Рецензія на книгу: "Максим Яременко. Перед викликами уніфікації та дисциплінування: Київська православна митрополія у XVIII столітті. - Львів : Видавництво УКУ, 2017. - 272 с.".
The main research problem of the next book of Maksym Yaremenko published as the fourth volume
of the series “Kyiv Christianity” and newly initiated by Ukrainian Catholic University is the incorporation
of the Kyiv Orthodox Metropolitanate into the newly formed unified imperial Synodal Church. As in his
previous monograph, the researcher substantially corrects the cliched stereotypes formed in Ukrainian
historiography under the influence of the so-called “national paradigm”. In this case, he deals with
a rather firmly rooted statement that after the subordination change of the Kyiv Metropolitanate from
Constantinople to Moscow in 1686, the church life in Ukraine was rebuilt according to the Moscow
model, and all the “national” traditions were destroyed. The researcher refutes it empirically, by carefully
examining the inner life of the church, as well as trying to answer a question that nobody seems to have
asked before: how successful were the qualitative transformation processes of Ukrainian Church into
a part of the Synodal Church?
Relatively small in volume, 272 pages, the book includes a list of abbreviations, introduction, four
sections, conclusions, bibliography, and indexes. In the introduction, Maksym Yaremenko explains what
was Kyiv Orthodox Metropolitanate in the analyzed period and substantiates the need for clarification
and sometimes even a radical revision of the existing interpretation of history course in the 18th century.
In the author’s opinion, there are at least two reasons behind this: firstly, when researching the problem,
it should be considered that all changes that took place in the metropolitan area were the result of Synodal
innovations. However, as the researcher notes, they often coincided with the rules that even Petro Mohyla
attempted to introduce, which, obviously, can be explained by the presence of hantle hierarchs of
Ukrainian origin in the leadership of the Synodal Church. The second essential reason is that the Uniate
and the Orthodox bishopric on both sides of the Dnieper experienced quite similar problems in the
disciplining of both clergy and laity.
