Religiousness metamorphoses in modern Russia in the context of global social changes

Thepurpose of the given research is to define the place of religion in the modern world and in Russia, to reveal the basic tendencies of itsdevelopment. Nowadays the positions of traditional religions are weakening in all secular states, against the background of the widecirculation of the new religious trends. The reason of these changes appears to be the secularisation, which transformed the social role ofreligion, caused the situation of religious pluralism and competition. As a result, the object of a religious belief frequently turns out to bea product of any designing according to the utilitarian inquiries of masses. Therefore, if for some religious associations (as a rule, for thetraditional religions) preservation of doctrinal bases in their authentic variant is a priority, for others it is following to tactical reasons.The definition of the basic directions of religion development becomes possible due to the reference to the utopianism phenomenon as itaccumulates the energy of social transformations. Transfer of initially transcendental religious ideas in the practical vital way appears tobe the major component of a wide spectrum of modern religious-utopian creativity. Thereof further development of religion is viewedeither as creation of a recipe of terrestrial well being, or as an attempt of construction of sense in a counterbalance to utilitarian values.Extrapolation of global changes in the sphere of religious activity on the processes occurring in Russia allows revealing four utopianprojects. The first is based on the material of archaic religions. The second is aimed at the revival of traditional faiths in their initial formand the status. These projects are connected by the intention to protect the fundamental religious values from devaluation. The thirdproject is caused by a special place which science occupies in the world. Here scientific categories turn into representations of powerfulforces of the Universe, take a position in the good and evil dichotomy. The fourth project represents religion as a certain game. Comprehensionof the accepted positions convention with a serious relation to values underlying them becomes its main feature. Thus, integrationof Russia into the world process makes its susceptible to transformations in the sphere of religious activity, leads people to theway of is religious-utopian designing. For religions there is a problem to find the measure of flexibility in reaction to calls of time,which will allow them to remain competitive and simultaneously to keep their authentic character. The religion endures crisis, which canbe the moment of choice of the further way of development, a threshold of the new social forms.

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