The course of the latest events more and more forces us to think over the role of religion in our society. September of this year will see the 25th anniversary of the Religious Studies Department of Ukraine’s Institute of Philosophy. We spoke about the gains, priorities, and creditworthiness of the Church with Liudmyla FYLYPOVYCH, Professor, Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy), head of the abovementioned department.
“WE HAVE DONE IN 25 YEARS WHAT EUROPEAN RELIGION RESEARCHERS MANAGED TO ACHIEVE IN 150 YEARS”
Ms. Fylypovych, what is the current condition of religious studies as a science? What are the challenges and priorities?
“Firstly, a new science, religious studies, has emerged in the past 25 years. As recently as in 1991 it did not exist as an independent scholarly branch. The knowledge of religion was confined to its criticism within the framework of Marxist scientific atheism. The concept was that people who build communism should have a non-religious, atheistic, mindset. This was the ultimate goal of all the humanities, especially in Ukraine which, unlike the other USSR republics, was always notable for a high level of religiousness. Aware of the importance of the positive knowledge of religion for social progress, we have abandoned scientific atheism and established a branch of the humanities known as religious studies. This allowed us to become part of the European religious study environment and enter a number of international religious research associations. It is on our basis that the Coordination Council for Theoretical and Practical Religion Studies in Eastern Europe was formed (which means recognition of our efforts). Therefore, in the past 25 years, religion studies have been constituted in Ukraine as an academic science with its inherent methods, principles, and categories of cognizing religious phenomena and processes. We wrote all this in a generalized form in our collective publication Academic Religious Studies as long ago as 2000. Secondly, we have managed to put religious studies on the list of bachelor- and master-degree general education disciplines, draw up a scholarly curriculum and syllabi in this specialty, and publish some manuals for similar special courses. Naturally, we involved Ukraine’s universities with religion-study departments in this. We have today professional religion researchers with masters’, Ph.D., and higher doctorate degrees. In a word, we have done in 25 years what European religion researchers managed to achieve in 150 years. I think the main result of our 25-year-long work is drastic changes in the public attitude to and assessment of religion. The vulgar interpretation of religion as opium of the people has been dropped, and religion is now viewed as a spiritual and cultural phenomenon which can and must be explored in an integrated and comprehensive manner. Our department has achieved a considerable success in this. In the past 25 years, we have published more than 200 monographs, scholarly collections, and periodicals, including Religiina svoboda, a yearly, Ukrainske religieznavstvo, a quarterly, and Religiina panorama, a monthly until recently. We have taken part in organizing about 150 scholarly conferences of different formats and writing about 300 expert materials for various institutions. In addition to employing fulltime academics, the department also cooperates on a part-time basis with 12 Ukrainian university religion researchers and the same number of foreign professors. The list can be continued.
“As for challenges, they are different at every stage of the development of society and the related sciences. Religious studies must show now that religion is a phenomenon that creates a meaning for human and societal existence and sets the right priorities.”
Let us discuss, in practical terms, the very phenomenon of the Church. To what extent has the attitude of society to the Church changed today? I can remember that in 2013, on the eve of all the events, the Church was, as well as the mass media, the most creditworthy institution.
“I agree with you that religious studies must be practical. We have mapped out certain categories and concepts, but it is important to be able to apply them to the real life of society. And, in reality, trust in the Church is somewhat on the decline: while it accounted for over 70 percent in 2011-13, it is 58.6 percent this year (according to a Razumkov Center survey). I would put it down to people’s profound disappointment over the current developments, a flagging social optimism, the economic and political crisis, spiritual fatigue, and an uncertain future. But, compared to other institutions, such as the authorities, the army, the media, etc., the Church still enjoys a high level of confidence: 58.6 percent means that practically a half of the respondents consider the Church an important institution to rely on and draw support from. The Church’s rating will depend to a large extent on the clergy. For example, confidence in the Moscow Patriarchate’s Orthodox Church is shrinking because this community fails to adequately respond to the current challenges, such as the annexation of Crimea, the war in eastern Ukraine, mentioning the enemy country’s church patriarch in prayers, refusal to perform a funeral service over the ATO soldiers who do not belong to this church, etc. The faithful ‘vote’ against this policy, seeking spiritual refuge in other communities, such as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) or the Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and setting up alternative Orthodox structures. I think this is a warning for the Church to timely respond to the aspirations of its believers. I must also say that 58.6 percent includes not only the believers: many of those who are off the limits of denominational communities also trust the Church. For example, Patriarch Filaret and His Beatitude Lubomyr (Huzar) are some of the most authoritative spiritual leaders in Ukrainian society.”
“IN REALITY, WE HAVE ABOUT 100 DENOMINATIONS”
Our religious milieu is very variegated – over 50 different denominations. Is it positive or negative?
