Interreligious Dialogue: the Actual Meaning, Typology and Features of the Post-Soviet Space

Abstract

The article presents the authors’ thoughts on the reasons for the growing role of the religious factor in modern international relations, and the risks associated with the politicization of religions. It is concluded that religious diversity and at the same time the commonality of basic values directly correlate with the emerging multipolarity of the modern world. It is noted that against the backdrop of the crisis of the Western liberal order and neoliberal ideology, religion and its institutions have become symbols of new fundamentalism, that is, an ideology that calls for a return to the foundations of faith and one’s worldview and culture. The growing role of religion as an institution of civil society and the need to make this institution stronger, to integrate it into civil society and into the system of patriotic education are noted. A classification of types of interreligious dialogue (polemical, cognitive, peacemaking, partnership) and levels of interreligious dialogue (high, medium, low) is presented. The specifics of interreligious dialogue in the post-Soviet space and the features of post-Soviet religious and political identity, the new attitude of political authorities to the institutions of faith are determined: the desire to integrate them into the social structure of society and into social policy. A brief description of interreligious dialogue in the USSR and in the post-Soviet period is given. The prospects for the development of ethno-confessional relations in the post-Soviet space are considered. Recommendations are given for the development of interreligious dialogue at the present stage.