Patterson Conference
The Solon and Marianna Patterson Triennial Conference
Every three years, the Orthodox Christian Studies Center hosts the Solon and Marianna Patterson Triennial Conference on Christian Unity.
2025 Patterson Triennial Conference
Religious Nationalism
June 16-18, 2025
Lowenstein Center 12th Floor Lounge (June 16)
Gabelli School of Business Room 333 (June 17-18)
Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus
The rise of public-facing Christian nationalism in the United States comes as a shock to the American political and religious sensibility. Religious nationalism, however, is nothing new in most countries around the world, where the line between national, ethnic, and religious identities remains fluid and often indiscernible. The Orthodox Christian Studies Center will gather scholars to discuss the geopolitical and ecclesial significance of the rise of new and the perdurance of old forms of religious nationalism.
Keynote speakers:
June 16
4:30—6:00 Keynote 1
Cathleen Kaveny
Religion, Nostalgia, and Nationalism
6:00 Reception
June 17
9:15—11:30 Panel 1
Chris Durante
Religious, Ethnic & National Identity in the Orthodox Christian World
Dimitrios Moschos
Nationalism as a growing eschatological substitute for Eastern Orthodoxy in 18th and 19th centuries – The case of modern Greece
Patrick Lally Michelson
Holy Rus’ and Its “Godless” Enemies: War, Russian Orthodoxy, and the West
11:30—1:30 Lunch Break
1:30—3:45 Panel 2
Pamela Cooper-White
The Psychology of Christian Nationalism and the Rise of Authoritarianism
Sarah Riccardi-Swartz
Traditionalism, Nationalism, and American Orthodox Discontents
Rufus Burnett
On Nationalism and the Dead: Towards a Political Theology of Necromancy
3:45—4:15 Coffee Break
4:15—5:45 Panel 3
Slavica Jakelić
Redeeming Particular Attachments
Davor Džalto
The Idolatry of (Secular Religious) Nationalism: Lessons from the US and the Balkans
5:45—6:00 Coffee Break
6:00—7:30 Keynote 2
Pantelis Kalaitzidis
"For the Place on which you are standing is Holy Ground”: Christian Identity, National Identity and the Claims of Territorial Exclusiveness. An Essay on Christian Delocalization
June 18
9:00—10:30 Keynote 3
Charles Mathewes
The “Fragile Brilliance of Glass”: A Theological Reading of Christian Nationalism
10:30—11:00 Coffee Break
11:00—1:15 Panel 4
Marietta Van der Tol
The Global Impact of the Far-Right
Atalia Omer
The Yeshivah of Unlearners: Interrogating Jewish Nationalism in Palestine/Israel
Natalia Imperatori-Lee
Machismo, Marianismo, Tradwives, & Trump: A Theological Look at the 2024 Election