“And Your Father Who Sees in Secret Will Reward You” (Mt. 6:4). Civil Religion as a Temptation for Public Openness of the Church

Abstract

The author offers connection between traditional theology of the Church and public theology like a relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. That means that activation of the public role of religion should not negate its private role, that is, prayer as a person’s intimate communication with God. Otherwise, it can turn religion into an ideology or into a so-called “civil religion”. The author quotes Cyril Hovorun, who criticizes “imperial ideology” and exposes “politicized and aggressive church structures.” The author also mentions the ideas of Wolfgang Huber, who emphasizes the importance of the “public order of the Church,” but at the same time speaks on the danger of a “malleable adaptation of the Church” to the needs of “this world.”

Another prophetic voice on the place of the Church in the society is Metropolitan John Zizioulas, who highlights a number of trends in the identity of the Church. Considering the importance of ideological, missionary, moralistic and therapeutic functions, he emphasizes that “the Church is identified in the sacraments.” The reflections of the three mentioned thinkers on the Russian, German and Greek contexts are complemented by an analysis of recent sociological data on Ukrainians’ perception of the place of religion in the public sphere. In particular, figures on support for denominational bias, “national orientation”, criteria of “trust to the Church” and the idea of a “state church” are outlined. They confirm the rejection of the position of state power by the majority of Ukrainian citizens in the time of President Poroshenko (2014-2019), who instrumentalized the sphere of religion to confront the neighboring state and actively involved religious factors into his election campaign.