entitled "Canadian Protestants, the Sudan Expedition, and the New Imperialism, 1884-1885" at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Church History. Due to COVID-19, the meeting is online, with Zoom presentations for the next three days. Here is a link if you would like to join in the conversations and presentations.

Like millions of others, my church experience over the past two months or so has been marked by innovative attempts by church leaders to connect with congregations, and congregational members to connect with one another. 

Much is made of the demise of Christendom in Europe. Yet the recent construction of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Russia is a reminder that it is simply incorrect to speak of the decline of Christendom in Europe as if all Europe was the same. Europe is far from monochrome, and patterns and practices of church-state relations vary from nation to nation. 
 
Take Russia for example. The Soviet communist attempt to de-Christianize Russia was a horrific experience, one where countless priests were tortured and executed, and thousands of churches and monasteries desecrated, destroyed, or taken over by the state. It was a bloody attempt to bring about a post-Christendom Russia.
 
However, the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s led to a resurgence of Orthodoxy. The repressed faith was once again allowed to blossom and flourish in public, and new buildings such as Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ are a demonstration of that revitalized faith. 
 
As the main cathedal of the military, it celebrates Russian history and honours Russia's war dead. The church itself is gorgeous, with masterful iconography and six domes that tower over the landscape. The centre dome weighs 80 tons! My attempt to describe the beauty of the church will fall flat, so see this video tour of the church for a sense of its wonders. Just as Baroque architecture reflected a powerful and surging Post-Tridentine Catholic Church in the seventeenth century, the ornate Orthodox Church speaks loudly today – Russian Orthodoxy is alive and well in the twenty-first century.
 
Modern day Russian Orthodoxy also enjoys the support of the state in a partnership that seeks to provide stability and national identity. To be Russian is, in many ways, to be Orthodox. And to fight and die for the nation is – in the iconography of the new cathedral – to fight and die for a Christian nation.
 
While one may celebrate the survival of an ancient church, raise questions about the ability of that same church to maintain its prophetic edge in such a cozy relationship with the state, or even wonder about the wisdom of such a close link between the church and military, what one cannot say is that Christendom is dead in Russia. In fact, as the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ’s name suggests, rebirths can occur – in this case, a renaissance of Russian Christendom.

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For further reading on post-communist Russian Orthodoxy, see Geoffrey Evans and Ksenia Northmore-Ball, “The Limits of Secularization? The Resurgence of Orthodoxy in Post-Soviet Russia,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 51, 4 (December 2012): 795-808.
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