Panel description: Political events of nowadays are showing very clearly how important is the Church for Ukrainian society. History of religious denominations is an inexhaustible source of facts for building statements and arguments on the cultural and political orientation of Ukrainian state and society. This panel deals with the premodern time, when different cultural and confessional identities were shaped on the Ukrainian lands. Moreover, at this time, the first narratives of national importance appeared among Ruthenian Church intellectuals (both Uniate and Orthodox).
In 1990s, Ukrainian scholars started to argue Ukrainian Christianity was not an amorphous mixture of external influences but represents a certain tradition. However, the question what were the distinctive features of this phenomenon remains open, leaving the concept of Kyivan Christianity under development.
Nevertheless, as German researcher Klaus Koschorke has repeatedly shown, the history of the Church must be treated as a polycentric movement with the proper attention to the plurality of Christian centres. Can we speak of Kyivan Christianity as a separate phenomenon and of Kyiv as one of the centres of the World Christianity?
This panel is aiming to give an answer to that question, taking into consideration a long years research of the Ukrainian history and theology.
Papers:
"TO HEAVEN…OR TO HELL…": ENEIDA, NEW UKRAINIAN LITERATURE, AND THE OLD KYIVAN THEOLOGICAL TRADITION IN THE IMPERIAL PERIOD
Potapenko S. (Speaker)
M. S. Hrushevsky Institute of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine / Goethe University Frankfurt am Main ~ Frankfurt on Main/Kyiv ~ Ukraine
The idea of my paper is to (re)read some classical texts, created during the long 19th century and representing modern Ukrainian literature, in order to scrutinize the plots and features characteristic of the Kyivan theological thought which developed in the earlier periods—especially, in Mohyla's epoch—and the entire complex of peculiarities which can be defined as "Kyivan Christianity", according to the renowned conception recently elaborated by Ihor Skochylias. I hypothesize that the Russian imperial synodal reforms introduced in the Kyivan Orthodox metropolitanate during the 18th century were not effective enough, and therefore certain interpretations inherent to the Kyivan theological tradition, as well as typical practices of local religious life, continued to exist further on the territory of the former Hetmanate, albeit in a hidden/not easily detectable way. Ivan Kotliarevsky's Eneida occupies a prominent place among such texts since it is commonly considered to symbolize the beginning of modern Ukrainian nation-building. Written in a "simple" language and first published in 1798, it bridges the "old" (early modern) and "new" (modern) phases of Ukrainian literary history and contains such seemingly unexpected plots as a description of Purgatory. What other passages might be relevant in the light of the Kyivan ecclesiastical tradition? I plan to examine the novels of Ivan Nechui-Levytsky and the works of other Ukrainian authors.
CHALLENGING THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL NARRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF UKRAINIAN THEOLOGY: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF GEORGES FLOROVSKY'S WAYS OF RUSSIAN THEOLOGY.
Gavrilyuk P. (Speaker)
University of St. Thomas, Minnesota ~ Minnesota ~ United States of America
This paper analyzes Florovsky's treatment of the Kyivan Theological Tradition in his magnum
opus, The Ways of Russian Theology. I argue that Florovsky failed to sufficiently understand the
distinctiveness of this tradition because he took the political narrative of Russian imperial history
for granted. The assumption of the imperial narrative led Florovsky to evaluate all western
influences upon Ukrainian theology as distortions (he borrowed Oswald Spengler's term
"pseudomorphosis" to describe the phenomenon) of Christian Hellenism, which he considered
normative for Orthodox theology. In conclusion, I identify the unique features of the Kyivan
Theological Tradition and chart a way for the future studies of the ways of Ukrainian theology.
