Theology as a factor of sociocultural development of society in the works of ‘Ata’ Allah Bayazitov

Abstract

The article attempts to determine the role and historical significance of the innovative views of ‘Ata’ Allah Bayazitov (1846–1911) in the development of the cultural potential of the Tatar people. The author draws attention to the time and essence of innovations in traditional Russian Muslim society. A number of Tatar intellectuals laid down approaches and methods that met scientific requirements, tools suitable for discussing a new understanding and interaction of theological and philosophical knowledge. Innovators proposed new concepts of the theory of knowledge, aimed at revealing religious thought in its modern understanding: such as confidence in the human mind, the primacy of man, the immanence of God. Through understanding a number of conceptual issues of Islamic Theology, Tatar educational theologians developed methods for overcoming the ideological problems of the Muslim community. This, in turn, made it possible to lay the foundations for building a state-confessional dialogue. The author concludes that the paradigm of thinking built by the innovators was the need to implement divine instructions in social and production activities, and not just in the spiritual sphere. This is the key to the development of the cognitive function and the decisive criterion in the search for truth. Thus, we can observe the process of transformation of Theology from the medieval science of God into the modern science of faith.