ORTHODOX IDENTITY AS TRADITIONALISM: CONSTRUCTION OF POLITICAL MEANINGS IN ACTUAL PUBLIC DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

The article examines articulation of traditional political values in the actual public discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The study is empirically based on the official documents of the ROC that reflect its position on socio-political issues, statements made by various synodal departments and church hierarchs, as well as statements by the representatives of the Orthodox intelligentsia who promote an alternative agenda of a dialogue between church and society. The author analyzes discursive forms of using key notions associated with two markers of traditionalist consciousness that he chose (attitude towards liberalism and position on the rights of sexual minorities), and explores the context of politicization of confessional ethical normativity. This allows him to interpret Orthodox identity as traditionalist in a political sense of the word, associated with the formation of a certain political theology and politicization of confessional ideas about morality, rather than interpreting it merely as a confessional-religious affiliation that manifests itself in various kinds of practices (going to church services etc.).