Religiosity of Students in the Region in the Context of the Russian Orthodox Church Image Formation: Main Trends and Contradictions

The article is devoted to the problem of religiosity of modern youth in the context of forming the image of the main religious institution of Russia-the Russian Orthodox Church. In the article, Orthodoxy is considered as a key characteristic of the object of study, since the overwhelming majority of Russians identify themselves with this category. The youth as an object of research, according to the author, has a number of characteristics that make it possible to predict the vector of development of religion in modern society. The author uses the "thesaurus model" of young people proposed by V. Lukov. The model indicates that the institutionalized world, little or not at all mastered by young people, requires some compensation in the form of certain actions they determine independently or that are predetermined by the primary group. The primary group in the study is the family and its role in shaping young people's religiosity; the family holds the priority position in the self-assessment of religiosity. The works of Thomas Luckmann on "private" religion and the problem of the existence of religion and the church in a postindustrial society became the methodological basis of the research. The author conducted the study of the religiosity of the youth of the region in the context of the formation of the image of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2019. Respondents were 19- to 22-year-old students of Kursk, Russia. The methods used in the study were interviews, focus groups, and the analysis of secondary research data on similar topics with similar methods. The regional aspect allows attracting the necessary quality tools to expand the context of the issue under discussion and using comparative analysis. The contradictory trends identified during the regional study manifest themselves sufficiently at the level of the whole country. The study revealed four interrelated clusters: religion as the main social institution for the salvation of the soul; self-assessment of one's own religiosity; the baptism of Russia and its role in the formation of the state; the image of the Russian Orthodox Church. Each of them touched upon the key topic of the study in its own way, presenting the field for the formulation of hypotheses and conclusions to the researcher. The key research results are: (1) the tendency of "nominal religiosity" in students' self-determination; the "generation effect", that is, basically people point to events and changes that occurred in their youth; (3) an ambivalent attitude to the Russian Orthodox Church: on the one hand, a high appreciation of its role in the history of the country, on the other hand, the perception of its role in the life of modern Russia in terms of social assistance and support as a more comprehensible volunteer organization; (4) for young people, the family continues to play a key role in shaping the image of the Russian Orthodox Church as the main institution of primary socialization; (5) a "private" attitude to the Russian Orthodox Church comes to the fore as a demand for direct contact with the clergy and an attentive attitude to the respondents' personal problems.

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