Innovations of Socio-Religious Thought in Ukraine in the Early 17th Century

Abstract

The article analyzes the polemical socio-religious thought in Ukraine after the Union of Brest and the Union of the Kyiv Metropolitanate with Rome, aimed at finding the lost Orthodox tradition and reviving the idea of “God’s protection” of the city of Kyiv in the Rus Orthodox intellectual tradition of the early 17th century. After-union period in Ukrainian realities is characterized as crisis in the sense of decline of religious life, Rus bourgeoisie and fraternal movement and deviation from the policy of support of the Orthodox princely families. The entire plan of church reform, cultural and national revival of the “Commonwealth of the Rus People” was undermined in its foundations. Therefore, the intellectual religious thought of the early 17th century took into account the memory of the “good old days”, when national (regional) identity based on the Orthodox tradition was searched. However, from the point of view of the continued existence of the Orthodox Church, the defeat was only partial, as Konstiantyn Ostrozkyi and his supporters among the nobility, clergy and burghers managed to preserve the Orthodox church structure. The Cossacks demanded a rethinking of this new reality by intellectuals of the post-Brest era and Ukrainian polemicists were forced to look for an independent base for their socio-religious thought. Completely accepting neither the specific Byzantine coverage of the principles of religious-ecclesiastical ethos, nor Catholic, nor Moscow with its self-confident dogmatism and limited polemics with other confessional world, Rus intellectuals had to delve into the very foundations of a particular ideology and reconsider its value from a domestic and ecclesiastical-legal point of view. There were no winners or losers in this verbal duel. The way out of the crisis was understood by Petro Mohyla, who was ready to recognize the primacy of the Pope in order to preserve the internal independence of the Church.