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Document Details : Title: Kerk, religie en theologie in Rusland en Oekraïne Author(s): VAN DER ZWEERDE, E. Journal: Journal of Eastern Christian Studies Volume: 50 Issue: 1-2 Date: 1998 Pages: 61-87 DOI: 10.2143/JECS.50.1.2003064 Abstract : Church, Religion and Theology in Russia and the Ukraine The aim of this article is to grasp the complicated situation of Church, religion, and theology in contemporary Russia and Ukraine. While the disappearance of the Soviet system has created a situation of freedom, in which a variety of churches and religious organizations can deploy their activities to an extent unimaginable a mere ten years ago, it also has left behind a social and political wasteland, in which a so-called ‘civil society’ is only beginning to develop. The greatest challenge today, both for the citizenry at large and for religious groups, seems to be a recognition of this situation as a ‘normal’ state of society, rather than as a vacuum waiting to be filled in by new hierarchical structures. This challenge presents itself with particular urgency to the strongest religious organization, the Russian Orthodox Church. The traditional, ‘national’ Church of Russia (in the broad sense, including Ukraine), but at the same time attracting only a small proportion of the post-Soviet populace, is a structure in which many initiatives flourish, exemplified here by the field of theology teaching, but which also tends to seek mutual support with the weakly developed state structure. |
