Values and Secularism

Secularisation, in the sense of radical differentiation between po-litical and ecclesial, is a key to understand the category of values. Thearticle outlines the modern theories about secularisation, places thecategories of values in the framework of these theories, and illustratesthrough the case study of the Russian Orthodox Church, how the ideaof values can be abused. When “traditional values” are weaponized,culture wars can evolve to real wars, like the one in Ukraine. Russia’scase of such an evolution cohered with the transformation of the So-viet militant secularism to the post-Soviet militant anti-secularism,on which the Russian political and ecclesial leaders have embarkedand which they have instrumentalized. Paradoxically, this is leadingto a self-imposed secularisation of the Russian Orthodox church andits alienation from the original Christian principles