The Fear to Hope: Ukrainian Pastor on Democracy, Fear, and Abundant Life in the Midst of War / Fyodor Raychynets
For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & CultureShow Notes
"Do not be afraid of your fears, but cope with them—learn how to deal with them—because unless you do, you cannot live your life abundantly and fully." (Fyodor Raychynets)
Evoking courage, resilience, and faith in the face of overwhelming uncertainty, Ukrainian pastor and theologian Fyodor Raychynets returns to *For the Life of the World* three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In conversation with Evan Rosa, Fyodor shares his reflections on fear, freedom, and the emotional and spiritual challenges of living fully in a time of war. He discusses his response to recent global political developments, the struggle of holding onto hope, and the importance of confronting fear rather than suppressing it. Drawing from the Gospel of Mark’s iteration of Jesus walking on water, his own personal grief and therapy, and the lived experience of war, Fyodor sees fear not as something to be avoided or gotten rid of, but as something to understand and face with courage.
This episode was made possible in part by the generous support of the Tyndale Foundation. Visit tyndale.foundation to learn more.
Episode Highlights
"We are in a situation where we are scared to hope."
"Do not be afraid of your fears, but cope with them—learn how to deal with them—because unless you do, you cannot live your life abundantly and fully."
"If I want to say to someone, ‘I love you,’ I say it. If I want to forgive, I forgive. If I want to do something meaningful, I do it now—because tomorrow is never guaranteed."
"The enemy wants us to live in fear, to be paralyzed by it. But to live fully is to resist."
"When Jesus scared his disciples on the water, he was bringing their fears to the surface—so that they could face them and find true freedom."
**Show Notes**
Image: “Walking on Water”, by Ivan Aivazovsky, Russia, 1888
Episode Summary
- Ukrainian pastor and theologian Fyodor Raychynets reflects on faith, fear, and hope after three years of war. - The role of fear in spiritual and personal transformation. - A biblical perspective on confronting fear, drawn from the Gospel of Mark. - Political and emotional reactions to recent global events impacting Ukraine. - Living fully in the present as an act of resistance against fear and oppression.
Faith, Fear, and Freedom
- Fyodor Raychynets returns to discuss Ukraine’s ongoing struggle and his evolving faith. - "Fear to hope"—the challenge of holding onto hope when the world is falling apart. - Why fear should be faced rather than suppressed. - The spiritual wisdom of encountering fear: “When Jesus scared his disciples, it was for their good.” - The difference between being reckless, cowardly, or courageous—all of which share the common state of fear.
The Ukrainian Perspective on Global Politics
- How Ukraine perceives the shifting stance of U.S. foreign policy. - The impact of Zelenskyy’s visit to the Oval Office and international reactions. - The challenge of fighting for democracy when global powers redefine the terms of war. - The fear that democratic values are no longer upheld by those who once championed them.
Biblical and Psychological Perspectives on Fear
- Mark’s Gospel and the fear of encountering God in unexpected ways. - Fyodor quotes Carl Jung: "Where our fears lie, that is where change is most needed." - Facing fear as a practice of faith and emotional resilience. - The importance of naming fears, localizing them, and even “inviting them in for tea.” - How unprocessed fear can lead to paralysis or aggression.
Living in the Present: The Antidote to Fear
- Why Fyodor refuses to postpone life until after the war. - "We don’t know what tomorrow brings. So I live today, fully." - A powerful response to fear: doing good, loving openly, and forgiving freely. - The lesson of war: never get used to abnormal things. - Holding onto humanity in the face of devastation.
Linked Media References
- Mark 6L: 45-52 [Jesus Walks on Water](https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=608897584) - Episode 110 of For
More from For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture
What happens when an ancient discipline built to remake the self in the context of a way of life and normative map gets sold back to us as lifehacking for stress relief and optimization?
It took Odysseus ten years to sail home from Troy to Ithaca; we can fly the same distance in about an hour. But faster travel hasn't brought us any closer to home. We can know more, do more, and connect more than ever, and yet our ability to belong to our own reality seems to be shrinking. Philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin, who teaches at Harvard Medical School and directs Harvard's Public Culture Project, takes up that paradox in his new book, To Arrive Where We Started: Belonging in the Modern World. The title comes from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, and Corbin reads Eliot's lines as something like a mission statement for humanity: the point of the journey is not to escape reality or optimize our way around it, but to truly belong to it.
Everything is “maxxed” right now, and the news cycle in particular seems to be historymaxxing, insisting that things have never been worse than they are now. And the threats are real, from AI and global warming to election integrity—foreign affairs gone wrong, and violence abroad, in our homes, and in our schools. But the news maxxes us on fear, and so do politicians and corporations, because they want us to do something. If theologian Lee C. Camp is right, history was already maxed at the incarnation, and it came through a subversive way of life: humble, compassionate, at times angry, but radical and scandalous all the same. Camp, author of *Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians* and founder and host of the nationally syndicated podcast and radio show No Small Endeavor, argues that the idolatry of the nation state, and even the effort to legislate Christian morality and values into a political movement, is a subversion of Christianity.
Human growth can seem to just happen—genes, care, and nurture set each of us on a trajectory across the lifespan. But how do people actually grow toward wholeness, and is virtue even the point?
Technology, Aaron Cline Hanbury suggests, is never a purely neutral tool. But the history of ethical thinking about technology shows that as long as there's been technology, there's been anxiety about it. Or perhaps more accurately, anxiety about what we might do with it. And increasingly, what it might do to us.