Lived Theology and Leadership in Wartime Ukraine: An Empirical Study of How Lament, Presence, and Hope Reflect and Shape Theological Meaning-Making (2022–2025)

Based on leadership narratives collected between 2022 and 2025, this article examines how Ukrainian non-military organizational and community leaders who have remained in the country during the ongoing war interpret, embody, and enact theological meaning within their lived leadership experience. Drawing on two qualitative datasets—one collected in 2022 (n = 145) and a second in 2025 (n = 79)—the study employs a lived theology approach together with a reflexive thematic analysis to explore how theological meaning emerges organically as stated in leaders’ accounts of suffering, responsibility, presence, and hope. The findings indicate that participants articulated three overarching movements of lived theology: lament, leading to dependence on God; the sensed presence of God, leading to social solidarity and shared responsibility; and hope in God, orienting leaders toward post-war restoration. These movements function not as abstract or institutionally authorized doctrines, but as dynamic theological orientations generated through lived theological reflection as leaders connect their perceptions of God with the realities of wartime life. The study contributes to practical theology by demonstrating how theological reflection arises from concrete leadership practices under conditions of war. It further advances leadership studies by showing how theological sense-making, suffering, and responsibility converge in the lives of ordinary people—leaders and followers alike—forming a shared spiritual orientation that sustains communal life amid war and nurtures hope for post-war renewal.