What are the characteristics of religious consciousness. Religious Consciousness

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Nikolaev Humanitarian University named after V.A. Sukhomlinsky

Department of Philosophical Sciences

Test

on the subject of Philosophy

Faculty of Psychology

Checked:

Nikolaev 2010

Content

• 1. Religious consciousness
• 2. Cynicism
• 3. Ontology of art
• Literature

1. Religious consciousness

Religious consciousness is characterized by:

sensual clarity,

created by imagination images,

compound adequate reality content with illusions

faith,

symbolism,

dialogicalness,

strong emotional saturation,

functioning with help religious vocabulary (and others special signs).

These features are characteristic not only of religious consciousness. Sensual clarity, images, fantasies, emotionality are characteristic of art, illusions arise in morality, politics, social sciences, inaccurate concepts and theories are created in natural science, etc.

Let us consider how these properties are related to each other in religious consciousness, what is their subordination in it.

Religious faith . An integrative feature of religious consciousness is religious faith. Not all faith is religious faith. The latter "lives" due to the presence of a special phenomenon in human psychology. Faith is a special psychological state of confidence in the achievement of a goal, the occurrence of an event, in the intended behavior of a person, in the truth of an idea, provided there is a lack of accurate information about the attainability of the goal, the ultimate event, about the implementation of foreseeable behavior in practice, and the result of verification. It contains the expectation that the desired will come true. This psychological state arises in a probabilistic situation when there is an opportunity for a successful action, its favorable outcome and knowledge of this possibility.

If an event occurs or it becomes clear that it is impossible, if the behavior is realized or it is found that it will not be carried out, if the truth or falsity of the idea is proven, faith fades away. Faith arises about those processes, events, ideas that have essential meaning for people, and is an alloy of cognitive, emotional and volitional moments. Since belief appears in a probabilistic situation, human action in accordance with it is associated with risk. Despite this, it acts as an important fact of the integration of the individual, group, mass, a stimulus for the determination and activity of people.

Religious faith - this is faith:

a) into the objective existence of beings, properties, connections, transformations, which are the product of the process of hypostatization;

b) the possibility of communicating with seemingly objective beings, influencing them and receiving help from them;

c) in the actual performance of some mythological events, in their recurrence, in the onset of the expected mythological event, in participation in them;

d) the truth of the corresponding ideas, views, dogmas, texts, etc .;

e) in religious authorities - "fathers", "teachers", "saints", "prophets", "charismatics", "bodhisats", "arhats", church hierarchs, clergymen.

The content of faith determines the symbolic aspect of religious consciousness. The symbol presupposes the performance by the consciousness of acts of objectifying the conceivable content, focusing on the objectified object (being, property, connection), designating this object. Objects, actions, words, texts are endowed with religious meanings and meanings. The totality of the carriers of these meanings and meanings forms a religious-symbolic environment for the formation and functioning of the corresponding consciousness.

WITH by faith tied dialogicality religious consciousness... Belief in the objective existence of beings includes belief in communication with them, and such communication presupposes dialogue. Dialogue is realized in worship, prayer, meditation, with the help of sounding or inner speech.

Visual imagery and emotionality . Religious consciousness advocates v sensual (images contemplation, representation) and thinking (concept, judgment, inference) forms. The significance of the latter increases significantly at the conceptual level, in general, sensory formations predominate, and representation plays an especially important role. The source of figurative material is nature, society, man; accordingly, religious beings, properties, connections are created in the likeness of the phenomena of nature, society, man. The so-called semantic images, which are a transitional form from representation to concept, are essential in religious consciousness. The content of religious consciousness most often finds expression in such literary genres as parable, story, myth, is "depicted" in painting, sculpture, tied to various kinds of objects, graphic designs, etc.

Visual image directly bound with experiences what stipulates strong emotional saturation religious consciousness. An important component of this consciousness is religious feelings. Religious the senses - this is emotional attitude believers To recognized objective creatures properties, connections, To sacralized things persons, places actions, friend To friend and To by ourselves myself, a also To religiously interpretable a separate phenomena v the world and To the world v the whole. Not all experiences can be considered religious, but only those that are welded with religious ideas, ideas, myths and, as a result, have acquired the appropriate direction, meaning and significance. Having arisen, religious feelings become an object of need - gravitation towards their experience, towards religious and emotional saturation.

A variety of human emotions can fuse with religious ideas and receive an appropriate orientation, meaning and meaning - fear, love, admiration, reverence, joy, hope, expectation, sthenic and asthenic, altruistic and egoistic, practical and gnostic, moral and aesthetic; in this case, one experiences "fear of the Lord", "love for God", "a feeling of sinfulness, humility, obedience", "joy of communion with God", "affection for the icon of the Mother of God", "compassion for one's neighbor", "reverence for the beauty and harmony of created nature" , "expectation of a miracle", "hope for otherworldly retribution", etc.

Compound adequate and inadequate . In religious consciousness, adequate reflections are combined with inadequate ones. There is no reason to approach such a combination axiologically, with a deliberately positive or negative assessment. People have never been free from illusions, there was no search for truth without delusions, they are not "fault", but inevitability (in this case, we are not talking about deliberate deception with bad intentions and falsifications!). In certain historical situations and points of individual existence, people need illusions.

It is wrong to assert that religious consciousness is "absolutely false": it has a content adequate to the world. For example, in the Christian conjugation of God as a creature of creation, omnipotent, all-good, omnipresent and man as created, weak, sinful, limited, relations of unfreedom and dependence are reproduced. Religious images as components have data of sensory experience corresponding to reality (astromorphism, zoomorphism, phytomorphism, anthropomorphism, psychomorphism, sociomorphism). In a religious myth, parable, real phenomena and events are recreated in the same way as it happens in art, in artistic images, in literary narration. Moreover, the named elements do not exhaust the entire content of the consciousness of religious systems. Under certain conditions, natural science, logical, historical, psychological, anthropological and other knowledge developed in them. By interacting with others areas spiritual life, religion includes economic, political, moral, artistic, philosophical views. They were delusions, but among them there are those who provided reliable information about a person, the world, society, and expressed objective development trends. Religions produce spiritual content adequate to reality. And yet it is legitimate to take into account that this content in religious concepts, concepts, ideas is fused with the images of the imagination, as a result of which a holistic picture can hide objective connections. "Foundations", "premises", "doctrinal axioms", "main Truths" have not received substantiation using the methods of scientific knowledge and are ultimately the subject of faith.

Linguistic expression ... Religious consciousness exists, functions and is reproduced through religious vocabulary, as well as other sign systems derived from natural language - objects of worship, symbolic actions, etc. Religious vocabulary - this is that part vocabulary composition natural language, with help which expressed religious meaning and meanings. Religious vocabulary names can be divided into two groups:

1) meaning real objects with attributive properties, for example, "icon", "cross", "temple", "cardinal", "monastery";

2) meaning hypostatized beings, properties, connections, such as "God", "angel", "soul", "miracle", "hell", "paradise".

Thanks to language, religious consciousness turns out to be practical, effective, becomes a group and social and, thus, exists for the individual as well. "In the early stages, language existed in sound form, religious consciousness was expressed and transmitted through oral speech. The advent of writing made it possible to fix religious meanings and meanings. also in writing, sacred texts were formed. The power of the word, the effectiveness of primarily sounding speech was reflected in religion. For example, the Christian teaching about the Logos is well known: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Everything through Him began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be "(John 1: 1,3).

The belief arose that the very knowledge and the pronunciation of the name had an impact on the object, person, being. This is associated with the emergence of speech magic, as well as verbal taboos: in many tribes, it was completely or in most cases forbidden to pronounce the names of leaders, totems, spirits, and gods. Such taboos are reflected in the Old Testament - the name of God "Yahweh" is forbidden to pronounce, it is replaced by others, for example, they read and say "Adonai" ("My gods").