TRANS-CONFESSIONALITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY KYIVAN METROPOLITANATE: CULTS OF SAINTS IOV OF POCHAIV AND JOHN THE NEW OF SUCEAVA
Almes I. (Speaker)
Ukrainian Catholic University ~ Lviv ~ Ukraine
The paper concentrates on the issue of trans-confessionality in the Eighteenth-Century
Kyivan Uniate Metropolitanate. Tridentine style unification and the Zamość Council of 1720
created a Uniate confessional culture. But the cults of two Orthodox saints are great examples
of trans-confessional practices in eighteenth-century Uniate (Basilian) monasteries: Pochaiv
and Zhovkva. The cult of the saints after the confessional conversion of the monasteries from
Orthodox Christianity to Eastern Catholicism (Uniate) continued being practiced; however, it
was unofficial, meaning a strictly local cult. The transfer of relics from Suceava to Zhovkva
led to the cult's emergence in a new place that had not previously been associated with St
John (the patron of Moldavian lands and trade) in any way. In the summer of 1686, Polish
king Jan Sobieski, returning from a Moldavian war campaign, took Metropolitan Dosytheus
and St. John the New relics from Suceava. The relics first came to Stryi and then to Zhovkva
(now a city in Ukraine) monastery. The fact that the Polish king himself, as the promoter of
the cult, relocated the relics to the Zhovkva monastery was one of the most powerful
arguments for practicing the cult despite confessional borders. The cult of Iov Zhelizo was
closely connected to the relics and to his patronage of the place. The power of the relics
overcame confessional boundaries despite official rules and bureaucratic procedures. What
were the strategies involved in practicing the cult of a non-beatified person for Catholics but
a saint for Orthodox? And for what reasons did the cult of the local saint dominate official
prescriptions? Research also discusses the borderless cultural practices beyond political
(Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Wallachia from the Ottoman empire) and
confessional (an Orthodox saint in an Eastern Catholic monastery) borders.
ORTHODOXA CONFESSIO FIDEI LITERATI AND (UN)ORIGINAL THEOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION OF THE GIFT GIVING BY KYIVAN LITERATI IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD.
Prokopyuk O. (Speaker)
National Museum Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra / Goethe University Frankfurt am Main ~ Kyiv ~ Ukraine
The paper is dedicated to the analysis of the theological justification of the gift giving
formulated by Kyivan literati of the early modern period. The main source will be the Orthodoxa
Confessio Fidei or Catechism, a doctrinal text by Petro Mohyla and Isaia Trofymovych-
Kozlovsky, which sets out the Orthodox doctrine in a certain system. The Code was reviewed
and adopted by the Church Council of Eastern Patriarchs in Iassy in May 1642. The final version
of the Orthodoxa Confessio Fidei, translated into Greek, was approved by the Church Synod in
Constantinople on 11 March 1643 as the general doctrine of the Orthodox Church. The main
considerations set out in the Orthodoxa Confessio Fidei regarding the gifts and their relation to
prayer and salvation were detailed in the prefaces to the commemoration books (pomennyk,
synodyk) of Kyivan monasteries of the 17th and 18th centuries and confirmed the idea of the
Church as an institution in which gifts circulate, already present in doctrine and canon law.
Until then, theological justification of the gift giving by Kyivan literati has not been
studied, especially the question of (un)original, which is of paramount interest given the common
or different ideas about death and salvation among Orthodox, Uniates, Roman Catholics, and
Protestants. In order to address these general questions, it is worth answering some specific
questions, for example, about the system of arguments used; about the selection of texts that
were referred to confirm the idea, etc. While the Orthodoxa Confessio Fidei sets out the ideas
that defined gift giving, the prefaces to the commemoration books, based on its, provided models
that established everyday practices. In addition, each monastery had to take care of its centrality
and formulated a separate offer for donors.
THE INVENTION (?) OF THE KYIVAN THEOLOGICAL TRADITION IN THE 17TH CENTURY: CONTINUITY OF TEXTS AND IDEAS.
Sinkevych N. (Speaker)
University of Leipzig ~ Leipzig ~ Germany
The term "Kyivan theological tradition" is not commonly used. With the light hand of Georgy Florovsky, the works of Kyivan authors have been suspected for several decades of distortion (pseudo-metamorphosis) of true Byzantine Orthodoxy. This thesis, eagerly taken up by Russian historiography, is reinforced by the illustration of Western borrowings in the works of Kyivan Orthodox authors and is also to be found among contemporary theologians and historians, who seem to be forced to apologise for the "Latinism" of Kyivan authors. Not better is the situation with the appraisals of the Uniate theology. Scholars underlined that the Uniat Church broken the connection between lex credendi and lex orandi accepting the Catholic theology and thus lost the integrity between its theological and liturgical life that is of a great importance in the Eastern Church. Most of the scholars, however, did not consider the fact that the Eastern Christian theology at the beginning of the 17th century was still dogmatised that left a certain space for independent theologising and interconfessional debates.
