Sphere Of Religion Research Articles

Populism and Religion: Freedom of Self-Expression, State, modernity

Populismo e religione: Libertà di autoespressione, politica, modernità, caratteristiche procedurali ABSTRACT: The article is devoted to the topic of populism in religion in modern conditions. The article explains the correlation between freedom of expression and populism. The authors consider the phenomenon of populism in various aspects, including: populism as an instrument of politicization of a religious organization, populism as a latent component of internally sacralized (though outwardly neutral) politics. For many centuries, the ruling regimes of various states have sought and tried to put the Church at the service of their political interests, trying to use the churches in their own domestic and even foreign policy games, related attempts to manipulate religious identities and engage in artificial "church-building", to turn churches into handy ideological tools in the service of power - all this was a hybridization of political populism and religious populism tailored to it. But under such conditions, religious populism is always a forced imposition of tendencies destructive to the Church, it is always a profanation of the religious, the destruction of the most fundamental foundations of religion. But equally, the Church must be protected on the other side - from populist attempts to infringe on the Church's corpus of values, on relics and names honored by the rhetoric of freedom of expression. The authors conclude that populism (as a socio-legal tool, which is based on the paradigm of populism) should be used very cautiously - in the sphere of religion in a secular state. SUMMARY: 1. Introduction - 2. Populism. General concept, characteristic features, ontology - 2.1. The concept of populism - 2.2. Populism as a concept - 2.3. Populism as ideology - 2.4. Characteristic features and elements of populism - 2.5. Taxonomic diversity of populism - 2.6. Populism and democracy - 3. Religion and populism - 3.1. Religious populism as subtype of populism - 3.2. Freedom of expression and populism - 3.3. Populism as a tool of politicization of a religious organization - 3.4. Populism as a latent component of implicitly sacralized (albeit explicitly neutral) politics - 4. Conclusion.

Метафорические особенности репрезентации концепта ЖЕНЩИНА в мужской картине мира (на примере афористики XIX-XXI вв.)

The research aims to identify the characteristics of the metaphorical representation of the WOMAN concept in the male worldview (as exemplified by Russian aphorisms of the 19th-21st centuries). The paper examines conceptual metaphors used to represent the WOMAN concept in the male worldview. Conceptual metaphors for representing the WOMAN concept are models that the authors have differentiated according to various target domain: “a woman as a trap”, “a woman as a detail of the landscape”, “a woman as a work of art”, “a woman as a goddess” and so on. The identified source domains include the sphere of artifacts and inanimate nature, the sphere of social relationships and roles, the sphere of professional activities, the local-spatial sphere, the sphere of nature. The study is novel in that it is the first to determine the metaphorical characteristics of the WOMAN concept representation in the male cognitive consciousness using aphorisms as research material. As a result, the research found that the male linguistic worldview, which is understood in the paper as a set of male perceptions presented as unified universal social norms and life models, has an androcentric character. The researchers identified metaphors that use the spheres of social relationships, artifacts and inanimate nature, and the sphere of religion as source domains. It was proved that concepts of power (TYRANT, QUEEN, TSARINA) or subordination (SLAVE); concepts from the sphere of inanimate objects; sacred concepts (ANGEL, GODDESS, PRIESTESS) correlate with the WOMAN concept.

Аdvertisement of European multiculturalism and its impact on interfaith relations in Ukraine

