NATIONAL-STATE AND RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: PATTERNS OF INTERACTION IN THE MODERN WORLD

Abstract

The purpose of the study is a systematic study of key patterns of mutual influence of national-state and religious identity in the modern world. The research methodology is a cross-temporal analysis of various national (within the framework of understanding the experience of various political systems) political practices of the mutual influence of religious and national-state identity. The authors note that the importance of this topic is due to both political and theoretical aspects and the religious and political dynamics of the post-Soviet space (an attempt by Constantinople to create a so-called Ukrainian local church). Particular attention is also paid to the process of “religious renaissance” a surge of confessional identities in the modern world. As a result, the authors identify four main patterns of interaction between religious and national-state identity in modern conditions: “driver”, conflict-constitutive, “symphonic” and conflict-fragmentary. The first is characteristic of mono-ethnic and mono-confessional societies, where religion serves as the driver of the formation of national-state identity. The conflict-constituting model is inherent in multi-ethnic societies, in which religion performs (partially) the function of a consolidating mechanism. The “symphonic” model is characteristic for cases when the “state” and “church” try to find a balance with the determining role of national-state identity. The conflict-fragmented model is an example of a situation where the crisis of national-state identity is exacerbated by religious conflicts.