The confrontation between European secularisation and Russian Orthodox fundamentalism: Main causes and consequences for modern society

Abstract

The relevance of the subject under study lies in the problem of church-state relations in the struggle for power at the national and international levels. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to investigate the negative and positive impact of religious factors on the international environment and within individual states. To fulfil this purpose, phenomenological and hermeneutical research methods were used. The findings of this study suggest that the fundamentalist movement emerged as an alternative to modernity, which was widespread in European countries in the early 20th century; the origin of religious fundamentalism from traditional conservatism was proved, and modernist and postmodernist forms of Orthodox fundamentalism were covered. It was proved that Orthodox fundamentalism, as a utopian ideology, emerged due to the transformation of theories of science about the system of views and ideas regarding the existence of the world. It was proved that one of the reasons for the popularisation of Orthodox fundamentalism was the unification of the Orthodox in the post-Soviet space. Fundamentalist ideas were used as a political and ideological technology to mobilise social groups to support secular and church authorities. The neoclassical theory of secularism, which argued that religion would gradually disappear from people’s lives with the development of science and technology, was highlighted. It was proved that spirituality and divinity for Europeans is a rational choice of religion. A comparative characterisation of the specifics of European secularisation and Russian Orthodox fundamentalism in the modern world was carried out. The study found that in European countries believers assess the religious influence on their lives as low, while believers in countries where Russian Orthodox fundamentalism is professed believe that the influence of religion on their lives is high. The practical significance of the study is to create conditions for internal reflection and reproduction of one’s own religious identity separately from the state. In addition, the study of religious processes demonstrated in this paper can be used in the comparative analysis of other religious ideologies between which there is a confrontation