The Grodno Narrative in the Context of Modern Political Post-Theology

Abstract

The author of this article studies the religious political science, characteristic of the ideologists of church liberalism on the example of the Byelarussian Maidan. The model object of the analysis is the situation in the eparchy of Grodno, sermons and speeches of archpriest Artemiy (Kishchenko) and his entourage, with the help of which the church was supposed to switch the influence from preservation of civil peace to civil and religious conflict and delegitimation of the political electoral process’s results. The article defines religious political science as a post-secular cultural hybrid. This phenomenon, according to the author, is contrasted by church liberalism with a normative and dogmatically-inspired theology, whose ideas legitimately extend into the realm of politics. Religious political science is also defined as a postmodern dualism and a manifestation of contemporary post-theology. The role and consequences of the intentional politicization of the Catholic factor are considered in the context of the Byelarussian events among other factors, including the connection between political Catholicism and the problem of Polish participation in fomenting the conflict inside Byelarus. The article analyzes the difference in the understanding of freedom in the secular-right discourse and in the Christian sense. The author emphasizes that the idea of theologizing political discourse proper is a gross substitution of political theology, that is, the solution of political issues in a theological spirit. This post-secular hybrid or the phenomenon of postmodern quasi-religiousness aims to secularize the Church by inducing it to take ultra-right positions in the political spectrum and imputing secular political concepts and categories at the level of theoretical basis. Overall, this leads to a political secularization of Church preaching, when theology becomes a religious political science unrelated to Christianity.