The Sacred King of Kievan Rus': An Examination of Christian Sovereignty and Cultural Formation under Prince Vladimir I Sviatoslavich

This thesis examines the process of Christianization in Kievan Rus' under Prince Vladimir I (r. 978-1015) as an act of deliberate political theology, the intentional shaping of power, culture, and authority through religious ideals, symbols, and institutions, rather than as a passive process of foreign influence. Drawing on sources like the Primary Chronicle, assorted Rus'-Byzantine treaty texts, Jacob Mnikh's Memory and Eulogy of St. Vladimir, and examples of material culture of early Kievan church architecture and legal documents, this thesis argues that Vladimir employed Byzantine Orthodox Christianity as adaptable political technologies to redefine the foundations of kingship, governance, and cultural belonging in a pluralistic polity comprised of East Slavic, Norse, and Finnic peoples. Primary analysis was conducted through the framework of three related research arguments. The first, that Vladimir utilized Christian political technologies to displace kin-based, tribal legitimacy with a model of divinely sanctioned sovereignty. The second, that this ideological shift manifested itself in the iconographic, ritualistic, and legal fabric of Kievan society. The third, that Vladimir's engagement with Byzantine Christianity was an active process of ideological construction, rather than a simple cultural adoption, an argument which situates itself in the ongoing scholarly debates surrounding Dmitri Obolensky's "Byzantine Commonwealth" thesis. By recentering the process of Christianization as a political technology, this thesis contributes to the ongoing historiography of medieval Eastern European state formation and to the broader questions in the field regarding the adaptability of religious frameworks when translated into different medieval political environments.