Levels consciousness . Religious consciousness has two levels - everyday and conceptual.

Commonplace religious consciousness appears in the form of images, ideas, stereotypes, attitudes, mysteries, illusions, moods and feelings, drives, aspirations, direction of will, habits and traditions, which are a direct reflection of the conditions of human existence. It appears not as something integral, systematized, but in a fragmentary form - scattered representations, views or separate nodes of such representations and views. At this level, there are rational, emotional and volitional elements, however, emotions play the dominant role - feelings and moods, the content of consciousness is clothed in visual-figurative forms.

Among the components of everyday consciousness, stand out relatively stable, conservative ( traditions, customs, stereotypes ) and movable, dynamic(moods). It should also be emphasized that at this level, traditional ways of transmitting ideas, images of thought, feelings, illusions prevail, religion is always directly related to the individual, always appears in a personal form.

Religious consciousness at the conceptual level - conceptualized consciousness is a specially developed, systematized set of concepts, ideas, principles, reasoning, argumentation, concepts.

It includes:

1) a more or less ordered teaching about God (gods), the world, nature, society, man, purposefully developed by specialists (doctrine, theology, theology, symbols of faith, etc.);

2) the interpretation of economics, politics, law, morality, art, carried out in accordance with the principles of the religious worldview, i.e. religious-economic, religious-political, religious-legal, religious-ethical, religious-aesthetic and other concepts (labor theology, political theology, church law, moral theology, etc.);

3) religious philosophy at the junction of theology and philosophy (neo-Thomism, personalism, Christian existentialism, Christian anthropology, metaphysics of total unity, etc.).

The integrating component is doctrine, theology, theology (Greek theos - god, logos - doctrine). Theology (theology) consists of a number of disciplines that outline and substantiate various aspects of the doctrine. Theology is based on sacred texts and at the same time develops the rules for their interpretation. Yablokov I.N. Foundations of theoretical religious studies. Benefit. M .: Cosmopolis, 1994. -C.49-54

religious consciousness cynicism art

2. Cynicism

Cynicism (Latin cynici - perishable (s): everything is perishable from Latin cynis - ashes (dust)) - behavior or personal position, expressing conscious, or demonstrative neglect To certain moral traditions and ethical rituals, how interfering or redundant for solutions practical tasks... A worldview that denies the motives of behavior (compassion, pity, shame, sympathy, etc.) as inappropriate to personal interest. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism

Or cynicism is a nihilistic attitude towards the assets of universal human culture, expressed in the form of mocking mockery: - towards morality; - to the idea of ​​human dignity; - to the official dogmas of the dominant ideology, etc.

Cynicism, which originally included the various philosophies of a group of ancient Greeks who professed cynicism, was founded by Antisthenes around the 4th century BC. Cynics denied all traditions (regardless of origin: religious, moral, everyday, in clothes, persecution of virtue, etc.).

Antique cynicism are peculiar:

1. Criticism of idealism and rationalism, disbelief in high ideals, in human reason, in the beneficial role of education;

2. Opposition to the culture of "nature" of biologically interpreted nature; at the same time, a person is interpreted as a special kind of biological being, for which the main thing remains the same as for an animal - the continuation of his life, the will to power, that is, the desire to conquer living space, food, continue the race, leave offspring, raise children; the only difference between man and other animals is that man is a special animal that is forced to create a society, state and culture for the needs of biological survival;

3. Denial of state and morality; The cynics consider them to be the means used by the common people to establish their dominance over the powerful. Any kind of reasoning about the divine origin of the state and about the height of moral ideals is a lie that disguises egoism. It is necessary to return to nature, to an animal-like lifestyle. Only in this way will a person find a free, independent life that belongs to him.

4. Exposing the selfish interest inherent in every human being as a biological being behind the "lofty" reasoning is the essence of cynical (cynical) satire. Cynicism is characterized by humor associated with bodily functions.

5. Denial of social progress: it is impossible to improve society, since all people have an eternal and unchanging egoistic biological nature. The person remains the same at all times. And all attempts to improve society turn into only blood and sacrifice.

6. False "humanistic", "altruistic", "universal" values ​​must be replaced by "natural" values, and each person must establish them for himself individually. The community of cynics can only be a temporary association of egoists.

The main contradiction of the Age of Enlightenment P. Sloterdijk (born June 26, 1947 in Karlsruhe - a modern German philosopher.) Considers the clash of enlightened and everyday consciousness, which gives rise to modern cynicism.

"Make worse, knowing the best- this formula claims to be something more than just a passing expression; it claims to express a systematic approach, to become a model for making a diagnosis. "In this, Sloterdijk reveals the main secret of cynicism - an enlightened person turns out to be just a hypocrite who hides behind the high values ​​of educational morality, but in fact lives in accordance with the values ​​of a consumer society, whereas cynic lives life consumer, looking for enjoyments and pleasures, but not at all of this not hides".

By the 19th century, the expressed negative aspects of the philosophy of cynicism formed the basis of a new, very different understanding that cynicism is the personal position or behavior of expressing negativity by the tortured and, mainly, questioning the personal and professional motives of other people. Sloterdijk singles out cynicism as a special form of "false consciousness", believing that it is cynicism that has become a true symbol of modernity. (Methodologically, Sloterdijk relies on the provisions of Adorno's "negative dialectics" and Heidegger's "fundamental ontology", creatively reworking them.)

Modern cynicism, how product the masses society - doubt v ethical and social values, v peculiarities To idealized expectations people, social entities and authorities http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism ... Cynicism can express itself through dissatisfaction, frustration and distrust of organizations, authorities and other aspects of socialization, and be the result of accumulated negative life experiences. The most gullible, sincere and sensitive people, over and over again faced with injustice, meanness, deceit and hypocrisy, are forced to create a defensive wall of cynicism around them. To not to be disappointed - not be enchanted.

Cynicism is a sane analysis of a situation without subjectivity. Among cynics there are more realists who are able to think soberly and objectively assess the situation. Kudryavtseva V.I. Cultural Wars: Cynicism and Tolerance // Philosophy: Challenge of the Present. Materials of the international scientific and practical conference. Part 2. Yekaterinburg: Ural University Publishing House, 2007. S. 31-34.

3. Ontology of art

Ontology - teaching O fundamental principles being, O most common existential entities... The problems considered by the ontology of art fall into two channels. The first is connected with the study of the way of being of a work of art as a sensory-material object. Those. we are talking about the ontological status of art, the degree of objectivity of its content, the forms of its dependence (independence) from the perceiving subject and the historical and cultural context. The second is a research direction in aesthetics, which studies the fundamental principles of the existence of art, the existential essence of its symbolism.

Initially, the ontology of art was focused on the study of the way of being of a work of art as a sensory-material object, on the analysis of the ontological status of art, the degree of objectivity of its content, the forms of its dependence (independence) from the perceiving subject and the historical and cultural context.

By itself, a musical text or the text of a play, a novel is nothing more than an object captured in notes, typographic signs; it acquires the status of a work of art only when the content inherent in it is actualized and perceived. Since the time of I. Kant, the conclusion has become generally valid: the de-objectification of the content of a work is possible only if the intention of the literary text is combined with the actual experience of the individual. Moreover, the very fact of new and new approaches to an already known work - dramatization, interpretation, variation - is evidence of its ontological inexhaustibility, the "reserves of meaning" hidden in it. Hence the position that the real meaning of a work of art is the totality of all the meanings for which it gives rise.