“I think in reality we have much more than 50 – about 100 denominations. Our books Religious Minorities in Ukraine and New Religions in Ukraine describe 108. But it’s not all. Yet it is not so large a number. For example, about 30 new religious organizations are ‘born’ every week in the US. But Ukrainian indicators remain the same for years, and some of the denominations that announced themselves 15-20 years ago have disappeared without a trace. We watch this and are interested in maintaining a relationship with denominations. The first decade of independence was very stormy – in fact from 1989 when several churches emerged from the underground. New foreign religions and churches ‘arrived’ in Ukraine because, since the Gorbachev perestroika, people had seen the signs of freedom and, hence, the right to choose any religion. I don’t think there will be any changes in today’s religious landscape in the near future. The now existing multi-denominational religious network will remain behind in the coming years. And let us admit that Ukraine has never been homogenous spiritually. No religion, no church, has even existed here as a monopolist. It was a territory where different traditions peacefully coexisted and which gave shelter to the religious and spiritual trends that were persecuted in other countries. For example, Old Ritualists, Molokans, and some Orthodox minorities moved here from the East and still feel very good, while Lutherans, Mennonites, Baptists, and some other denominations came from the West. For this reason, Ukrainians never lived in a situation of church monism. It is our experience. Can it really be negative? This religious diversity prompted Ukrainians to display no aggression to and show respect for people of a different faith. For example, in the western Ukrainian village, where my father was born, people of diverse ethnicities and, hence, faiths (Judaists, Sabbatarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roman Catholics, Orthodox) lived next to one another for centuries. Our grandmother treated everybody with Christian love and taught us, her grandchildren, to do the same. Life itself prompted Ukrainians to create a culture of tolerance, good will, hospitality, and inclusiveness. In my view, religious diversity formed respect for a different individual, for his or her choice of outlook and behavior. Of course, we can recall some interreligious conflicts, but they occurred in the periods of social unrest and were not the root cause of any major confrontations. We have published dozens of works on interdenominational relations and religious tolerance. We also hold a lot of scholarly conferences on this subject not only in Kyiv, but also in other cities, to which we often invite foreign academics, practicing clergymen, and leaders of some denominations in the regions. We’ve done a good job – that Ukraine is a country of predictable religious peace is also much to the credit of our department. In all these years, we’ve had close and fruitful relations with the State Committee (now State Department) for Religion – we have delegated our people to expert councils and staged various events together. I must say that the religious situation in Ukraine is a big and complicated matter. Unless we constantly monitor and take a scientific approach to it, we are likely to make inadmissible mistakes.”
“A TOMOS IS NOT THE FIRST BUT THE LAST STAGE IN THE GRANTING OF TRUE AUTOCEPHALY”
The most pressing problem in today’s religious situation is about the Local Ukrainian Church. The interdenominational dialog is very difficult now. What is your vision of the solution of this problem?
“I think 25 years is too short a stretch of historical time to solve such a serious problem as establishment of a local Orthodox church. This question could be settled quickly and easily – by way of buying autocephaly, as other churches have often done in history. For the question is not in a piece of paper. A tomos [ecclesiastical edict. – Ed.] is not the first but the last stage in the granting of true autocephaly. Our society has only begun to be aware of the necessity of autocephaly. You can’t possibly drive everybody into one institution by edict and force them to pray in the same language and read the same texts. There must be an initiative from both above and below, from ordinary believers. When the Moscow and Kyiv patriarchate churches began to negotiate reunification, we asked Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) if the Church he led, of the Moscow Patriarchate, was prepared for reunite. He answered: ‘We are, but the people are not.’ Autocephaly is a problem of organizational setup and jurisdiction that cannot be solved by force. The same applies to the majority of religious issues. For we know that an individual can sacrifice their own life for their religious persuasions. ‘And what is to be done?’ you will ask. ‘To wait until everybody is mature enough to accept the reunited Local Ukrainian Church? I think it is important today to explain to Ukrainians the necessity of this Church, consistently and regularly remind them of spiritual unity and the common Christian tradition. What is more, to be united does not mean to be one. All the people will hardly belong to the same Orthodox or any other Christian church. In my view, the Local Church is a community that comprises all of Ukraine’s Orthodox Christians who associate their spiritual and earthly life with Jesus Christ in the Ukrainian way. What does ‘in the Ukrainian way’ mean? This means to be aware of our self-sufficiency: we are not a marginal fragment of some exalted civilization, we have historical roots, we are not a bizarrely mixed ethnos that came to this land from somewhere, we are not a fringe of someone’s empire, our tongue is not a dialect but one of the Indo-European languages, our culture is not a weak and unproductive subculture but something far higher, we are not an unsuccessful experiment of God who has no plans about us, we are not secondary or tertiary to anyone else… Incidentally, nobody denies that this country may have Orthodox churches with a different foundation – for the Russians, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Romanians if they do not wish to be in the Ukrainian church. There will be a local church! The only question is the way this will be achieved. It is now clear to the majority (including the government and parliament, which has requested the Constantinople Patriarchate to grant autocephaly, and the president who said that only the [ecumenical] patriarch can help Orthodox Ukrainians reunite and bring the Ukrainian Church’s canonical status into line with the worldwide Orthodox precepts) that this cannot be done via Moscow which has lost, by force of its imperial shortsightedness, the privilege of granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and all the Russian Orthodox Church’s reasoning about autonomous management is a historical condemnation of itself. The vast majority of Ukrainians know that the Kyiv Metropolitan See emerged thanks to our maternal Constantinople Church. The Patriarch of Constantinople has repeatedly reminded himself, us, and Moscow in the past 25 years that he recognizes Ukraine as his canonical territory within the bounds of 1686, when a part of Ukrainian lands went under the Moscow Patriarchate. The 2016 Pan-Orthodox Council on Crete inspires a hope that our expectations will be met.”
