The evolution of a church and religious role in the Ukrainian national and cultural Renaissance in the second half of the 19th - the first third of the 20th century: the modern historiography

Abstract

The Ukrainian historiographical narrative of the religious and church place and role in the Ukrainian national and cultural Renaissance, and in the national liberation movement in the second half of the 19th and the first third of the 20th century is analyzed in the issue. The modern historians consider the ecclesiastical and religious factors of the Ukrainian Renaissance according to two levels. The first level reveals the history of religious thought, the representatives of which study the religious reflections of the prominent figures in culture, education, religion and literature, the second level conveys the history of the church life in Ukraine, the analysis of the church institutes’ role and place in the Ukrainian modern national and cultural Renaissance (the activity of UGCC, the Unification Council of the Eastern Orthodox Churches of Ukraine, the UAOC, etc.) is presented. A defined historiographical issue complies with the evolutional levels of a religious and ecclesiastical component in the modern spiritual, cultural, political and civil processes, namely the development of religious thought and institutional orientation of church and parish-based education in the second half of the 19th century contributed to the ecclesiastical and religious integration with the national democratic society and state establishment in the early 20th century. The scope of the church and religious activity on the Ukrainian lands had a moderate character in the second half of the 19th century compared to the first decades of the “long century”. The Ukrainian lands were divided politically as well as confessional that strengthened sacral indifference and “religious absenteeism”. The positive fact was that the modern historians had left politicization in the sacral and religious issues’ consideration which was a mainstream in the Soviet period. The scientists support a common thought that despite an institutional weakness of the church and religious life on the Ukrainian lands in the second half of the 19th century, the religion and faith were preserved as the essential features of the Ukrainian mentality, and as a result plays a crucial role in the Ukrainian cultural and spiritual development, put a base for the further governmental struggle. A final conclusion was drawn that the religious thought development, the prominent thinkers’ reflections about the Ukrainian Christianity and national church phenomena prepared the necessary conditions for the regularizing and further building of the Ukrainian church life in the beginning of the 20th century.