In the 20th century. problems Ontology of art was actively developed in the phenomenology of E. Husserl, existentialism of M. Heidegger, structuralism of R. Barth. The main leitmotif of their searches in this area is what way through arts human maybe touch To deep structures being? Which should to be perfect model artistic perception, overcoming surface psychologism, cleansing perception from random (" inauthentic" ) ontological signs, characters? Thus, the 20th century has significantly enriched the interpretation of the problems of the ontology of art. The study is no longer limited to the analysis of the roles of the material carrier of a work of art and the perceiving subject in the process of generating meaning. It is about the correlation of artistic symbolism with the essential foundations of being.

Thanks to all the new interpretations, the work of art is constantly reborn. It turns out that the power of the owner of this text - its author - over the further life of a work of art is quite illusory. This observation is the basis of Bart's famous concept of the "author's death". The entire "plurality of historical biographies" of the text, in his opinion, "is focused at a certain point, which is not the author, as they have argued so far, but the reader," "the birth of the reader has to be paid for with the death of the author" Bart R. Selected works. Semiotics. Poetics. Moscow 1994. Pp. 390, 391. "The death of the author" also contributes to the text's ability to self-organize: the most original author's ideas come into a compromise with transpersonal linguistic forms and techniques of a given culture, the independent laws of a living text being born sometimes act irresistibly. Murian I.F. Art history and art history. Ontological tasks // Questions of art history. 1996. No. 2

A work of art offers a wide, but not limitless, field for interpretation; the artistic form gives them a certain direction in which they can successfully move, but only within its framework, then the transformation of ontological meanings will be similar to the natural germination of grain. The condition for the centuries-old "durability" and openness of works defined as classical is contained in such a quality of an artistic form as polysemy, polysemy. It is on this that the often-voiced assertion that the artistic world can be felt as more authentic than real is based. The thickening of artistic symbolism forms a landscape that is ontologically perceived as richer than the everyday world. Through a special configuration of key symbols, repeating "emblems" and leitmotifs, the all-generating element of being is visible. In fact, any artist claims to achieve such an effect: not to express his own opinion, but to be a "verb of the universe". His existential longing in many ways acts as an incentive for creativity, allowing art to make a breakthrough through the established mythologemes and routine order into the unpredictable depths of the cosmos, into new layers of existential meaning. Krivtsun O.A. Aesthetics. M., 1997, p. 153

Obviously, the secret of the attractiveness of the great masters lies in the ability to comprehensively recreate the deep ontological element of life, which somehow erases the boundaries between the low and the sublime, the trivial and the beautiful, the natural and the magical, and, ultimately, between the human and the divine. Leo Tolstoy once said: "how good it would be to write a work of art in which one can clearly express the fluidity of a person, that he is one and the same, now a villain, now an angel, now a sage, now an idiot, now a strong man, now a powerless being" Tolstoy L.N. Complete collection of works T. 53. M.-L. 1953. S. 187. ... In addition to the archetypal nature of common human subjects, it is very important that they are filled and embodied by the classics stereoscopically. This kind of polysemy, dialogicality, antinomy of any classical work is one of the powerful sources of its appeal. Rembrandt, for example, having written dozens of self-portraits, shows the many-sidedness of himself as a human being. Either he appears to be a careless reveler, now a solid burgher, now he is possessed by Hamlet's reflection. In almost thirty of his self-portraits, Rembrandt is presented as both rustic and wise, unkempt and elegant, loving and cold, laughing and serious. In fact, with this integrity and all-embracing work, the work is able to argue with the most real nature.

It is from here that the correctness of the often-voiced assertion that the artistic world can feel more authentic than the real one comes from. The thickening of artistic symbolism forms such a landscape that ontologically it is perceived as richer than the ordinary world. That is, artistic experience becomes the focus of a more acute experience of the present world. Through a special configuration of key symbols, repeating "emblems" and leitmotifs, the all-generating element of being is visible. This, in fact, is what any artist claims - to be not his own herald, but "the verb of the universe." His existential melancholy in many ways acts as an incentive for creativity, allowing art to break through the established mythologemes and routine order into the unpredictable depths of the cosmos, into new reserves of existential meaning. L.V. Karasev Ontological view of Russian literature. M., 1995, p. 94

The ontological paradox of artistic content lies in the fact that, on the one hand, artistic symbolism hides the substance of life from us, it must be unraveled, de-symbolized in order to discern the primary impulses of the universe behind the fabric of artistic sense-building. On the other hand, the human meanings of being expressed by art are fundamentally irreducible, i.e. cannot be translated from the "encrypted" language of art into the language of already mastered concepts. Behind the mask of the language of art is hidden and guessed the element of being, beyond this language, inexpressible. Taking into account these complex contradictions, the methodology of modern studies of "ontological condensations" of a literary text is being built, allowing to highlight its centering emblems, an underlying meaning-frame that sets the tone for the narrative and affects all its levels. Dmitrieva N.A. To the problem of interpretation. The world of arts. Moscow, 1995, page 24

Literature

1. Yablokov I.N. Foundations of theoretical religious studies. Benefit. M .: Cosmopolis, 1994., 118s.

2. Kudryavtseva V.I. Cultural Wars: Cynicism and Tolerance // Philosophy: Challenge of the Present. Materials of the international scientific and practical conference. Part 2. Yekaterinburg: Ural University Publishing House, 2007.96s.

3.http: // ru. wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynicism

4. Karasev L.V. Ontological view of Russian literature. M., 1995, 236s.

5. Murian I.F. Art history and art history. Ontological tasks // Questions of art history. 1996. No. 2

6. Krivtsun O.A. Aesthetics. M., 1997, 354s.

7. Bart R. Selected works. Semiotics. Poetics. M. 1994., 505s.

8. Dmitrieva N.A. To the problem of interpretation. The world of arts. M. 1995., 215s.

9. Tolstoy L.N. Full collection op. T.53.M. - L. 1953., 489s.

Posted on Allbest.ru

Similar documents

Cynicism as a socio-cultural consequence of the diversification of the immanent (according to the model of P. Sloterdijk). Types of social identification. Transcendental analytics in the optics of the social. Ethics of the discursive (Appel, Habermas). Globalization as a negative export.

dissertation, added on 08/28/2014


Preconditions and conditions for the emergence of religious consciousness. Formation and evolution of ideas about the supernatural. Religious consciousness: the object of reflection, features and specificity. Modern religious consciousness: conservatism and tendencies of change.

abstract added 03/21/2013


Historical development of the concept of consciousness. The structure of consciousness. Public consciousness. Individual consciousness. The transition to consciousness is the beginning of a new, higher, stage in the development of the psyche. Consciousness is transformed into an individual worldview.

abstract added on 11/28/2004


Historical types of worldview. Principles of solving ideological issues in mythology. Religion, religious consciousness and religious attitude to the world. Man's attitude to the world. The emergence of philosophy as a worldview. Foundations of the scientific worldview.

test, added 10/18/2011


Consciousness as the ability of an ideal (mental) reflection of reality. The basic principles of the epistemological approach to the problems of consciousness in philosophy. Ontological aspect of consciousness, dialectical materialistic tradition in the teachings of K. Marx.

abstract, added 02/05/2014


Everyday, religious, philosophical and scientific worldview. The subject and function of philosophy. Ontology, epistemology, methodology. The ratio of consciousness and the material world. Naive and Metaphysical Materialism. The first philosophical schools of Ancient Greece.

presentation added on 10/09/2014


The reality of a certain existence that precedes knowledge, idea, thought, thinking, rationality. Consciousness characteristics, flow characteristics. It is a logical illusion that there can be a lot of logic.

article added on 04/08/2007


Study of the basic principles of phenomenological philosophy. Study of the concept of phenomenological reduction. Intentional act. Features of the intentional approach to consciousness. Edmund Husserl on the crisis of European culture. The concept of "life world".

abstract added on 10/28/2014


The main categories of design philosophy, its functions from the standpoint of modern society; classification, content. Ontological relationship of design, nature, society and man in the cultural system; expression and realization of the humanistic orientation of art.

abstract, added 06/26/2013


The concept of ontology as a branch of philosophy. Consideration of the universal foundations, principles of being, its structure and laws. Study of categorical forms of being by Aristotle, Kant, Hegel. Value attitude, forms and ways of a person's relationship to the world.

