From the Byzantine symphony to the modern age of the separation of the nation and of the religion, national identity and religious identity have been placed in connections of dependence, of instrumentalisation, rivalry or coexistence. The link between religion and nation can be both a factor of identical integration and of exclusion. In post-communist Russia, which remains a multinational State, these questions have returned to the forefront of concern, but can exclusively be studied in reference to the past.
The documentary resources of the Slavic collection of the Jesuits (periodicals, unpublished diplomatic materials, annual reports of the Holy synod, relations between Catholics and orthodoxes - with in particular the Gagarine collection fund, legal collections, journey reports, etc.) allow to study these questions, which are far from having been the object of exhaustive works:
I - Religion and national identity
Religion as a factor of national identity (study of the "russianization" process or of the nationalization of the orthodox faith [philétisme])
Connections between the State and the Orthodox Church (jurisdiction, practice)
The missionary activity of the Orthodox Church
The attitude of the Orthodox Church to other religions
The activity of the Holy synod (according to the annual reports)
The philosophico-religious thought of the XIX and XX centuries and the problem of relationship between the Church and the State (Slavophiles, "god-seekers", "Living Church")
The place of religion in the Russian culture (literature, arts)
II - Religion and international relations
the theological relations with the West
The diplomatic relations with the Holy See
the Russian, orthodox presence abroad (the Church and the Russian diplomacy, relations with the other Orthodox Churches especially in the Balkans, Athos and Holy Land monasteries, pilgrims’ narratives, Russian churches in Western Europe).
Contact: michel.niqueux@unicaen.fr