The article proposes a study of state-church and inter-religious relations in Ukraine during the period of independence in the context of political processes in modern Europe. The modern vectors of state policy in the sphere of religion and freedom of conscience are revealed. The insult in interfaith relations is largely caused by the ill-conceived and inconsistent policy of the government in this area. It has been established that the current political situation in Ukraine indicates a deep crisis in relations in many spheres of social life. Russia's open aggression caused a new wave of aggravation of national self-identification and the church vector in Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to highlight the problem of the political and spiritual influence of Europe on modern Orthodoxy in Ukraine, which is in a state of division into different jurisdictions. It has been proven that the unification of the divided branches of Ukrainian Orthodoxy will contribute to the consolidation of Ukrainian society, especially in conditions of open war. The formation of the United Church should take place on the basis of a constructive dialogue between the authorities, denominations and society.
 The research shows that the branches of the divided Ukrainian Orthodoxy are under the active political influence of the geopolitical confrontation of the European scale. Advertising and promotion of multiculturalism and polytheism, which are characteristic of the countries of Western Europe, require corresponding freedom of religion and the presence of a multi-religious component in Ukraine, which openly demonstrates the chosen vector of European integration.
 On the other hand, it was established that the status of the United Independent Church affects issues of national security, international recognition, geopolitical influence, consolidation of Ukrainian society, unification of self-identification of Ukrainian citizens and is an important conflict-causing factor. Therefore, the issue of establishing the United Independent Ukrainian Church remains topical today.

Appropriation of mindfulness in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Mindfulness has gained increasing popularity across Western societies over the past couple of decades, although mainly in forms that have been stripped of all religious content. During this period, the practice has also attracted the interest of mainstream Christian churches, which has precipitated the development of distinctively ‘Christian’ forms of mindfulness. Based on a critical discussion of the concept of appropriation in the sphere of religion, this article explores the particular logic whereby mindfulness has been appropriated within the particular ecclesiastical context of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) in light of debates in church-connected media and the content of two Finnish BA theses on pastoral care that argue for the adoption of the practice. In light of this data, the article illustrates how ELCF discourse on mindfulness has been marked by four closely interlinked requirements for the appropriation of the practice: 1. that the practice has already been thoroughly stripped of any overt religious content; 2. that it has become sufficiently scientifically validated; 3. that there is wider social and cultural interest in the practice; 4. and that the practice does not stand in opposition to the teachings of the church.

Differences in the civilizational development of the West and the east of Europe (Russia)

In the conditions of the SVO, interest in civilizational differences has grown, the course "Fundamentals of Russian Statehood" has been introduced in universities. The article substantiates the thesis that the culture of the Russian civilization (in the spheres of religion, literacy, writing, law, world perception, art, education systems, science, crafts, etc.) rose from the culture of the GreekByzantine civilization. The differences between Greece and Rome in ancient times, Russia from the West of Europe in the Middle Ages, Russia from Western civilization in modern and postmodern times are shown. The differences in the interpretation of Christianity in Catholicism-Protestantism from Orthodoxy are highlighted. From the slavery of Rome, the domination of the barbarians, the crusades, the Inquisition, the witch hunt, absolute scholasticism in philosophy, papocaesarism with its absolutism of papal power and totalitarian attitude towards the flock-subjects and – most importantly – genocide against "their" and other peoples arose. In contrast, Byzantium and Russia with their "caesaropapism" and "symphony of the authorities" relied on a sensitive borrowing of customs and culture of neighbors, the receptivity of other views and beliefs. Thanks to this, the West has always been rigidly antipathetic to any deviations from the "general line" of power, up to total terror, fascism, Nazism, racism and the slave trade. The Russian civilization, relying on the values of ancient Greece and Byzantium and the Mongolian Yassa, preferred the values of empathy (internationalism and collectivism) and therefore was guided primarily by the New Testament. It is this axiological contradiction that determines the age-old Russophobia of the West in relation to Russia, which prevents the legitimization of racism-hegemonism of the West.

