Open AccessThe phenomenon of Ukrainian religious pluralism
Author(s) -
Anatolii M. Kolodnyi
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
relìgìjna svoboda
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2663-0818
pISSN - 2617-9296
DOI - 10.32420/rs.2013.17-18.995
Subject(s) - paganism , christianity , baptism , religious studies , pluralism (philosophy) , religious pluralism , history of religions , philosophy , idolatry , theology , epistemology
Ukraine is a religiously plural country since its appearance on the world map. Already in the first of its power formation, the Kiev-Rus power coexisted the beliefs of their gods of the Gentiles of various tribes, an attempt to combine them into a single pantheon sought to implement (albeit unsuccessfully) Prince Vladimir in 982. In our own way, our people perceived in their spiritual world and Christianity after his baptism by Prince Vladimir in 988. He united in his beliefs this religion with paganism, and thus became two-sided. And it could not be otherwise. Paganism is a religious picture of nature and human activity in it. Christianity is the religious picture of man in her relationship with other people and God. That is why, having come to our lands, Christianity, because of the absence of any of its specific natural connotations, could not replace, but rather supersede paganism. It baptized him. Therefore, we now have virtually no pure Christianity in the beliefs of the people, but Christianized paganism and, at the same time, lucid Christianity. This syncretism is one of the foundations of the religious plurality that characterizes the spiritual world of our people.