Via Tertia for the Orthodox Churches

Abstract Since its national awakening in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Ukrainian people have had two options for development: to pursue the modernist program of nation-building or to submit itself to the imperial projects that first the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, then the Soviet Union, and lastly Vladimir Putin were trying to build. The Ukrainian Maidans of 2004 and 2013–14 indicated a third way, a via tertia: to developing a civil society based on civil values, such as transparency, justice, and solidarity. This third option is a way towards modernization. The Ukrainian churches found themselves at the crossroads facing the same choices—the modernist, imperialist, or civil. A public theology that advocates for a ‘symphony’ with civil society, instead of a traditional symphonic relationship with the state, suggests a way for the churches: it would make them coherent with the social developments in the country.