Local Pasts and International Inspirations: The Heritagisation and Caminoisation of Pilgrimage Landscapes in Norway

Through the case of St Olav Ways, the aim of this article is to shed light on the ways in which the contemporary pilgrimage phenomenon in Norway is developed through a combination of interpretations of local religious history and inspiration from international pilgrimage developments, the Camino de Santiago in particular. Pilgrimage is increasingly becoming visible as a contemporary phenomenon in Norway, as in several other European countries where pilgrimage was long discredited as a religious practice. From the 1990s, pilgrimage routes leading to historical shrines have been developed, initiated by agents ranging from grassroot enthusiasts to governmental ministries. This is analysed as the heritagisation of religion and Caminoisation. In a broader perspective, this pertains to how interfaces between the spheres of religion, politics and cultural heritage management are central to the development of contemporary pilgrimage landscapes. A further aim of this article is to demonstrate the importance of taking administrative and political processes into account for pilgrimage studies. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork and document analysis.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES OF THE CRIMEAN NATIVES’ RELIGION AND CULTS IN THE EARLY IRON AGE

in the Early Iron Age
 Scientific information about the natives of Crimea, in spite of more than a century of investigations, is quite limited. Perhaps the least clear in the archaeological and cultural-historical constructions of the Crimean societies of the final Bronze Age — Early Iron Age is still the sphere of religion and cults.
 The only thing that in any way indicates the religion of the population of Crimea — is a set of symbols on ceramics, which demonstrates the dynamics of change of signs. In addition to images of signs in the culture, images of faces are also known — on a vessel from Uch-Bash and on phallic-shaped ceramic figures from the pre-Greek layer of Chersonesos.
 We assume that the social order of the tribes of the younger pre-Taurian period was destroyed due to the invasion of nomads. The old economic system in the northern Black Sea coast ceased to function, contacts collapsed, and the remnants of the local tribes formed a new society, in fact, on fire and together with the remnants of other tribes. In such a situation, the beginnings of a new ideology were probably destroyed along with their bearers. The tribes adopted a primitive ideology that was not characteristic of earlier Crimean societies. Why this happened and where this ideology was borrowed from, or whether it was characteristic of the tribal Bronze Age tribes living on the peninsula, remains unclear.
 In general, characterizing the tribes that inhabited the Crimea during the metal ages, only in the final of Bronze Age and turn to Iron Age and later during the emergence of Greek centres we can talk about the tribes of farmers, where the cultivation of cereals accounts for a significant share in the economy. This is important because only the agricultural tribes have a common lunar calendar, which was determined by observations of celestial bodies, and therefore needed a sanctuary-observatory. There are no signs of such sanctuaries in the Crimea. The tribes of pastoralists had simpler ways of observing the sky, which probably occurred on the basis of the movement of the sun through the firmament, embodied in temples and sacred places on certain elevations — mountains, stone remains etc., or the construction of special structures — pyramids, ziggurats, mounds, obelisks, menhirs. We observe the simplest forms of worship in the Crimea — cemeteries under mountain ranges, mounds, menhirs. Sanctuaries and cults of the pre-Taurian periods of the Kyzyl-Koba culture are not known to us, except for a small set of signs on ceramic vessels. This antropomorthous signs have earlier analogies in Eastern Mediteranian and show features of changing in ideology of native population in different lends in process of transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age. This features appearances in anthropomorthous signs. All the known sanctuaries of the Crimean Mountains dated from the Roman time and they did not connect with Kyzyl-Koba culture. The burial custom of the tribes of the Taurian period is rows of stone cists, located under the ridges of the mountains; in some graves were installed menhirs. This custom is more in line with the population with the main component of livestock in the economy. The sanctuaries of the Crimean Mountains appear in the already formed form with an established custom and have nothing similar in the rites of Kyzyl-Koba tribes.
 More and more evidence is now being gathered in favour of the emergence of a completely new phenomenon for Crimea — military cults, which may be associated with a new wave of people who found themselves in the Crimea in connection with the spread of Latin cultures to the east. Preconditions, in particular, the transition of the Tauri population to the customs of the Scythian tribes, developed on the peninsula in the late 4th — early 3rd century BC. Thus, nothing contradicts the formation of syncretic military cults in the barbarian population of Crimea in the 2nd century BC and the emergence of such phenomena as the sanctuary of Gurzufske Sidlo in Roman times.