Religious consciousness. As signs of religious consciousness were taken: animism, animatism, belief in gods or in God, in the immortality of the soul, the experience of meeting with the sacred, etc. In Russian literature, the most common point of view is that the “specific”, “main”, “defining”, “universal” feature of religious consciousness is “belief in the supernatural,” and the supernatural is characterized as follows: “The supernatural, according to believers and theologians, is it is something that does not obey the laws of the material world, falling out of the chain of causal dependencies. "

There is no reason to believe that belief in the supernatural is inherent in all religions, at any stage of their evolution. In the early stages of development, consciousness was not yet able to form representations and, accordingly, distinguish between "natural" and "supernatural". "Belief in the supernatural" and religious consciousness are not inherent in developed Eastern religions (Buddhist, Taoist, etc.). The division into natural and supernatural was developed in the Judeo-Christian tradition, but in Christianity this dichotomy, as sociological studies show, often does not "reach" the everyday consciousness of many believers. The acceptance of "belief in the supernatural" as a universal, specific feature of any religious consciousness does not correspond to the facts.

It should not be assumed that the religious consciousness has only some characteristic characteristic of it. The originality of this consciousness is in the aggregate, combination, correlation and subordination of traits.

Religious consciousness is characterized by: faith, sensory visualization, images created by the imagination, the combination of content adequate to reality with illusions, symbolism, allegoricality, dialogicality, strong emotional saturation, functioning with the help of religious vocabulary (and other signs). These features are characteristic not only of religious consciousness. Sensual clarity, images of fantasy, emotionality are characteristic of art, illusions arise in morality, politics, social sciences, inaccurate concepts and theories are created in natural science, etc.

Religious Faith. An integrative feature of religious consciousness is religious faith. Not every faith is a religious faith, the latter “lives” due to the presence of a special phenomenon in human psychology. Faith is a special psychological state of confidence in the achievement of a goal, the occurrence of an event, in the intended behavior of a person, in the truth of an idea, provided there is a lack of accurate information about the attainability of the set goal, about the ultimate event, the implementation of foreseeable behavior in practice, and the result of verification. It contains the expectation that the desired will come true. This psychological state arises in a probabilistic situation when there is a certain degree of success of the action, a real possibility of a favorable outcome and knowledge of this possibility. If an event occurs or it becomes clear that it is impossible, if the behavior is realized or it is found that it will not be carried out, if the truth or falsity of the idea is proven, faith fades away. Faith arises about those processes, events, ideas that have an essential meaning for people. It cannot be reduced to feeling: of course, emotions play a big role in it, but nevertheless it is a fusion of cognitive, emotional and volitional moments. Since faith appears in a probabilistic situation, a person's action in accordance with it is associated with risk. Despite this, it acts as an important fact of the integration of the individual, group, mass, a stimulus for the determination and activity of people.

Religious faith is a belief: a) in the objective existence of hypostatized beings, attributive properties and connections, as well as the world formed by these beings, properties, connections; b) the possibility of communicating with hypostatized beings, influencing them and receiving help from them; c) the truth of the corresponding ideas, views, dogmas, texts, etc .; d) in the actual accomplishment of some events, which are described in the texts, in their recurrence, in the onset of the expected event, in involvement in them; e) religious authorities - “fathers”, “teachers”, “saints”, “prophets”, “charismatics”, “bodhisattvas”, “arhats”, church hierarchs, clergymen.

Within the framework of this religious system, material objects, persons, actions, texts, linguistic formulas are endowed with certain properties, acquire religious meanings that express certain relationships between people, acquire the social property of being signs, exponents of religious meanings - a property that has nothing to do with their physical, chemical nature, and therefore become sensory-supersensible. The appearance of such a property supports the idea that objects have attributive properties. Sacred things are often made of gold, silver, diamonds, and therefore accumulate property and wealth. In this case, the fetishism of goods, money, capital determines religious fetishism and merges with it.

The biblical story is characteristic, which tells of John's vision of a "new heaven" and a "new earth." John saw “holy Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven from God ... Its wall was built of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. The foundations of the city wall are decorated with all sorts of precious stones: the first base is jasper, the second is sapphire, the third is chalcedon, the fourth is emerald, the fifth is sardonyx, the sixth is carnelian, the seventh is chrysolite, the eighth is virill, the ninth is topaz, the tenth is chrysopras, the eleventh is hyacinth, and the twelfth is amethyst. And twelve gates are twelve pearls ... The city street is pure gold, like transparent glass. ”Religious faith revives the entire religious complex and determines the originality of the process of transcending in religion. Transitions, which are not realized in the empirical existence of people, from limitation to unlimited, from impotence to power, from life to death to life after death, from this-worldly to the other-worldly, from unfreedom to liberation, etc. with the help of religious faith are achieved in terms of consciousness.

Symbolism and allegoricality. The content of faith determines the symbolic aspect of religious consciousness. A symbol (Greek sumbolon - a sign, an identifying omen) represents content, meanings that are different from the direct content of its bearer. A material object, an action, a speech text, a certain image of consciousness can have symbolic properties; things, actions that are and are performed outside of consciousness acquire the indicated properties only in relation to consciousness. The symbol presupposes the performance by the consciousness of acts of objectifying the conceivable content, the orientation towards the object (being, property, connection) put as an objective, and the designation of this object.

Objects, actions, words, texts are endowed with religious meanings and meanings. The carriers of these meanings and meanings are equivalents - substitutes for the symbolized, form a religious-symbolic environment for the formation and functioning of the corresponding consciousness, are included in the ritual. Every religious system has its own set of symbols, which outside this system are not. There are many religious symbols, the most common are those that represent the corresponding religion: a cross - a symbol of Christianity, a chakra (a wheel with eight spokes) - a symbol of Buddhism, a crescent - Islam, etc. In addition to the main symbol of a given religion, there are symbols of a certain denomination, regional ethno-confessional symbols, symbols of a certain community, as well as individual characters, events, transformations, etc.

Allegoricality is inherent in religious consciousness (Greek allhgorew - to say something different, not what the words literally mean; to express allegorically; speak, explain in images). Allegory is an allegory, a conditional form of a statement, a conditional expression of abstract concepts in visual images that mean something different, different from the literal meaning. Allegory often acts as a collection of related images combined into a plot; it is didactic and instructive: with its help, through some image or combination of images of the allegorical, the content of ontological, epistemological, moral and other concepts developed in a given religious consciousness is transmitted. At the ordinary level, allegory develops spontaneously, and in doctrinal concepts, special methods of allegorical interpretation have been developed. For example, in Christian theology, allegorical presentation is characteristic of exegesis (Greek exhghsiV - clarification, interpretation), which gives an appropriate interpretation of biblical texts: next to the literal meaning of the text, a system of other meanings is placed.

Visual imagery and emotionality. Religious consciousness appears in sensory (images of contemplation, representation) and mental (concept, judgment, inference) forms. The significance of the latter increases significantly at the conceptual level of consciousness, in general, sensory formations prevail in it, and representation plays an especially important role. The source of figurative material is nature, society, man, respectively, religious beings, properties, connections are created in the likeness of the phenomena of nature, society, man. The so-called semantic images, which are a transitional form from representation to concept, are essential in religious consciousness. The content of religious consciousness most often finds expression in such literary genres as parable, story, myth, is "depicted" in painting, sculpture, attached to various kinds of objects, graphic designs, etc.

