State-Religious Relations during a Coronavirus Pandemic: Collisions of Religious Security

by Vitalii Turenko¹ and Viktoria Zaporozhets^2
1 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Kyiv, Ukraine)
² Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Kyiv, Ukraine)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/up/7/9
Received: 20 September 2020 / Accepted: 11 November 2020 / Published: 3 December 2020

The article reveals the features of the relationship between the state and religious organizations during a pandemic. There are two strategies of state policy for the functioning of religious buildings: liberal and strategic. It has been proven that conditioned by one or another form of government and understanding of the role and significance of religion in society. The leaders of states in their decisions regarding the functioning of religious organizations in such a crisis period proceeded from the number of cases in a particular country, as well as from the traditions of key religious beliefs in a particular state. It was revealed that religious organizations were faced with a collision: either to submit to the decisions of the authorities of a certain country or to go «against» and thereby inflicting danger on the population. Therefore, it was possible to observe that if the leaders of religious organizations urged believers to adhere to the restrictive measures established by the authorities, then some believers in a number of countries did not obey quarantine measures, explaining this either by their religious beliefs or apocalyptic sentiments.

Keywords: pandemic, state-religion relations, COVID-19, religious life, religious security, Ukrainian reality, state policy

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