Authors

Discussion

In light of the invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022 and in the absence of a call to end military actions from the official Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), I examine how its high-ranking and influential representatives, Patriarch Kirill and Archpriest Andrei Tkachev, construct the meaning of the category war through lexical variation in their sermons during the first six months of Russia’s full-scale invasion. My qualitative analysis focuses on the use of the noun war and its substitutes (war-categorization and substitution strategies) as well as their modifiers (war-modification strategies) by implementing Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) combined with the structural (grammatical) aspect. As long as the lexical variation of war – including its substitutions and modifiers – is not arbitrary but is chosen strategically to (de-)form certain aspects of discourse meaning, it aims to guide the audience’s interpretation in a particular direction, thus acquiring institutional ways of seeing which Fairclough called “ideological norms”. 

Findings indicate a stark contrast between the two clerics. Patriarch Kirill adopts an oblique approach, avoiding direct references to "war" and opting for euphemisms and substitutive categorizations. In contrast, Archpriest Tkachev employs explicit categorization and strong emotive modifiers, framing the war within a specific moral context rooted in biblical teachings. 

The paper highlights the disruptive power of religious discourse in constructing societal narratives during the times of war. It underscores how the ROC's manipulation of language not only disseminates state ideology but also disrupts conventional religious teachings, leading to evangelical distortions and emotional abuse within the Church. This phenomenon illustrates the challenges religious discourse faces in remaining a source of spiritual nourishment and ethical guidance within authoritarian regimes, as it increasingly serves as an instrument of ideological indoctrination.