A visual image is directly related to experiences, which determines a strong emotional saturation of religious consciousness. An important component of this consciousness is religious feelings. Religious feelings are the emotional attitude of believers to recognized objective hypostatized beings, attributized properties and connections, to sacred things, persons, places, actions, to each other and to themselves, as well as to religiously interpreted individual phenomena in the world and to the world as a whole. ... Not all experiences can be considered religious, but only those that are welded with religious ideas, ideas, myths and, because of this, acquired the appropriate direction, meaning and significance. Having arisen, religious feelings become an object of need - gravitation towards their experience, towards religious and emotional saturation.

A variety of human emotions - fear, love, admiration, reverence, joy, hope, expectation, can fuse with religious ideas and receive the appropriate direction, meaning and meaning; sthenic and asthenic, altruistic and egoistic, praxical and gnostic, moral and aesthetic emotions. As a result of such fusion, one experiences “fear of the Lord”, “love for God”, “a feeling of sinfulness, humility, submission”, “joy of communion with God”, “affection by the icon of the Mother of God”, “compassion for one's neighbor”, “reverence for the beauty and harmony of created nature. "," Expectation of a miracle "," hope for otherworldly retribution ", etc.

A mix of adequate and inadequate. In theology and religious studies (confessional and secular), the possibility or impossibility, legitimacy or illegality of raising the question of the truth - untruth of individual religious judgments and their totality, as well as religious-economic, religious-political, religious-legal and other concepts are discussed. In Christian, Islamic theology, in the teachings of other religions, this issue is resolved positively, and in favor of recognizing the truth (often absolute) of judgments, the provisions of a given religious system and the untruth or incomplete truth of judgments, provisions of other religious systems. It is argued that only theology itself, teaching has the right to consider this problem. Confessional religious studies proceeds from the same premises, recognizing its incompetence in resolving the issue of instinct - untruthfulness of religious statements. In secular religious studies, the possibility of an epistemological analysis of religious judgments is recognized by some researchers, while others are denied.

In religious consciousness, adequate reflections are combined with illusions and delusions. There is no reason to approach such a combination “axiologically”, with a deliberately “positive” or “negative” assessment. Of course, in everyday consciousness, as well as in ideologemes, the words "truth", "illusion", "delusion" can and do acquire an evaluative load, and in history, the defense of "truth" or "delusion" was fraught with sad consequences for the defenders. But for science, truth and error are moments in the development of human consciousness, thinking, cognition. People have never been free from illusions, there was no search for truth without delusions, they are not "fault", but inevitability (in this case, we are not talking about deliberate deception with bad intentions and falsifications). In certain historical situations and points of individual existence, people need illusions, and illusions satisfy this kind of need.

It is wrong to assert that religious consciousness is “absolutely false”: it has a content adequate to the world. For example, in the Christian conjugation of God as a creature of the Creator, Almighty, All-Good, Omnipresent, etc. and man as a created, weak, sinful, limited relationship of unfreedom and dependence is reproduced. Religious images as components have data of sensory experience corresponding to reality (astromorphism, zoomorphism, phytomorphism, anthropomorphism, psychomorphism, sociomorphism). In religious narratives, parables, real phenomena and events are recreated in the same way as it happens in art, in artistic images, in literary narration. Moreover, the named elements do not exhaust the entire content of the consciousness of religious systems. Under certain conditions, natural science, logical, historical, psychological, anthropological and other knowledge developed in them. Interacting with other areas of spiritual life, religion includes economic, political, moral, artistic, philosophical views. They were delusions, but among them there are those who provided reliable information about the world, were value-significant, and expressed objective trends in the development of society. Religions produce spiritual content adequate to reality. And yet it is legitimate to take into account that this content in religious ideas, concepts, ideas, narratives is fused with images of the imagination, as a result of which a holistic picture can hide objective connections. "Foundations", "premises", "doctrinal axioms", "main Truths" have not received substantiation using the methods of scientific knowledge, ultimately they are the subject of faith.

The question of true and untrue in religious consciousness was posed long before the emergence of religious studies as a branch of science within the religious systems themselves. The true intention is internally present in any affirmative (affirming) and negative (denying) judgment, and all knowledge presupposes a striving for truth. The foregoing also applies to religious statements (dogmas, doctrinal positions, etc.), to the knowledge of God, regardless of how the truth is interpreted and how its criteria are determined. True disputes run through the entire history of religion and theology: representatives of each given religion and denomination claimed the truth, and found errors in others; heretics rejected official dogma as false, and orthodoxy defended and affirmed it as the Absolute Truth.

Linguistic expression and dialogicity. Religious consciousness exists, functions and is reproduced by means of religious vocabulary, as well as other sign systems derived from natural language - objects of worship, symbolic actions, etc. Religious vocabulary is that part of the vocabulary of natural language through which religious meanings and meanings are expressed. The names of religious vocabulary can be divided into two groups: 1) meaning real objects, persons, actions, events with attributive properties or components - “icon”, “cross”, “vajra”, I “mandala”, “black stone”, “cardinal "," Worship "," jihad "and so on; 2) calling hypostatized beings, areas of being, attributive properties and connections - "God", "Holy Spirit", "Angel", "soul", "heaven", "hell", "purgatory", "Providence", "Buddha in body of Dharma "," Karma "," reincarnation ", etc. Words (names), compound names, sentences have a subject orientation, indicate the corresponding things, persons, beings, properties, events, name them, and also refer to concepts and ideas about them, thereby implicitly supposing the existence of what is called.

Linguistic expressions of religious consciousness are characterized by a certain syntagmatics (Greek suntagma - built together, connected), which is a set of syntactic intonational and semantic units. In such units, words, word combinations, sentences and phonation, alliteration using the techniques of sound expressiveness (articulations, modulations, recitation, refrains, and phrases) are combined into a certain semantic integrity. In the language of religion, words are often used in a figurative sense, texts are saturated with metaphors, analogies, allegories, archaisms, historicisms, exoticisms, antonyms are widely used.

Thanks to language, religious consciousness turns out to be practical, effective, it becomes group and social, and thus existing for the individual. Through language, religious beliefs, narratives, norms, etc. transmitted from individual to individual, from group to group, from generation to generation. Historically, along with the evolution of religions, their language has become more complex.

In the early stages of development, language existed in sound form, religious consciousness was expressed and transmitted through oral speech. Then various types of writing appear - pictography, ideography, ideographic-rebus, syllabic, alphabetic, which are also used to fix religious meanings and meanings. Both sound and various types of written speech were sacralized. Language has a profound effect on the consciousness, behavior and attitudes of people. The power of the word found expression in religion: magical properties were attributed to words, speech formulas, various graphic images, texts. The ineffectiveness of the word is recorded, for example, in the Christian doctrine of the Logos: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... Everything through Him began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be" ( John 1: 1, 3).

During the formation of the language, the combination of a sound complex and meaning led to their identification. The suggestive factor of the sounding speech determined the unconsciousness and inevitability of the transmission and reception of the message. The belief arose that knowledge and the pronunciation of a name had an impact on a given object, person, being. This is associated with the emergence of speech magic, as well as verbal taboos: in many tribes, it was completely or in most cases forbidden to pronounce the names of leaders, totems, spirits, and gods. This kind of taboo is recorded in the Tanakh (Holy Scripture of the Jews), in which the "unpronounceable" name of God - "Yahweh" - is replaced by a number of others (there are about seventy names of God), including "Adonai" (Old Hebrew "Lord my"); in the Old Testament, which is part of the Holy Scriptures of Christians - the Bible, the name "Adonai", meaning God Yahweh, is translated into different languages ​​by words with the meaning "Lord".

