Editorial Introduction: Public Theology After Maidan (original) (raw)

We hope that this volume will make a contribution towards the development of Christian engagement with the social and political challenges in this strategic region. Even now, thirty years after the demise of the USSR, Eastern Europe is still living in the shadow of Soviet Communism and its legacy of rampant corruption and dysfunctional models of relationship between church, state and civil society. The Soviet mentality of conformity and corruption and the deformation of social consciousness has far outlived the Soviet Union as a political entity. There are promising signs, however, that the recent crises in the spheres of politics, society and the church may herald the coming of a new epoch in the history of this region. Recent events in post-Soviet Eastern Europe have prompted original and creative thinking about the role of faith in the public sphere. One of the most important tasks of public theology in this region of the coming years will be to facilitate the emergence of civil society in order to consolidate democratic freedoms and embed Christian values of justice, compassion and solidarity in the public space. Most of all we hope that the articles will encourage others to explore new paths of inquiry in the emerging field of public theology.