Kieran Collery

Kieran Collery is DPhil candidate in Theology and Religion, currently studying the philosophy of Lev Shestov and his relationship to philosophical and theological Lutheran thought. His other research interests include the relationship between faith and reason, play, incongruous laughter, revelation, and otherness, all with a view to their application to Christian theology. Kieran has previously studied theology at Durham and St. Andrews. Prior to his academic life, he worked as a software engineer.

Inverted Icons: Causality, Violence, and the Exclusion of Grace in Soviet Prison Tattooing

In the absence of the divine, can an image symbolise a higher reality? The visual language of Soviet prison tattoos and its use of religious symbols affords an interesting opportunity to answer this question. Indeed, what is absent from a…

Kieran Collery
30 October 2026