Various types of written speech also acquired a sacred meaning. With the formation and development of society, the formation of the state, the division of labor into mental and physical, and the emergence of the class of priests, pictography is replaced by ideography, which is used to record laws and cult texts. The name of the ancient Egyptian writing system is characteristic - "hieroglyphics" (Greek ieroV - sacred, glujh - carving, that which is carved, hewn) - "sacred signs", so were the ancient designs, drawing signs used by the Egyptian priests (known from the 4th millennium BC). BC.). Speech activity in Ancient Egypt was under the "jurisdiction" of the god of wisdom and writing, Thoth. With the emergence of developed writing, religious texts are created - the Vedas, Upanischadas, Avesta, Old Testament, New Testament, Koran, etc., which are given the rank of sacred. "Cult languages" were formed - Sanskrit, Avestan, Arabic, Coptic, liturgical - Church-Catholic in Catholicism, Church Slavonic among the Slavic-speaking Orthodox. Historically, the professional language of theology and creeds was formed, formulas for spells, chants, prayers, "scripts" of divine services and rituals were worked out.

The dialogic nature of religious consciousness is associated with faith and language. Belief in the objective existence of hypostatized beings includes belief in communication with them, and such communication as a side has a dialogue. Dialogue is possible thanks to reflected subjectivity, including both intro- and intersubjectivity. Thanks to the reflected subjectivity, I and the “Other in me” (Significant Other) are present in the consciousness of a person. This property is formed in ontogenesis in the process of interiorization of the "matrices" of direct communication between the individual and the people around him. Communication structures internalized in psychology and personality consciousness can be recreated and deployed outside of direct interaction. If the socialization of an individual occurs in a religious environment and a person becomes religious, then the image of some hypostatized being, for example, an anthropomorphic personal God, can be presented in his mind. An opportunity is created for an internal communication, "conversation", "dialogue" between the I and God, with the Significant Other, which unfolds in the plane of consciousness: the I turns to the Significant Other and at the same time anticipates the responses of this Other. Dialogue is realized in prayer, worship, meditation, with the help of sounding or inner speech. Due to its communicative function, speech creates the effect of speaking I with the Other and the Other with the I. As an example of speaking with God, let us cite the words of the prayer of St. John Damascene: “Weaken, forgive, forgive, God, our sins, voluntary and involuntary, in word and in deed, in knowledge and not in knowledge, in day and night, in mind and thought: forgive us all, Good and Humanitarian ".

Levels of consciousness. Religious consciousness has two levels - everyday and conceptual. Ordinary religious consciousness appears in the form of images, ideas, stereotypes, attitudes, mysteries, illusions, moods and feelings, drives, aspirations, direction of will, habits, and traditions, which are a direct reflection of the conditions of human existence. It appears not as something integral, systematized, but in a fragmentary form - scattered representations, views or separate nodes of such representations and views. At this level, there are rational, emotional and volitional elements, however, emotions play the dominant role - feelings and moods, the content of consciousness is clothed in visual-figurative forms. Among the components of everyday consciousness, one can distinguish relatively stable, conservative and mobile, dynamic; the former include traditions, customs, stereotypes, etc., the latter - moods. At this level, traditional ways of conveying ideas, images of thought, feelings, aspirations, etc., prevail. Religion is always directly related to the individual, always appears in a personal form.

Religious consciousness at the conceptual level - conceptualized consciousness - is a specially developed, systematized set of concepts, ideas, principles, reasoning, argumentation, concepts, a product of the professional activity of thinkers. It includes: 1) a more or less ordered teaching about God (gods), the world, nature, society, man, purposefully developed by specialists (doctrine, theology, theology, creeds, etc.); 2) the interpretation of economics, politics, law, morality, art, etc., carried out in accordance with the principles of a religious worldview, i.e. religious-ethical, religious-political, religious-legal, religious-ethnic, religious-aesthetic concepts (theology of liberation, theology of progress, theology of labor, political theology, feminist theology, theology of culture, etc.); 3) religious philosophy at the junction of theology and philosophy (neo-Thomism, personalism, Christian existentialism, Christian anthropology, metaphysics of total unity, etc.).

The integrating component is doctrine, theology, theology (Greek JeoV - god, logoV - doctrine). Theology (theology) draws a joke from a number of disciplines that set out and substantiate various aspects of the doctrine. Theology is based on sacred texts and at the same time develops the rules for their interpretation.

Religious consciousness is one of the types of social consciousness - a certain way of understanding by society and the individual of the surrounding world, its features, laws, history, as well as a person's place in this world. Religious consciousness is very closely related to the mythological, moreover, historically, it "took shape" precisely within the framework of mythology - as its further development (in detail about the mythological consciousness -). For example, Christianity as a religion is largely based on Jewish mythology as set out in the Old Testament; Islam borrowed a lot from the same Old Testament and the mythology of the ancient Arabs. As a matter of fact, it is in the monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - that religious consciousness is presented in the most "pure" form. Buddhism appears as a unique phenomenon, which, although it is called a religion, is basically closer to philosophy and individual psychological practice.

It should be noted that the term "religious" is conditional, and the features that are characteristic of this type of consciousness are manifested in other spheres, not only in the religious, in which they are most vividly expressed. A person who is not an adherent of any religion can also be the bearer of this consciousness. Even an atheist scientist can be aware of and perceive the world religiously. Therefore, this type of social consciousness can be more correctly designated as dogmatic.

Without going into disputes regarding the definition of what is religion, let us designate it for ourselves as follows. Religion is a worldview based on the recognition of the existence of a higher, absolute and unchanging truth, confidence in the possession of this truth (or part of it) and the willingness to follow this truth and the way of life associated with it For a person who relies on a myth, this style of perception of the world is alien. The mythological world does not have an absolute super truth. For example, in Ancient Egypt there were several myths about the creation of the world, which quite got along with each other. Ancient peoples could easily worship not only their own, but also foreign deities. Fanaticism is a very rare phenomenon in the mythological world. Religious perception offered a different picture of the world and a different model of behavior. This is the next historical stage in a person's understanding of the world around him, an attempt to understand the laws by which this world exists. As in the case of the mythological explanation of this Universe, the main psychological goal of the religious picture of the world is to reduce the level of existential anxiety in front of the unpredictability, chaos of our existence and in front of a huge, unknown world.

1. The appearance of the supernatural.

The mythological world, in which everything is natural, and everything is subject to a special and impersonal cosmic law, outside of which no one is able to put himself (even the gods), has been replaced by the world of religion. The cosmic law of the mythological world can be likened to gravity - it is everywhere, affects everything, but at the same time it has no will of its own. This law is being replaced by the figure of God as the creator of the world out of nothing, an absolute and omnipotent figure, which itself establishes the laws of the world, but does not obey them at all. God is supernatural, he is above nature, not in it. In fact, instead of a mythological idea of ​​a fully cognized world (myths explain everything, there is a suitable story for any case, even if it may contain many mysterious and frightening things), a picture of the world appears as divided into three categories: what is already known by man; what has not yet been known; and that which can never be known (God). God does not live, like the gods of myths, in our world - he is somewhere in heaven, although, as a relic of mythological ideas, hell has long been located by people in our world - underground.

The appearance of the supernatural has brought about a revolution in the understanding of the world by man. A relationship with God cannot be built in the same way as with mythological deities or spirits who behave like people. Nobody can predict God's behavior, "calculate", he is above our understanding. Such an image invariably causes a strong psychological stress, due to the same anxiety in front of uncertainty and uncertainty. The means of getting rid of anxiety is no longer a deal with a deity or magic (as a way to influence the world), but unquestioning obedience to the Highest Truth, which is personified by God. Truth is transmitted by God through special people, prophets and saints. Truth is not discussed, one cannot doubt it, and one cannot ponder over it (because meditation breeds doubt, and doubt leads to delusion and rebellion against Truth). Therefore, in any truly religious tradition, a developed system of dogmas- the foundations of faith, which cannot be questioned. Of the three largest "classical" religions, Islam is the most consistent in affirming the Absolute Truth, since the Qur'an is, according to Muslim beliefs, direct speech of God(Neither the Torah nor the New Testament claims this). Prophet Muhammad did not invent anything - God put his own words into his mouth.

