Christian mission and resilience in a post-truth world: the case of Archimandrite Spiridon Kislyakov

Abstract The article examines how Christian mission can either strengthen or manipulate resilience in societies shaped by post-truth dynamics. Engaging Hannah Arendt’s analyses of factual truth and political lying and Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reflections on moral blindness, it develops a two-level framework of mission (vertical: worshipful faithfulness to God; horizontal: public witness) and tests it against a historical case study: Archimandrite Spiridon Kislyakov (1875–1930). We show how truth-telling, grounded in theological convictions, functions as a resilient counter-practice to nationalist and ecclesial post-truth narratives, with implications for East-European intellectual history and theology.