Pavlo Pavlenko

Today, Ukrainian churches began to consider the possibility of "theology after Bucha", asking practically the same questions that Christians and Jews were concerned with after World War II. As then the main question was "Where was God at Auschwitz?" Now the question is where Biblical God was during Bucha genocide, and in a broader context, where God is with His love and mercy in Ukraine after February 24, 2022. The article is nearly the first scientific research of the faith-based component in Ukrainian academic religious studies during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. The subject of the article is relatively new research area for Ukrainian scientists, since "theology after Bucha" is, so to speak, a working concept, one of the possible names for the theological direction inherent in post-war Christianity in Ukraine. The author examines the conditions for the foundation of a new theological system in the realm of Ukrainian Christianity after the victory over rushism, following the example of the theology after the Holocaust/Shoa in Western Christianity after WWII. The article analyses a number of caveats that, if not addressed today, could make the constructive development of the abovementioned theology impossible. The author predicts possible parallels between "theology after Auschwitz" and the future "theology after Bucha". In fact, “theology after Auschwitz" did not radically affect Western, primarily European Christianity after 1945 because it did not provide unambiguous answers to a range of urgent essential questions related to the existence of a believer in the world recovering from the great war. So, with a considerable degree of probability (already evident from the remarks of individual representatives of different religious denominations) there is concern that "theology after Bucha" may fail practically at its beginnings, becoming a "pure theory", having no chances to be applied at the all-Christian level. It is partially clear today that an attempt would be made to launch "theology after Bucha" exactly along the ideological tracks of "theology after Auschwitz", that is, to direct it exclusively to the search for the arguments shifting the burden of responsibility for "Bucha" away from God and thereby possibly save Christianity from the ideological crisis it experienced in Ukraine after February 24, 2022. The author concludes that if "theology after Bucha" really begins to move along the similar ideological fairway like "theology after Auschwitz", the post-war Christianity in Ukraine will face a disappointing perspective to lose social relevance and, as a result, will be radically reduced to ritualism.

The range of issues related to the origins of Christianity, the formation of its doctrine, and its existence in the early, pre-Conciliar period has always been of concern not only to Christian scholars, not only to those scholars who were in one or another way involved in these researches, but also to society as a whole. However, in Ukraine, and especially in academic circles, these issues are still not sufficiently studied. The article examines the reasons that led the official Church to change the key provisions of Christian doctrine, including ideological positions about "this world," narratives about war, and the commandments "thou shalt not kill" and "love your enemies." The author argues that the final rejection of the original evangelical pacifism occurred after the conquest of Christianity by Emperor Constantine the Great, when the Church was transformed into an institution of secular power, changing its original status as the "Kingdom of God" to belonging to the "Kingdom of Caesar." Since the reign of Constantine, Christianity has essentially existed divided into two camps. – the first, to which belong all those who profess the church doctrine in its new, "conciliar" and different from the original form and who, in particular, has rejected Jesus' original idea of renunciation of earthly things and, accordingly, the pacifism and anti-militarism he proclaimed; the second camp are those who remained faithful to the apostolic tradition and who continued to practice Christianity according to the original New Testament standard. The latter camp today includes mostly Protestants, including in Ukraine. However, with the onset of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, their pacifist stance is changing. The solution of urgent socio-political issues and issues directly related to defense are increasingly leading Protestants in Ukraine to rethink their traditional pacifism, which may lead to a complete rejection of it in the future. The results obtained in the course of the study provide grounds to significantly adjust the current perceptions of Protestantism in Ukraine, in particular, its positive attitude to socio-political processes and active involvement in them.

6 жовтня 2016 року виповнилося 420 років собору в Бересті, який визначив новий статус Української Церкви в християнському світі. Цей Собор знаходить різні оцінки в богословських і світських публікаціях. Складається враження, що й сама Греко-Католицька Церква, яку він інституював в новій якості, чомусь чи то соромиться його як самовільної без узгодження із Константинополем затії, а чи ж боїться згадувати із-за наявних навіть у своїх велико-католицьких братів, що знаходяться в офіційно нерекламованому союзі із Московсько-Православною Церквою, негативних оцінок уніатизма. Пригадую, як на Різдв’яній урочистості в січні 2016 року у вітальному слові Предстоятеля Церкви навіть не прозвучала згадка про Берестейський Собор. При моїй заувазі йому про це, владика якось ухильно вдався до згадки про Володимирове хрещення, про Львівський псевдо-собор 1946 року, а ось на значимості Берестя чомусь не наголосив.

The last centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, the first centuries after that, were enveloped in the history of mankind as a period of the total crisis and the decline of the Greco-Roman civilization, a crisis that covered virtually all spheres of the social life of the Roman world and which, as ever before, experienced almost every one, whether he is a slave or a free citizen, a small merchant or a big slave or an aristocrat. As a reaction to the crisis, in various parts of the empire the civil wars and the slavery uprising erupt in different parts of the empire. Under such conditions of life, the world around itself no longer seemed to man to be self-sufficient, harmonious, stable, "good" and warded by a cohort of traditional deities. Yes, and the gods themselves were now turned out to be incapable, unable to change the unceasing flow of fatal doom.