A disenchanted world: Max Weber on magic and modernity

Despite its great popularity in both the scientific and non-scientific fields, Max Weber’s concept of “disenchantment” remains mostly obscure and in recent years it has become the center of an interdisciplinary debate on modernity involving both Weberian specialists and non-specialists. The aim of the article is to return to Weber’s text and analyze Weber’s use of the term and the meaning of what he calls the “disenchantment of the world.” To do so I follow Taylor’s and Schluchter’s insight and investigate how Weber would picture an initial condition of enchantment. However, while these interpreters did not explore the Weberian perspective on magic, I instead show that not only Weber had a precise and original conception of magic as the primitive attitude toward the world, but also that this conception may clarify the meaning and dynamics of the process of disenchantment in both the spheres of religion and of science.

The conceptions of state policy in the sphere of religion (experiences of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan)

  The article examines the conceptual basis of governmental policy in the sphere of religion Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan within the framework of legislative and religious education; experience against religious extremism and terrorism, as well as cooperation between the state and religious organizations. Taking into account the historical experience and using the method of comparative studies, the author analyzes the distinctive features of two Central Asian states in terms of state and religions interaction, as well as their secular models. This study provides valuable scientific findings that comprehends various religious aspects in connection with the governmental policy of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. And also, it sums up the dynamics of state–religion relations within legislative and religious education, and institutional development stages in the modern context and helps to assess the governmental policy in the sphere of religion in two countries. Keywords: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Сentral Asia, SADUM, Religion, State Policy, Sphere of Relig

The Ukrainian government’s policy in the sphere of religion in 2014-2021

The Ukrainian government’s policy in the sphere of religion in 2014-2021

Plastic Skinscapes in Tibetan Buddhism

This article takes as its point of departure S. Brent Plate's (2012) compelling metaphor ‘the skin of religion’ to discuss the increasing presence and impact of plastics in the sphere of religion. What material and imagined properties of plastics allow them to be incorporated into the sacred domain? How are plastics experienced? What are the consequences of plastics’ increasing presence? The discussion pivots around observations of three forms of plastics used in contemporary Tibetan Buddhism: (1) acrylic shells protecting sacred text, (2) polyethylene jars containing votives and (3) silicone imitations of Buddhist lamas. The article focuses on the skinscapes co-constituted by these plastics, focusing on the affordances and enactments of plastics in the religious field, not only in terms of how acrylic, polyethylene and silicone are experienced, but also how they enact their material properties even beyond our sensual experiences of them. While the plastic materials protect and prolong the precious items that they contain or imitate, they also raise discussions about disposability, non-perishability, pollution and material doubt.

Conditions and factors of stability preservation in the sphere of religion in the Republic of Kazakhstan

The article examines the formation and further development of state-confessional and interfaith relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan since its Independence. The main research attention is dedicated to the study of the issue of ensuring stability and sustainability in the religious sphere and to the question of how the state policy is built in the country in order to ensure peace and harmony in a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional society. As a methodology, monitoring and comprehensive analysis of normative legal acts, materials of state policy in the religious sphere, data from sociological research are used; on the basis of those materials an assessment of the effectiveness of the implementation of state policy and forecast of the potential future situation shall be given. The materials of the current research made it possible to point out the problematic aspects in the field of religious activity, taking into account external and internal factors, and to propose measures to solve them.

Русскоязычная хутба в контексте современной лингвокультурной ситуации

A muslim sermon is a religious genre that attracts the attention of specialists in various fields of knowledge: theologians, religious scholars, historians, sociologists, political scientists, and linguists. Having emerged simultaneously with the emergence of Islam, the khutbah has come a long way and has retained its ritual side unchanged. In the 20th – 21st centuries in the Russian Empire, in the Soviet Union, and later in the Russian Federation, it adapted to local conditions and catered to the political and ethnocultural needs of the time, one of which was the question of the language of its presentation. The orientation towards the canonical Arabic language or the ethnic language of the majority of the parishioners was explained by the requirements to preserve the doctrine in its original purity, or by the need to bring believers to closer understanding of the pastoral word. Today, this issue still remains controversial due to the fact that the Russian language, which has acquired the status of the state language, displaces bilingualism from many spheres of life, and small peoples lose their national identity because of this. The strengthening of the role of the Russian language occurs also due to the fact that now it performs the function of the language of inter-confessional and intra-confessional communication. The state policy in the sphere of religion and the change in the social conditions of people’s life affected the expansion of the reasons for reading the khutbahs and the conditions for their conduct, which gave rise to certain genre transformations. In the context of the pandemic, not only the format of sermons (on-line khutbahs) has changed but also the level of creativity has increased, which is based on the collective activity of the imam-khatib and the team of his associates and students.

