Author ORCID Identifier
Abstract
The article examines the transformation of religion’s functional role in the context of the russian-Ukrainian war. The author analyzes how the extreme circumstances of armed conflict catalyze the polarization of Ukraine’s religious landscape, clearly distinguishing between authentic religiosity and its ideological imitations. The main focus is on conceptualizing the differences between churches that serve as a resource for spiritual consolidation and social therapy (the OCU, the UGCC) and religious institutions that are used as instruments of hybrid aggression. To describe the latter phenomenon, the author introduces and adapts Oswald Spengler’s concept of “historical pseudomorphosis.” It is argued that the activities of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine have signs of religious pseudomorphosis, where the preserved external Orthodox form conceals the alien ideological content of the doctrine of the “russian world.” The research argues that in wartime, authentic faith contributes to the healing of collective trauma and the preservation of identity, while politicized religious surrogates legitimize violence and impose a foreign axiology. The article is based on an analysis of current socio-religious processes in Ukraine and a theological understanding of the ethics of war.
Recommended Citation
Dyiak, Vadym
(2026)
"The Religious Landscape of Ukraine During the War: Consolidation Potential and Destructive Imitations,"
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 46
:
Iss.
4
, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2768
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol46/iss4/3
Included in
History of Religion Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons