RELIGIOUS TIKTOK INFLUENCERS IN UKRAINE: TYPOLOGY AND MARKET LOGIC

Abstract

The spread of social media transforms public religious communication: religious actors adapt sacred practices to platform algorithmic demands, forming new configurations of authority and legitimacy outside traditional institutions. TikTok, as a platform with a pronounced orientation toward recommendation algorithms and short video format, constitutes a particular context for analyzing these processes. Ukrainian religious TikTok influencers have emerged as significant actors in the public religious sphere, their activity acquiring specific dimensions under the conditions of full-scale war. The study employs qualitative comparative case analysis of three purposively selected cases. The theoretical framework integrates mediatization of religion theory, the concept of “digital religion”, religious market theory, and analytics of religious authority in online environments. The empirical material – content of the accounts @war_ priest, @matushka_katerina, and @ivana.dopomoga – was systematized according to the criteria of institutional affiliation, market orientation, and legitimation mechanisms. Three types of religious TikTok influencers are identified: the institutional type with a pronounced sacralization of the wartime context; the derivative-institutional type functioning within a formal affiliation to a confessional institution; and the independent market type, where the sacred functions as a commodity in an open spiritual marketplace. For each type, specific legitimation mechanisms, content formats, and monetization strategies are described. Religious TikTok influencers represent a new configuration of public religion in Ukraine, combining features of deinstitutionalization, mediatization, and market logic. The proposed typology enables differentiation of religious actors’ strategies in the digital space and offers a tool for comparative research. The specificity of the Ukrainian context – confessional conflict, wartime mobilization, and crisis religiosity – substantially modifies general trends