Typology of Religious Vocabulary in Dialects of Old Believers of Latin America

The study is devoted to the religious vocabulary in the dialects of the Old Believers in order to identify confessional and dialectal characteristics. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time a description of the religious vocabulary of the Old Believers-chapels of Latin America is carried out. A review of scientific literature has been carried out, which describes various aspects of the study of the religious vocabulary of the Russian language, including dialects. The relevance of the work is due to the need for theoretical comprehension and differentiation of the concepts of “religious vocabulary” and “confessional vocabulary”. The author’s definition of the term “religious vocabulary” as a hyperonym in relation to the terminology related to the sphere of religion is given. The material was written texts of the Old Believer Danila Zaitsev. Semantic and contextual analysis, comparative analysis of the semantics of Old Believer religious terminology relative to Christian terminology, as well as the linguo-theological method were selected as research methods. A new approach to the classification of religious vocabulary is proposed. It is concluded that four groups are distinguished in the vocabulary of Old Believer’s dialects: common vocabulary in a religious sense; common Christian vocabulary in confessional discourse; confessional vocabulary as a marker of a specific confession; confessional and dialectal vocabulary in Old Believer dialects.

ІНСТИТУЦІЙНА СКЛАДОВА СИСТЕМИ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ УКРАЇНИ В РЕЛІГІЙНІЙ СФЕРІ

There is an issue of strengthening the independence of the state, preserving its stability, and resisting attempts to split the country into ideological and national lines. An important place in this process is played by religion, which should unite, not divide, the society of Ukraine. Therefore, one of the urgent problems is the guarantee of security in the humanitarian sphere, especially in the sphere of religion and ethnic relations, and the formation of conceptual approaches in the implementation of the state policy of national security in it, considering that the religious sphere occupies one of the main places among the objects of national security, since the factors of religion, culture, history and language are decisive in the formation of national identity. The article examines the functions and powers of political subjects and state authorities, which are entrusted with the responsibilities of implementing the state policy of national security of Ukraine in the religious sphere, as well as non-state consultation and advisory bodies on religious matters, which have a significant influence in the sphere of religion, in its essence is a model of the consolidation of Ukrainian society on the basis of religion, tolerant interfaith and state-church relations, implementation of national values, support of cultural heritage and traditions, and which are the most effective representatives of Ukraine in the world religious space. Based on the analysis, the justification for the need to introduce changes and improve the institutional component system to ensure the national security of Ukraine in the researched area to increase the efficiency of interdepartmental interaction and interaction with non-state bodies in the field of religion in order to achieve results in the implementation of relevant tasks of state policy was made.

