Religious Mysticism and the Psychology of Religion: on the Question of the Limits of Reduction. Part 2

Abstract

Relevance. At the present stage of the development of religious studies, the importance of revealing the psychological "slice" of mysticism is increasing from the point of view of comparing two approaches – the reductionist, which reduces mysticism to intense and unusual psychological experiences, and the anti-reductionist, which sees in mysticism something more than just subjective experiences.The purpose is to supplement the understanding of the limits of psychological reduction of religious‒mystical experience by understanding the limits of anti-reductionism.Objectives: to determine the specifics of the approach of the Russian psychology of religion to the phenomenon of mysticism in the unity of its religious and non-religious forms; to demonstrate the content of antipsychologism as a worldview and methodological attitude of Russian religious philosophy in its approach to religious mysticism; to comprehend the boundaries of the reductionist attitude against the background of its comparison with antireductionism.Methodology. The comparative method was used in the process of analyzing ideological attitudes (on the one hand, Western psychology of religion, and on the other – Russian psychology of religion) in the process of studying religious and mystical experience. The principle of consistency made it possible to comprehend reductionism and anti-reductionism as scientific programs that have heuristic potential only in the general space of interdisciplinary dialogue and interaction.Results. Firstly, the heuristic value of considering religious mysticism through the prism of "genuine – inauthentic" is substantiated and the significance of demarcation of spiritual phenomena forming the three-dimensional space of religious mysticism is revealed. Russian Russian religious philosophy demonstrates the prerequisites of an antipsychological attitude within the framework of the approach of Russian religious philosophy to the phenomenon of mysticism in the unity of its religious and non-religious forms, and also defines the specifics of the Russian psychology of religion. Thirdly, the limits of the anti-reductionist approach to mystical phenomena are demonstrated.Conclusions. In the context of the increasing influence of the neurobiological approach to the study of mysticism, new perspectives of discussion arise between the research programs of reductionism and anti-reductionism. The "boom" of neurotheology creates prerequisites for raising the question of a new composition of the interdisciplinary space for the study of religious as well as non-religious mysticism.