“THEOLOGY AFTER...” or CHRISTIANITY IN A WORLD OF UNREFUTED CLAIMS

Strokes to “theology after Bucha”

Abstract

Today, Ukrainian churches began to consider the possibility of "theology after Bucha", asking practically the same questions that Christians and Jews were concerned with after World War II. As then the main question was "Where was God at Auschwitz?" Now the question is where Biblical God was during Bucha genocide, and in a broader context, where God is with His love and mercy in Ukraine after February 24, 2022. The article is nearly the first scientific research of the faith-based component in Ukrainian academic religious studies during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. The subject of the article is relatively new research area for Ukrainian scientists, since "theology after Bucha" is, so to speak, a working concept, one of the possible names for the theological direction inherent in post-war Christianity in Ukraine. The author examines the conditions for the foundation of a new theological system in the realm of Ukrainian Christianity after the victory over rushism, following the example of the theology after the Holocaust/Shoa in Western Christianity after WWII. The article analyses a number of caveats that, if not addressed today, could make the constructive development of the abovementioned theology impossible. The author predicts possible parallels between "theology after Auschwitz" and the future "theology after Bucha". In fact, “theology after Auschwitz" did not radically affect Western, primarily European Christianity after 1945 because it did not provide unambiguous answers to a range of urgent essential questions related to the existence of a believer in the world recovering from the great war. So, with a considerable degree of probability (already evident from the remarks of individual representatives of different religious denominations) there is concern that "theology after Bucha" may fail practically at its beginnings, becoming a "pure theory", having no chances to be applied at the all-Christian level. It is partially clear today that an attempt would be made to launch "theology after Bucha" exactly along the ideological tracks of "theology after Auschwitz", that is, to direct it exclusively to the search for the arguments shifting the burden of responsibility for "Bucha" away from God and thereby possibly save Christianity from the ideological crisis it experienced in Ukraine after February 24, 2022. The author concludes that if "theology after Bucha" really begins to move along the similar ideological fairway like "theology after Auschwitz", the post-war Christianity in Ukraine will face a disappointing perspective to lose social relevance and, as a result, will be radically reduced to ritualism.