Russia and Christian nationalism: the background of a conflict

The aggression in Ukraine is rooted in a long history of mythologised versions of Russian identity, which need to be better understood. But it is also an instance of a wider resurgence of nationalism allied to a traditionalist religious and moral agenda.

Rt Revd & Rt Hon. Dr Rowan Williams DD, FBA was born in 1950 into a Welsh-speaking family in Swansea. He read Theology at Cambridge, and gained his doctorate in Oxford on the work of the Russian émigré theologian Vladimir Lossky. Ordained priest in 1978, he taught at Mirfield and in Cambridge, moving to Oxford as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity 1986-1991. He became Bishop of Monmouth 1991-1999, Archbishop of Wales 1999-2002, Archbishop of Canterbury 2002-2012. He received a life peerage in 2012 and was Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, 2013-2020, also serving as a member of the House of Lords 2002-2020. Author of a number of theological works and sermon collections, Rowan is also an accomplished poet.