Between Heaven and Russia
Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia

Sarah Riccardi-Swartz (Author)

9780823299492

Hardback, published 5 April 2022

288 pages, 9 b/w illustrations
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.612 kg

How is religious conversion transforming American democracy? In one corner of Appalachia, a group of American citizens has embraced the Russian Orthodox Church and through it Putin's New Russia. Historically a minority immigrant faith in the United States, Russian Orthodoxy is attracting Americans who look to Russian religion and politics for answers to Western secularism and the loss of traditional family values in the face of accelerating progressivism. This ethnography highlights an intentional community of converts who are exemplary of much broader networks of Russian Orthodox converts in the United States. These converts sought and found a conservatism more authentic than Christian American Republicanism and a nationalism unburdened by the broken promises of American exceptionalism. Ultimately, both converts and the Church that welcomes them deploy the subversive act of adopting the ideals and faith of a foreign power for larger, transnational political ends.
Offering insights into this rarely considered religious world, including its far-right political roots that nourish the embrace of Putin's Russia, this ethnography shows how religious conversion is tied to larger issues of social politics, allegiance, (anti)democracy, and citizenship. These conversions offer us a window onto both global politics and foreign affairs, while also allowing us to see how particular U.S. communities are grappling with social transformations in the twenty-first century. With broad implications for our understanding of both conservative Christianity and right-wing politics, as well as contemporary Russian–American relations, this book provides insight in the growing constellations of far-right conservatism. While Russian Orthodox converts are more likely to form the moral minority rather than the moral majority, they are an important gauge for understanding the powerful philosophical shifts occurring in the current political climate in the United States and what they might mean for the future of American values, ideals, and democracy.

Preface xi
List of Abbreviations and Terms xv
Introduction: East of Appalachia: The New Russian Turn in American Christianity 1
1 Foreign Faith in a Foreign Land: A Discursive History of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States 23
2 Church of God: Traditionalism, Authenticity, and Conversion to Russian Orthodoxy in Appalachia 37
3 America the Beautiful: Of Guns, God, and Vodka 64
4 Port of the Tsar: Material Monarchism and the End of Days 82
5 Palace of Putin: Political Ideologies in Orthodox Appalachia 107
6 A People Set Apart: Intra-Community Politics and Regionalism 135
7 The "Holler Feast": Spiritual Geographies and Temporalities 161
Conclusion: In Soviet America, Russia Converts You! 179
Epilogue 185
Acknowledgments 195
Notes 199
Works Cited 249
Index 275