Thus, religious perception of the world is based on admiration for the Supreme Authority and adherence to it... The commandments of the Supreme Authority, which are, of course, the truth, are recorded in the corresponding religious books. Because God cannot make mistakes and contradict himself, then over time an extensive tradition of interpreting "dark" and contradictory passages in sacred books is formed (Holy Tradition - among Orthodox Christians, tafsir - among Muslims, Talmud - among Jews).

2. Denial of disorder and randomness.

The religious consciousness is intolerant of chaos and disorder. If a person of mythological consciousness does not particularly strive for answers to the questions "why" and "why", he had enough direct emotional experience from contact with the world of spirits / gods, then for a religious person these questions acquire great significance. The idea of ​​an almighty God invariably leads to the idea that everything that happens in the world has its own clearly defined goal, which was determined, of course, by God. Religious mythology differs from "mythological mythology" in its orderliness and coherence (or, at least, attempts to impart coherence to it). The perception of the world in religion can be called systemic, but it is a system completely built around a single foundation. If you remove the figure of God, then the whole worldview will collapse, while the mythological consciousness is much more flexible and mobile. Dostoevsky's words that “if there is no God, then everything is allowed” just reflect this systematic perception, tied to one figure. Therefore, in the speech of people with religious consciousness, everything that happens in the world, with themselves and their loved ones, sooner or later comes down to God.

A vicious circle is formed: I believe in the Authority, therefore they follow its Laws, and the Laws are true because the Authority gave them. If a believer discusses the commandments, allows himself to doubt them and deviate from dogmas, then we cannot call him a “pure” representative of religious consciousness. Let us immediately distinguish between a religious person and a simple believer. The believer recognizes the existence of God, but he builds an intimate-personal contact with him, only to a very small extent mediated (if mediated at all) by dogma. A religious person is much more consistent and systematic in his submission to the Supreme Authority.

A religiously thinking atheist scientist can put Science or faceless Nature in the place of God, but by passionate denial of the hypothetical disorder or chaos of nature, he will not yield to a religious Christian or Muslim. A "religious" scientist forgets that science is a tool that would be good to apply to his own theories (and often defends his theories with the same methods and techniques that a religious person uses to defend his faith).

3. The emergence of absolute moral and ethical concepts and dogmas.

Where there is absolute truth, absolute moral and ethical norms and dogmas are formed. Moreover, there is a very clear conviction that this truth is owned by the adherents of precisely "their" religion. Religious consciousness does not recognize relativity in anything, it thinks only in black and white categories, "sin" - "holiness", "god-devil", "truth is a lie." In Christianity, there was a rethinking of the ten commandments of the Jews. Now "Thou shalt not kill" is an absolute prohibition on any murder of a person, regardless of his affiliation. However, here we are faced with a fundamental contradiction characteristic of religious consciousness: the idea of ​​absolute, common to all norms collides with the idea of ​​its own exclusivity. If I possess the Truth that God told me through the prophets, then by definition I stand higher than those who are not part of this Truth or rejected it. For many religious It is very characteristic of Christians or Muslims to say that they pity atheists as people who are deprived of grace. It is impossible for a person with a religious consciousness to recognize an atheist or a representative of another religion as a person possessing his own truth. They are, by definition, deluded. And from this position follows, perhaps, the most pronounced feature of religious consciousness:

4. Messianism.

Messianism is the desire to spread one's views and beliefs, as only faithful, among other people, communities and nations, as well as the conviction in their own special mission to spread the truth. This phenomenon, in principle, is not typical for representatives of mythological consciousness.

The conviction that you are the one who possesses the truth prompts you to preach or to plant your views (not necessarily religious) and values ​​among other people. In the 20th century, messianism was characteristic both for the USSR (with its mythological and religious communism) and for the United States, which emerged in the 17th century as a “city of God on a hill” for the edification and envy of peoples living in the darkness of ignorance and paganism. Intolerance to a different point of view, difficulty in dialogue - these are inherent features of religious consciousness based on belief in authority. The majority of Christian missionaries in Africa, New Guinea and other primitive regions were characterized by irreconcilability, disrespect for local customs and traditions that run counter to the Highest Truth. Fanaticism is a logical consequence of the belief in the possession of Truth and the conviction that this Truth must be disseminated. At any cost. If necessary, then over the corpses.

Thus, religious consciousness is the next, after the mythological, step in eliminating uncertainty and chaos from the world. The world is no longer explained through impermanent and chaotic gods and elements, but through a single Deity (or Truth), which has the goal and meaning of the development of the world. Overcoming existential anxiety and filling life with meaning is achieved through submission to Truth and the delight of self-denial in favor of values ​​higher in relation to oneself (it is not for nothing that “Islam” means “obedience”, and the Pope calls himself “a slave of God's servants”). The world is filled with meaning - explicit or hidden, and, moreover, the meanings are already fixed, they do not need to be invented or found.

Religion does not contradict myth, myth is the foundation, religion is a building. Therefore, even the most consistent monotoeistic traditions have not escaped contradictions and inconsistencies. For example, people began to pray to the saints and ask them to put in a word before God, attributing to God the purely human features of some king with confidants, favorites and disgraced, and ignoring the idea that the only source of a miracle is God, but not objects or relics ( and this is typical for mythological / magical thinking). Religion is not alien to rationality, but it is limited by dogmas, beyond which reason should not go. Odanko, it was within the framework of Catholicism and, later, Protestantism that the third way of comprehending and understanding the world around was gradually formed - rational (and science as its clearest embodiment).

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-TEST

1. What features are inherent in religious consciousness?

The following features are inherent in the religious consciousness:

Belief that the source of the main guidelines and values ​​of mankind is God - the highest power in the world;

Moral requirements and norms are perceived in religious consciousness as a derivative of the will of God, expressed in his covenants, commandments and sacred books (the Bible, the Koran, etc., based on certain contacts with a supernatural source;

Combining content adequate to reality with illusions;

Symbolism;

Allegorical;

Dialogue;

Strong emotional saturation, functioning with religious vocabulary (and other signs).

2. What religions and why belong to the world?

World religions include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism. The listed world religions are so named because their followers are represented by various national and ethnic groups. Their belonging to a given religion is not determined by kinship ties and relationships. These religions put their values ​​above the ethnicity of their followers.

3. What characterizes religion as a social institution?

Religion is a complex social phenomenon with a variety of forms, cults, functions, methods of influencing social life. Most religions of the modern world have a special organization - the church with a clear distribution of responsibilities at each level of its hierarchy (structure). For example, in Catholicism and Orthodoxy, these are laymen, white clergy, black clergy (monks), episcopate, metropolitanate, patriarchy, etc.

4. What characterizes the modern stage of church-state relations in our country?

According to the Constitution adopted in 1993, the Russian Federation is a secular state, none of the religions is established as state or compulsory. Religious associations are separated from the state and equal before the law. Citizens are equal in their rights and freedoms, regardless of their attitude to religion. Any form of limitation of rights on this basis is prohibited. Every citizen is guaranteed freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, including the right to profess, individually or jointly with others, any religion or not to profess any religion, to freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and to act in accordance with them. Agitation and propaganda of religious hatred and enmity, as well as religious superiority are prohibited.

In Russia in recent decades, there has been an increase in the number of religious associations and organizations. Along with numerous religious associations and organizations of religions traditional for Russia, many new, non-traditional cults and religious movements for our country and its peoples have been registered.