“OUR OFFICIALS ARE BLISSFULLY IGNORANT IN MATTERS OF RELIGION”
We have already said that it is important to explain religion to society in easier-to-grasp terms. In what way does the knowledge of religion influence the making of a civic stand?
“We have reliable information that 70 percent of Ukrainians consider themselves believers and 60 percent trust the Church. It is, at first glance, a high level of religiousness. But, in reality, there are not so many truly religious people even among those who regularly go to church, not to mention atheists and the indifferent. Our officials are blissfully ignorant in matters of religion. For how can you otherwise explain why MPs have been blocking for years the law that gives religious organizations the right to establish their own educational institutions? We still don’t have a law on charity and patronage, which the church and society need so badly.
“It is religious organizations themselves that are first of all responsible for overcoming religious ignorance in society. Denominations annually report on having hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunday schools. But are all of them productive? Do all of them work? For example, the Rev. Bohdan Boiko’s Summer school in Zhytomyr works the whole week, for a Sunday is not enough for him, while this kind of schools has not even begun to work in some other places. The Muslims faithful are being intensively educated at new Islamic cultural centers. Protestants study in several shifts throughout the week – they in fact continuously study as long as they live.
“We are vitally interested in spreading the knowledge of religion and about various denominations, which, no matter what people call the God they pray to, forms the feeling that their life is being guided by the Supreme Being and that they are personally responsible for this life. Naturally, it is the clergy that play the main role here, but we, religion researchers, also impart basic knowledge about religion. Religion interests us not as something abstract and ephemeral, as an imaginary system of relationship between components and functions, but as a thing that has always accompanied people and provided them with an ultimate meaning of existence. So we are striving to explain that the global religious experience is multifaceted and useful. It has prevented humankind from being dehumanized. Thanks to religion, individuals are human, for, in their constructive thoughts and actions, they turn to things divine, including those inside themselves.
“A considerable role in basic religious education is assigned to journalists who should focus not only on church scandals, but also on the fact that religion gives a human being the lost or the still-to-be-found meaning of life, pulls them from difficult situations in life, and promotes optimism.
“Striking religious studies off the list of compulsory disciplines, Education Ministry officials do not understand that, like philosophy, religious studies are part of the humanities that shape an individual and set the value-related priorities that will guide him or her later in everyday life. Only these philosophy- and morality-oriented subjects can form a protective layer in society against corruption, mendacity, and crime. It will take a long time to overcome the current humanitarian disaster in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, where people call out ‘Russia, come here!’ in an attempt to return to the totalitarian and despotic Soviet past and do not protest against persecutions, slavery, discrimination of human rights and freedoms. The humanities, including religious studies, are in their bad books. Will Ukraine manage to thwart the scandalous amendments to the law on the freedom of conscience and religious organizations, which were adopted in Russia in 2016 on Yarovaya’s initiative? Are we going to see the files of children with red neckties on, who sing communist anthems, as it happened recently in Sevastopol?”
Ms. Fylypovych, we began with speaking about religious studies as a science and will perhaps conclude with this. Your department is celebrating its 25th anniversary. What is your plan of actions for the next two or more decades?
“Religion-studying academics must have touched upon all the possible topics. The department has done research in over 30 themes, publishing a collective monograph in each case. So, we have serious achievements of which we are proud. It is, among other things, a comprehensive 10-volume History of Religion and 12 books of the cycle ‘Christianity in its History and Essence, or a Project to Restore the Philosophical and Theological Thought in the Diaspora.’ We’ve managed to discover a lot of names associated with the religious life of Ukrainians. Such topics as freedom of conscience and worship, interreligious and interdenominational dialog, and state-church relations are on top of the public agenda. We have expressed our opinion on the theory and methodology of the science of religion and singled out and justified religious studies as a structural discipline. We are going to publish a two-volume Ukrainian Encyclopedia of Religion.
“But science and life are marching on. The reality that needs to be researched is too dynamic to keep pace with. There still are a lot of spheres and thematic fields, where a religion researcher can excel. Apart from doing a purely scholarly job – increasing the knowledge of the religious phenomenon in all the multiplicity of its forms of manifestation, – we are trying to emerge as a mediator between church and society, between church and the authorities, and between churches. We can see that religious studies are in demand in Ukrainian society. I dream of Ukrainian religious studies being also properly presented on a global level, and we have done almost everything to this end – we are now a collective member of the European Association for the Study of Religions and the International Association for the History of Religions. This opens up breathtaking prospects for religion researchers. So let’s go ahead!”
