Identity of Orthodox believers in modern Ukraine

Abstract

The features of the development of Orthodox believers’ identity in modern Ukrainian society are
explored. It is stated that the identity of Ukrainian Orthodox believers is characterized by the layering
of several identities, combining religious and cultural components. The religious component of the
Orthodox identity includes rational and irrational experience of comprehending the Christian God
and appears as a world-view basis of church-confessional self-determination. For some of believers
Orthodox identity means adopting a way of life and a system of values under the influence of which
social identity becomes religiously colored. The determining influence of spiritual values on social
behavior forms and the independence of these values from the change in political systems makes
the main features of the deterministic religious factor of civic identity.
The cultural component of the modern believers’ Orthodox identity is based on ideological
uncertainty, undeveloped civic consciousness, globalization challenges, ideas about the traditional
character of Orthodox identity. Taking this into account, it is determined that for a large part of
Orthodox believers self-identification appears not so much through the confession of faith and the
adoption of the Orthodox way of life as through recognition of Orthodoxy as a cultural tradition
that has historically developed in the country. Awareness of belonging to culture, which stimulates
the vision formation of its development ways, means actualization the civic type national identity.
It is established that an important factor in the development of the Orthodox believers’ identity in
Ukraine is the civilization dimension of the jurisdictional division, the problem of which has not yet
been resolved. The main factor determining the development of the believers’ identity at the present
stage is the creation of a Local Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Belonging to one of the Orthodox
jurisdictions will further determine the Ukrainian Orthodox believers’ identification model.
Keywords: confessional identity, Orthodox believer, Ukrainian society, tradition, Orthodox
jurisdiction, religious community, cultural identity