The New Religiosity of the Ukrainian Youth

The book "Modern Religiosity: In What and How the Youth in Ukaine Believe," which was recently published in Germany, shows the pecularities of the religiosity of students of secular and religious schools.

"The most unexpected result was that we detected a new form of religiosity for Ukraine – unistitutionalized (spiritual but not religious),"   author Natalia Gavrilova, Ph.D., research associate at the Department of Religious Studies Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, told RISU.

She explains that this religiosity mainly has a personal nature. The youth alone define their duties, and therefore the organization of the church, clergy, and ceremonies that claim to be the mediator between a person and God are no longer very important.

According to Natalia Gavrilova, this category of believers has no clear understanding of denominational differences, experiences a general path to God, and accepts different religious traditions. Confessional knowledge for these believers is not important.

The researchers also noted a tendency that the active process of "finding yourself" leads a young person to several religious organizations at once and this is a characteristic of the postmodern era, the main feature of which is pluralism.