What is happening now in Ukraine is, in essence, the further implementation of the Stalinist plan to deprive Ukrainians of their historical memory, the continuation of the "Stalinist-Bolshevik" ethnocide. Not surprisingly, monuments began to appear in us as "the leader of the peoples", and the holiday of the Victory Day became a public holiday "the triumph of Stalin's ideas" and the Communist Party ideology "united and indivisible". Instead, dates such as the Day of Unity of Ukraine, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Holodomor and political repressions are, to put it mildly, unpopular to the authorities.

Римо-Католицька Церква переживає не найкращі часи: тут і проблема ісламізації християнського світу, і деградація моральних цінностей, і руйнація інституту шлюбу і сім’ї. Папа Франциск проголошує розворот Церкви назад до її новозавітного зразка, назад до чистоти і простоти Євангелії. Тут необхідна не перебудова Церкви і навіть не її реформація, а у прямому сенсі її «розворот» назад – на всі 180 градусів – до євангельських засад апостольського християнства. Теологія жінки і теологія бідних є якраз отим дієвим механізмом, який запустить процес навернення католицизму до Ісусового християнства.

Of the main models or projects of globalization, the Vatican Group's project is of particular interest in research, whereby the stake in the world-wide rule is on the "network" the empire "of Catholicism, the" Opus Dei "Order and the Special Service, and the oldest Roman-Germanic aristocratic families. "In the sphere of business," observes A. Yeliseyev, "the Vatican group" puts the main focus on the post-industrial "knowledge economy", unlike the Rockefeller group, which sits on oil and the military-industrial complex, and the "Rothschild group", which deals with noble metals and precious stones and "financial pyramids". It is noteworthy that the Vatican Group has a very winning image of the traditionalist force that affirms the "eternal values ​​of Christianity" in a changing, modern world. In reality, this "pool" offers its own project of globalization, only painted in colors of traditionalism. And this was best confirmed by the Pope of Rome: in his latest encyclical, which contains a direct and unambiguous appeal to the establishment of "world political power."

The theme of the emergence of Christianity has always been and remains the problem, around which there continually undergo scientific discussions, due to the desire to recreate the origins of the historical birth of Christianity, to understand what served him as a kind of informational basis. Religious literature never existed in a certain conceptual unity in the understanding of the sources of Christian religiosity. Somewhere they fluctuate in one direction or another, depending on the ideological position of the researcher and his own attitude towards this religion. However, according to some distinguishing features, certain hypothetical points of view on the origin of Christianity are reduced to the characteristic two. The first one is the beginning of its emergence with Judaism, and considers Christianity to be a logical continuation and, so to speak, a successor, albeit largely different from him. The second - deduces the origin of Christianity from the sphere of Greek idealist thought as such, which served the generative cause of its foundation.

We live in a time when the religious outlook is rapidly losing its popularity. According to the Gallup International Association, which studied religiosity levels in 57 countries around the world, covering about 70% of the world's population, more than half the earthlings, 59%, regard themselves as religious people, while 23% said they were not religious and 13 % generally refer to themselves as convinced atheists. As a result, 36% of people do not have religious beliefs. These data prove the fact that in recent years, 9% of humanity has broken with religion.

Cardinal Lubomir Husar stipulates the hiding of the project on the provision of the patriarchate of the UGCC by the fact that even its sounding, not to mention the implementation, provokes a "wave of protests" in the Vatican circles, because it says "the patriarchate of the UGCC will weaken the communion with the Successor of St. Apostle Peter, and hence - weaken the connection with the whole Catholic Church, "" will mean the creation of a nationalist colored Church that will sow hatred against all others, "will become a" major obstacle to the unification of Christians in Ukraine ", will lead to" neglect of the rights of the Moscow the patriarchate, which considers Ukraine to be its canonical territory, "to the preservation of" uniticism ", which in our time was condemned as an inappropriate way to achieve unity among all Christians"

Якщо західні протестанти і неопротестанти, проповідуючи “вселенське християнське братство”, в такий спосіб є носіями постмодерної глобальної культури, виступають пропагандистами вестернізації світу, то місіонери з країн так званого “близького зарубіжжя”, об’єднуючись в різного роду євразійські інституції, семінарії, союзи, місії, служіння, конференції, об’єднання, зорієнтовані на підтримку або продовження зв’язків на рівні колишнього СРСР, а відтак на розбудову імперськості Росії — Росії як Євразії, “Росії-Євразії”.

Ватикан певно сподівався, що візит апостольського нунція Клаудіо Ґуджеротті 16-18 грудня 2016 р. на окуповані території Донбасу українське суспільство “проковтне” так само легко, як легко воно “проковтнуло” туди ж само і його великодній візит, як свого часу “ковтнуло” зустріч 10 червня 2015 р. Папи Римського Франциска з Президентом РФ В.Путіним, в якій багато хто розгледів явний антиукраїнський контекст, не кажучи вже тут про той антиукраїнський жест, який Папа вчинив, підписавши 12 лютого 2016 р. ганебну “Гаванську декларацію”, за якою Ватикан, по суті, віддає Україну на поталу Москві, бо ж визнає її вотчиною Московського Патріархату. Утім слід таки віддати належне тим, хто, бачачи промосковську лінію поведінки Ватикану, зокрема нинішнього його глави — Папи Франциска, прагне ще переконувати українське суспільство, і насамперед українських римо- і греко-католиків, що, мовляв, тільки в такий спосіб Святий Престол й може доводити, що він “любить Україну”, але просто треба мати здатність “вміти читати”, “слухати”, дивитися “на світ очима Бога Творця”, як про це й повчає Папа.