The life and resilience of religion, especially Christianity, in the Soviet state, is a field that continues to draw researchers’ attention. Despite hundreds of books already published in this area new volumes continue to appear, a clear sign that the topic is far from being exhausted. Fresh approaches to the massive amount of material available prove fruitful. Research also demonstrates the continuing value of the Keston archive and library, kept at Baylor University, USA, since 2007. The dangerous God is a convincing example of this observation. The book's eleven essays focus on the multifaceted relations between Soviet atheistic powers and Russian Orthodoxy. The treatise does not examine dissenting movements in Evangelical Churches, a wise limitation rather than a drawback.

The book expands the horizon of the reader; it is not only about Church-State relations in the former Soviet Union, but also gives an account of the search for religious liberty and moral ground, motivated either by human rights or by theological convictions. Key phrases, such as martyrdom and liturgy as forms of resistance, collaboration with the state, secular and religious dissent, poetry as a means of interpreting human existence – all these, and many more, find exploration in the essays. The dangerous God is an inspiring read for everyone who wants to go beyond the widely known basic narrative of Russian religious dissent.

Personal memoirs play their part, for example in the chapter written by the grand old man of Soviet studies, Michael Bourdeaux, and in the chapter about Father Gleb Iakunin, written by Wallace Daniel. Historical research should not diminish the value of personal experiences, especially as these are well combined with scholarly analysis and contextualised by wider academic knowledge. Furthermore, there are subjective aspects which are essential if the reader is to approach the story with empathy. Dissident movement is not only a narrative of documents and court cases: it is also a narrative of human suffering, weaknesses and strengths, creative and costly efforts to renew vision for the Church and society.

The volume demonstrates that literature, especially poetry, functions as a reflection and mirror of the processes that took place during these years of atheistic pressures. Nikolai Berdiaiev once argued that inner freedom is linked with creativity. However, poetry has not only been an expression of creative forces; it was and has always been a treasury of values, guiding society in its search for moral direction. Dominic Erdozain goes even further, arguing that ‘poetry is politics’ – it is political, because it is ethical. Sometimes literature which may not be directly religious, such as Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, actually plays a crucial role in creating ‘religious renaissance’ – this was exactly the case in Russia in the 1960s and 1970s. A chapter on underground or ‘samizdat’ poems, ‘which are important not for their discursive content, but for their symbolic power’, creatively expands usual patterns of historical method. As Josephine von Zitzewitz stated: ‘Poetry was the bridge that provided access to that which is transcendent, ungraspable, and eternal’ (p. 137).

The essays draw attention to a continuous emphasis by Soviet dissenting voices on religious freedom, freedom of conscience and human rights. Both religious dissidents and human rights activists used common language. The whole book (not only chapter vii) ‘challenges conventional distinctions between religious and secular resistance’ (p. 139). Orthodox dissent and Soviet human rights movements, fragmented as they were, inspired each other and had mutually encouraging effects. An important insight from Soviet times, which the book highlights, is that implementing human rights without religious freedoms is impossible: freedom of conscience and religious freedom are universal values; they should be granted to everyone, including those who might have views deviating from the established tradition. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, many Orthodox dissidents argued for this, strengthening ecumenical links.

The embracing of the complexity of Church-State relations is the beauty of this analysis. Certainly, the historical narrative is about resistance in Gulag prison camps where keeping human dignity and inner inalienable freedom under a totalitarian regime was severely tested, as seen in the person of Irina Ratushinskaia and others; but the story is not only about suffering and martyrdom. It is also about the role of liturgy which created an alternative reality and undermined the Soviet atheistic and externally all-powerful ideology. It is about the slippery ways of the church leaders, collaborating with existing powers. And it is about the government's attempts to use religion for political goals. In addition, historical reality cannot be fully cut off from the present day. The dangerous God is suitably completed with the final chapter that deals with the relations of religion and politics under the Putin and Medvedev administrations. This interplay is shaped by ‘the echoes and shadows of the Soviet experiment’ (p. 212). It seems relevant to ask: ‘If religious dissent in Soviet context was a prophetic voice within the Church and in the society, in what forms, if at all, is this heritage still present in Russia?’

There are other questions which deserve further discussion. How did supporters of religious freedom and human rights movements influence each other at the grassroots, especially as many human rights activists were atheists? What was the line of reasoning and motivation that led bishops and priests, including the Church's top hierarchy, to collaborate with an anti-religious government? Why has the Russian Orthodox Church lacked the moral fibre to condemn this historical, shameful collaboration? What are the contours of the Church's continued subservient attitude towards the state as they take new forms in the twenty-first century? This book, written with thoughtful and thorough analysis, and based on a wide selection of sources, can be an inspiring conversation partner for further discussions.