Methodology of scientific study of religion under conditions of non-classical rationality

Abstract

Problems of methodology are among the most acute in the modern scientific study of religion. As a result of the crisis of classical rationality, which, in particular, is a crisis of monologism and universalism of the mind, before the scientific research of religion, there was a need for the development of new paradigms and the problem of the unity of the methodology of religious studies. It should be noted the tendency to overcome the sociological regulations of religious studies, the search for new approaches to comprehend the essence of religion. Using the terminology of T. Kuhn, we can say that the process of forming a new scientific paradigm is now under way, which is aimed at understanding not only the external forms of religion (as is usually the case in comparative religious studies), or the solution of the problem of the functioning of religion in different cultures and in society (sociological approach , which originates from the Weberian school), as much as religion as one of the essential structural elements of human existence.