When Church Competition Matters? Intra-Doctrinal Competition In Ukraine, 1992–2012

Scholars of religious revivals in post-Communist societies have long criticized the church competition hypothesis. While this hypothesis postulates a positive relationship between church competition and religious vitality, many have challenged this idea both theoretically and empirically. However, this consensus could be revisited in light of more recent literature which states that church competition should be theorized and measured in a broader context of social institutions. This article adds to the literature on religious markets by conceptualizing and measuring intra-doctrinal competition between the Orthodox Church jurisdictions in Ukraine. These churches have exploited nationalistic narratives as substitutes for their dogmatic rewards to compete for congregations. This specific facet of church competition has positively affected people’s religious affiliations and church attendance in Ukraine. This argument is corroborated with a set of mixed and fixed models applied to novel regional data on religious communities merged with survey data from 1992 to 2012.