Religionspluralismus, Religionsfreiheit und Entsäkularisierung : der Fall Ukraine

Abstract

In the 1990s and 2000s, religious pluralism and strong competition between churches led to a comparatively high level of religious freedom in Ukraine. Dеspite the fact that Victor Yanukovychs regime sought to brutally destroy the foundations of this freedom, the principal actors of the Ukrainian religious scene managed to define a common platform for defending their social, political, civic, cutural, and moral positions. The failure of Yanukovychs» religious policy«, directed mostly against the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, is connected with the different roles played by local churches in the formation o f the modern Uk rainian nation. The same factors lay behind the different types of desecularization that have unfolded in Ukraine since mid -1980s. At the present stage of the Ukrainian nation -build in g process, the key factor that will dehne the role o f churches and religious organizations is not their attempts to con so lid ate the nation based on co m m o n customs, beliefs, and Symbols. Rather, it is their ability to stay at the fore front of radical social and m oral transformations.