Kyivan controversial theology aimed to draw a clear line between the Kyivan and other traditions. The late 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries was a golden age of Kyivan theology that moved in many directions: anti-Protestant, anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish ones.
Without breaking with their declared loyalty to the Byzantine tradition, Kyivan intellectuals came under the influence of Western post-Triduum theology in virtually all its areas: Mariology, Christology, soteriology, angelology, asceticism, etc. Despite the criticism from Moscow, Kyiv, as Natalia Yakovenko aptly puts it, lived "in its own theological and intellectual rhythm."
HOLY RUS AND HISTORY: IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCES OF 'KYIV' AND 'MOSCOW' ORTHODOX HISTORIOGRAPHY.
Morawiec N. (Speaker)
Jan Dlugosz academy ~ Częstochowa ~ Poland
The paper will analyse the views of Kyiv and Moscow Orthodox authors on the Orthodox history. Particular attention will be paid to fluctuations in historical interpretations made under the influence of political-confessional changes in the 16th-19th centuries. These interpretations were constructed by Orthodox-Catholic theological polemics after the Union of Brest. The loss of Kyiv to the Commonwealth in the 17th century led to a new vision of the Moscow-Kyiv history ('Sinopsis') that began to permeate Russian soil during the reign of Peter I who actively used the 'Malorussians' to provide state reforms and building of the imperial historiography (from Teofan Prokopovich to George Konissky). Catherine II's exaltation of the 'Velorussians' and Platon Levshin's creation of a 'Moscow' synthesis of the history of Russian Orthodoxy initiated further interpretive transformations. They were aimed at preparing an imperial interpretation of the history of the Orthodox Church, yet typically Russian. However, subsequent political and confessional changes led to a questioning of the hegemony of Orthodox historiography written by 'learned monks' and the emergence of an 'oberprocuratorial' vision (Mikhail Muravyov), a 'West Russian' vision (Yosef Semyashko), or a vision of secular researchers.
SOME ASPECTS OF THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF KYIVAN CHRISTIAN TRADITION.
Chemodanova O. (Speaker)
Charles University ~ Prag ~ Czech Republic
High Middle Ages in Kyivan Rus' left us a splendor of sources which
shed the light to its Christian spiritual practices, worldviews and theological
ideas. These sources are various, including chronicles, lives of saints,
testaments, sermons, travel diaries, inscriptions on the walls of old churches,
and so forth. Contradictory to the theory of modern nations they testify to the
existence of imagined proto-national communities based on common language
and religion, not only on dynastic loyalty. They also reveal the spoken
language. Moreover, they show religious convictions and individual piety of the
age.
The history of Kiev Rus' or Kyivan Rus' became a battle between
Russian imperial historical narrative, claiming it to be the cradle of triune
nation, and Ukrainian historiography, stating that Kyiv was always Ukrainian.
Unfortunately, the first narrative is still firmly dominant amongst theological
academia, who inherited it from the Russian Orthodox White emigration. Even
in the 21st century, the whole medieval period of Kyivan state is automatically
attributed to Russia, while Ukrainian language and culture are regarded to be
the fruit of Polish influences. In my presentation, I'm not going to deal
intensively with historiographic debates. Instead, I would like to give the voice
to medieval Kyivans themselves - to trace their concerns and ideas from pages
of the Primary Chronicle by Nestor, the Testament of Volodymyr Monomakh to
Children, the Sermon on Law and Grace by Hilarion, metropolitan of Kyiv, and
other primary sources. This classics, however, helps to grasp their spiritual,
national and political imagination. It also posts a question whether a Kyiv
theological tradition emerged in that era and, if so, what features it had.