RELIGIOUS STUDIES, PHILOSOPHY, AND THEOLOGY IN M.N. EPSTEIN’S POOR FAITH THEORY

Abstract

The article examines the theory of poor faith proposed by M.N.Epstein to describe a new variant of relig-iosity characteristic of contemporary Russian post-atheist society. It is shown that this theory contains both scientific and non-scientific components —philosophical and theological. The scientific component is characterized by brevity, and the features covered by this component are characteristic not only of poor faith, which makes it difficult to identify this or that religious phenomenon as belonging to poor faith. Since poverty itself is a quantitative characteristic, it requires a description that would make it possible to measure the level of poverty of any faith and to verify the objectivity of such a measurement. The philo-sophical component is represented by judgments about the social factors producing poor faith and the significance of this faith for understanding the essence of religion; the scientific value of these judge-ments cannot be unambiguously empirically confirmed. The theological component of the theory of poor faith, which implies an active reference to the Judeo-Christian tradition, can be qualified as a self-description of poor faith. It is closely connected with the philosophical component but, unlike the latter, it does not claim to be scientific, being a kind of extra-confessional method of hermeneutics of biblical texts. The theological component is of scientific interest as a source of information about poor faith, the analysis of which provides a better understanding of this phenomenon. In spite of the indicated shortcom-ings, the theory of poor faith could be improved, which would allow it to become a full-fledged scientific theory. This would require a clear separation of its current scientific and non-scientific components, as well as the specification and quantification of the elements of the scientific component.