The Department of Religious Studies is the leading institution of Ukraine for research on religious phenomena

Abstract

The Department of Religious Studies is formed on an autonomous basis in the structure of the Institute of Philosophy by the decision of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in June 1991 with the prospect of its transformation into an independent academic institution. The first director of the Department was Dr. Philos. Mr., O.S. Onischenko, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The Department includes departments of the philosophy of religion (headed by A. Kolodnyi, Ph.D.), sociology of religion (the head of the Philosophical Philosophy Department P.Kosuh), the history of religion in Ukraine (the head of the Philosophy Philosophy Yarotsky) During the first three years, departments conducted research on the following topics: "Methodological Principles and Categorical Apparatus of Religious Studies"; "Contemporary Religious Situation in Ukraine: State, Trends, Forecasts"; "History of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine". Since 1994, they have been working on problems: "The phenomenon of religion: nature, essence, functionality"; "Religious activity in the context of social processes in Ukraine"; "Features and milestones of the history of Ukrainian Christianity". At the time, the research group on the history of theological thought in Ukraine (headed by K.Filosov V.Klimov) studied the creative work of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla, a group on the study of neo-religions (head of the department - Philosophy L. L. Filippovich) - investigated new religious currents and cults of post-socialist Ukraine, and a group on the history of Protestantism (headed by F. Philosopher P. Kosuh, coordinator - Ph.D. S.Golovashchenko) conducted a large-scale study of archival sources on the history of the Gospel-Baptist movement in Ukraine. In 1995, the Department employed 30 scientific staff (including 5 doctors and 14 candidates of science).