The Byzantine Legacy in the Formation of Spiritual Identity: The Ukrainian Context of Interpretation

Abstract

This article explores Byzantinism as a fundamental factor in the formation of spiritual identity within the Ukrainian historical and cultural context. The aim of the study is to identify the specific features of the reception and transformation of the Byzantine legacy in the tradition of Kyivan Rus and to analyze the impact of this legacy on contemporary Ukrainian religious and cultural consciousness.

The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines historical-philosophical, cultural, and theological analysis. It employs methods of hermeneutics, comparative studies, and structural text analysis, which allows for the reconstruction of the complex dynamics of spiritual continuity from Byzantium to Ukraine.

The findings indicate that Byzantinism, as an integrative cultural-civilizational model, united elements of Roman political culture, Greek philosophical thought, and Christian theology, creating a unique type of sacralized statehood. Unlike the Russian model, the Ukrainian tradition did not adopt this model in the form of rigid caesaropapism but developed its own paradigm of Christian life, in which conciliarity, personalized mysticism, and spiritual autonomy play a central role. In contemporary Ukrainian society, rudimentary elements of Byzantine thinking are still observable, particularly in the sacralization of power, the aestheticization of ritual, and the dominance of symbolic representation over moral substance.

The study emphasizes the need for a critical reassessment of the Byzantine heritage in today’s Ukrainian spiritual environment. On one hand, this legacy offers valuable resources of communal values, deep mysticism, and theological tradition. On the other, it presents risks of authoritarianism, spiritual formalism, and the loss of the personal dimension of faith. The optimal model appears to be one grounded in open spiritual experience, historical self-reflection, and a balance between tradition and transformation.