AXIOLOGICAL VOCABULARY OF ORTHODOXY IN UKRAINIAN MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article proposes expanding and deepening the approach to the systematisation of Christian values by analysing their lexical embodiment in the Orthodox media discourse of Ukraine. The starting point is the multidimensional classification of Christian values (by biblical source, spheres of life, theological accents, virtues, social influence and historical traditions), which allows us to move from theological normativity to the description of linguistic markers of evaluation and identity in the mass media space. The theoretical contribution of the article is to specify the concept of the axiological thesaurus of Orthodoxy as a system of lexical and semantic fields that are regularly activated in Ukrainian church and near-church media texts: deontological (commandment, law, sin, repentance), agape (love, mercy, service), pneumatological (Spirit, grace, fruit of the Spirit), aleteiological (truth, truth, testimony), ecclesiological (unity, conciliarity, autocephaly, canonicity), doxological (prayer, worship, holiness) and the field of peace–justice–defense (peace, justice, aggression, victory, “just peace”). The concept of “value” in the article is not understood as an abstract ethical list but as a linguistic resource for public argumentation that, at the same time, sets the moral framework for events, constructs church/ civic belonging, and performs legitimising and polemical functions. Methodologically, the study combines axiological pragmatics and theories of evaluation, in particular ideas about the systemic organisation of linguistic means of assessment; a mediatization perspective that explains how digital media change the regimes of religious authority and communication; and elements of critical discourse analysis to describe the framework of legitimation and oppositions of “ours/alien”. It is shown that in conditions of war and acute inter-church discussions, axiological vocabulary acquires greater density and sensitivity: it can be both a resource for solidarity and pastoral support and a tool for “moral labelling” of the opponent through labels and ideologemes.