5. What, in your opinion, is the reason for the sharp rise in interest in religion in Russian society in recent decades?

A sharp rise in interest in religion is a very characteristic feature of the spiritual life of Russia in the last decade. It should be noted that in many countries of the world the approaching end of the century and millennium is associated with apocalyptic prophecies of the “end of the world”, and primarily because of the deepening problems of an ecological, demographic and other planetary nature that threaten a catastrophe and the death of all life on Earth. In Russia, the universal alarms of impending disasters were combined with specific negative phenomena of the protracted social crisis, which was, as it were, predicted by religion. Therefore, they were very, very attracted to her, trying to find hope and salvation in this.

6. What helps to maintain interfaith peace?

The state and society actively support various forms of social service of religious associations. Funds are allocated from the state budget for the restoration, maintenance and protection of churches and other objects that are monuments of history and culture. Anyone who visits a memorable place for Russians - a monument on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow - is struck by the fact that religious buildings of Orthodox, Jews and Muslims are located here not far from each other. This is a place of worship for those who died for their Motherland, who were not divided by their belonging to different religions.

A system of state bodies is being formed, there is a staff of employees who are in contact with religious associations. Religious leaders are invited to serve on various advisory councils at federal and regional governments.

TASKS

3. One of the manifestations of interfaith contradictions in the past of mankind were religious wars. You know from the course of history what tragic consequences they led. What measures can prevent the risk of armed clashes based on sectarian strife? Name the facts that, from your point of view, characterize the development of dialogue between various religious organizations in Russia.

First of all, the policy of the state should be aimed at tolerance in society and this should be provided for at the legislative level.

Religious consciousness is characterized by sensory clarity, images created by the imagination, the combination of content adequate to reality with illusions, faith, symbolism, dialogicality, strong emotional saturation, functioning with the help of religious vocabulary (and other special signs). These features are characteristic not only of religious consciousness. Sensual clarity, images of fantasy, emotionality are characteristic of art, illusions arise in morality, politics, social sciences, unreliable concepts and theory are created in natural science, etc. Let us consider how these properties are related to each other in religious consciousness, what is their subordination in German Religious faith An integrative feature of religious consciousness is religious faith. Not all faith is religious faith. The latter "lives" due to the presence of a special phenomenon in human psychology. Faith is a special psychological state of confidence in the achievement of a goal, the occurrence of an event, in the intended behavior of a person, in the truth of an idea, provided there is a lack of accurate information about the attainability of the goal, the ultimate event, about the implementation of foreseeable behavior in practice, and the result of verification. It contains the expectation that the desired will come true. This psychological state arises in a probabilistic situation when there is an opportunity for a successful action, its favorable outcome and knowledge of this possibility. If an event occurs or it becomes clear that it is impossible, if the behavior is realized or it is found that it will not be carried out, if the truth or falsity of the idea is proven, faith fades away. Faith arises about those processes, events, ideas that have essential meaning for people, and is an alloy of cognitive, emotional and volitional moments. Since belief appears in a probabilistic situation, human action in accordance with it is associated with risk. Despite this, it acts as an important fact of the integration of the individual, group, mass, a stimulus for the determination and activity of people. Religious faith is faith: a) in the objective existence of beings, properties, connections, transformations, which are the product of the process of hypostasis; b) the possibility of communicating with seemingly objective beings, influencing them and receiving help from them; c) in the actual performance of some mythological events, in their recurrence, in the onset of the expected mythological event, in participation in them; d) the truth of the corresponding ideas, views, dogmas, texts, etc. etc .; e) in the religious authorities of "fathers", "teachers", "saints", "prophets", "charismatics", "bodhisattvas", "arhats", church hierarchs, clergymen. The content of faith determines the symbolic aspect of religious consciousness. The symbol presupposes the performance by the consciousness of acts of objectifying the conceivable content, focusing on the objectified object (being, property, connection), designating this object. Objects, actions, words, texts are endowed with religious meanings and meanings. The totality of the carriers of these meanings and meanings forms a religious-symbolic environment for the formation and functioning of the corresponding consciousness. The dialogic nature of religious consciousness is associated with faith. Belief in the objective existence of beings includes belief in communication with them, and such communication presupposes dialogue. Dialogue is realized in worship, prayer, meditation, with the help of sounding or inner speech. Throughout its history, morality is closely related to religion. Faith contains a powerful moral charge, since, firstly, a person subordinates his behavior to the will of more perfect beings (in whom faith is the essence of religion), that is, he teaches himself to obey; secondly, by his own actions, external appearance and internal abilities, he strives to become like these creatures and to some extent is transformed. According to one version, the Latin word religio comes from the verb religare (to bind, to attach). If this version is correct, then in religion we are talking about the connection of people with superhuman beings and with each other. Since the "superhuman" is that which is higher and more perfect than man, the main function of religion is value orientation... In other words, religion opens up the highest values ​​for a person - shrines and thereby points the way to where he becomes more perfect. The most developed forms of religion have a multifaceted positive impact on the moral life of a person: - they create a picture of the world in which, on the basis of the interaction between natural and supernatural forces, a certain action corresponds to a certain retribution; thus, the advantage of a moral way of life over the immoral is justified: the belief is affirmed that moral good is ultimately rewarded, and evil and sin are punished; - in the image of God they form a concept ideal as the highest moral standard, the approach to which should determine the life of the believer; - formulate the most important moral requirements for a person; - through the concept the highest good and happiness combine values ​​into a hierarchical system; - determine a list of the main positive and negative qualities of a person - virtues and vices; - develop an ascetic practice of acquiring the former and eradicating the latter. These various lines of influence of religion on morality can be reduced to one of the most important: religion forms spirituality as a striving for perfection, the limit of which is God. The product of the interaction of religion and morality are religious moral systems that historically arise in every cultural organism. Every religion from a universal human point of view is valuable in itself, like every nation and language. In considering them, we will restrict ourselves only to those who have acquired the largest number of adherents and have had the greatest impact on the moral development of mankind. The Bible names the moral corruption of people as the main factor responsible for the almost complete disappearance of monotheism in the world and the emergence of various primitive and ugly religious beliefs. The Apostle Paul, for example, in his epistle to the Romans wrote about this: " Having come to know God, they did not glorify Him as God, and did not give thanks, but vanished in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened; calling themselves wise, they went mad and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like a perishable man, and birds, and four-legged, and creeping things - (therefore) God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness ... They replaced the truth of God with a lie and worshiped and served creatures instead of the Creator"(Rom. 1, 21-25). These words reveal the psychological basis and sequence of the spiritual degradation that occurs with a person and a people during development in him." sincere"(1 Cor. 2:14)," dilapidated"(Ephesians 4:22), that is, the pagan principle and suppression of the image of God. In this case, the Apostle writes about only one of the types of paganism, most widespread in the Roman Empire. But the reasons indicated by him: pride and disrespect to God ( " did not glorify Him as God, and did not give thanks"), disbelief, concentration of all forces on the goals of only earthly, temporary life (" fuss in their speculations"), moral impurity, licentiousness (" in the lusts of their hearts") (cf .: Luke 4, 1-13; John 2, 15) led to the emergence of other numerous types of paganism. The diversity of religions is explained by the well-known psychological fact that, in fact, any phenomenon, both all the more internal, spiritual, differently perceived and explained by different people.At the same time, the difference in understanding increases many times over when the amount of information does not coincide.This is especially clearly manifested in religion, since the main position of its teaching is God, depending on the understanding of Whom, all of its But God is not an external object, like the others, but an omnipresent and “inside” man, an abiding intelligent Spirit-Love, as Christian Revelation says about Him (Luke 17:21), and His perception is primarily due to the degree spiritual purity of man. The Bible says about this quite definitely: " Wisdom will not enter a wicked soul and will not dwell in a body enslaved to sin, for the Holy Spirit of wisdom will move away from deceit, and will shy away from unreasonable speculations, and will be ashamed of the approaching untruth"(Prem. 1, 4-5)." Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God"(Matthew 5, 8).