Church Without Walls: Post-Soviet Baptists after the Ukrainian Revolution, 2013-14, Joshua T. Searle, 2016

ed were absorbed and eventually assimilated by the system that was predicated on the distorted values of a % Peter F. Penner, “Critical Evaluation of Recent Developments in the CIS”, in Penner and Sawatsky (eds.), Mission in the Former Soviet Union (Schwarzenfeld: Neufeld Verlag, 2005), 120-64. “The Ukrainian theologian, Dmitry Bintsarovsky, uses the term, “Protestantism without a Reformation”, to define the theological heritage of post-Soviet evangelicals; see Dymtro Bincarovskij, “Protestantizm bez Reformatzii.” Filosofska Dumka 4 (2013), 212-29. ® “The church is in need of continual renewal.” * Berdyaev, Slavery and Freedom (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1944), 189. defunct Soviet ideology. The 1991 Declaration of Independence and the 2004 Orange Revolution represented change without transformation or “revolution without reformation.””” Therefore, in order to sustain lasting social change, society needs the church to imbue the public sphere with values that reflect the inclusive vision of compassion symbolised by the Kingdom of God. If civil society is the realm in which human values are developed for the common good of the whole public domain, then the church in the post-Soviet space is called upon to humanise society in the name of the Kingdom of God. Society can rightfully expect the church to demonstrate (rather than merely preach about) the cardinal Christian virtues of faith, hope, compassion and solidarity. The radical political implications of Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God and the transformative role of the church in society have far greater power to attract and inspire people than the isolated calls of the evangelist to personal repentance. Church Without Walls: Reimagining Church and Post-Soviet Society Post-secularism and post-Christendom create opportunities for the Church’s return to the public sphere. Public space is no longer considered either as necessarily “secular” or “Christian”. For the church, the door to society is wide open. The church’s main interest in an open society should be solidarity with society rather than patronage of the state. Post-Soviet Baptists can lead the way towards the church’s return to society. The current revolutionary situation may be a particularly auspicious time for the church to engage with society. Instead of vying for preferential treatment and struggling for influence, the church should educate its people and impart to them a new vision of hope because the future of post-Soviet society belongs to the people, and not to the oligarchs and corrupt state authorities. As well as demonstrating fidelity to past traditions and concern for the present, the church in the power of the Holy Spirit has a prophetic mandate to foresee a new tomorrow. The prophetic vocation of the church is expressed in its capacity to anticipate the future, to warn of danger, and to serve as a harbinger of hope. The church that serves an open society must