Pandemic Fault Lines: The Black Death in the Age of Covid

Pandemic Fault Lines:The Black Death in the Age of Covid Dorsey Armstrong It will be a surprise to no one that in this current time of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have turned their attention to earlier pandemics in an attempt to make sense of the current global crisis. The turn to the past provides a context or historical framework into which our present circumstances may be fitted, a comparative measure alongside which similarities and differences may be gauged. This look backward to earlier moments of devastating illness and death, oddly, provides a kind of solace: humanity has suffered through this kind of catastrophe before, and we have come out the other side. We are living through a pandemic that is slightly different in both degree and kind from, for example, either the 1918 influenza outbreak or the Second Plague Pandemic (commonly referred to as the "Black Death" during its initial outbreak in the European world in the fourteenth century), but by many measures of comparison, Covid-19 is less lethal and less devastating than these earlier pandemics. Modern science and medicine have given us knowledge and tools that, when used correctly, are able to slow the spread of the virus and may be used (often successfully) to treat those who become ill; the rapid development of vaccines has given us the means to lessen the virus's transmission and lethality. But by some other measures of comparison, however, Covid-19 is worse than any of these earlier pandemics. While modern advances have given us weapons to fight the disease, the disease has also revealed how much of our modern infrastructure and social organization is alarmingly fragile. Indeed, as I suggest below, the experience of pandemic disease in a technologically-advanced world such as ours unsheathes—and brandishes—a double-edged sword. When the first wave of the Black Death struck medieval Europe, it both revealed and exacerbated serious flaws in the spheres of religion, economics, politics, and more; so too did it seriously impact physical infrastructure, trade in essential [End Page 1] goods, and have a negative effect on social order. In the mid-fourteenth century, much of medieval Europe was more interconnected and was becoming more urbanized than it had been since the time of the Roman Empire; it was a world on the point of transitioning out of a primarily rural, subsistence, agrarian culture to one in which craft and trade specialization was significantly increased, a newly burgeoning merchant class was on the rise, and a cash economy existed alongside but was gaining ground on barter-and-trade. When the Black Death disrupted these social and economic advances, medieval society was not so far advanced that the majority of the population were unable to adapt and shift their activities, livelihoods, crafts, and trades (briefly) slightly backward toward a more localized, subsistence economy. By contrast, the flaws and fault lines the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed about our modern society—more specialized, more globalized, more mechanized, more urbanized, and more critically dependent on those factors to continue functioning as they have in order for us to continue—suggest that it is our reliance on modern advances in science and technology that could, ironically, be our undoing. It is a point that is made explicitly in Robert Harris's 2019 novel The Second Sleep, a story that at first appears to be set in the Middle Ages, but as we slowly learn, is actually set in a post-catastrophic future. According to the novel, in the year 2025 the character of Nobel Laureate Peter Morgenstern issues the following warning: We regard our society as having reached a level of sophistication that renders it uniquely vulnerable to total collapse. The gravity of the threat has increased vastly since 2000, with the transfer of so much economic and social activity to cyberspace . . . a prolonged general interruption to computer networks . . . would lead within 24 hours to food and fuel shortages—especially in urban areas—a dramatic curtailing of money supply (due to the loss of ATMs, credit card transactions, and online banking), communications and information breakdowns, transport shutdown, panic buying, mass exodus, and civil disorder . . . 30 years ago, the average...

Сакральное и профанное в «Очерках бурсы» Н. Г. Помяловского

The article is devoted to the analysis of relationship between the categories of sacred and profane in “Essays of Bursa” by N. G. Pomyalovsky. The author examines various concepts of the sacred. There are two main concepts among them. The first one is the conventionally “institutional” sacred, correlated with the social sphere of religion. The second one is conventionally “ontological” sacred, associated with the “fullness of life, existence.” The author analyzes specific fragments of the text and comes to the conclusion that each of these concepts is reflected in the work. However, the author’s main idea is that the “institutional” sacred, represented by the phenomena of church (liturgical, educational) life, is profaned in “Essays of Bursa.” On the contrary, the phenomena of the profane life of students (games, relationships), which can be correlated with the “carnival, festive” attitude, are sacralized.

Католический врач для калмыцкого хана: к характеристике вероисповедной политики на южных окраинах Российской империи (начало 60-х гг. XVIII в.)

Introduction. The article concentrates on the religious policy of the Russian Empire in the Early Modern Time. For the first time in historiography, a study was carried out concerning the activities of Catholic missionaries in relation to the Kalmyk Khanate, the attempts of the Capuchin Order to establish contacts with the Kalmyk Khan Donduk-Dashi. Materials and methods. The study is based on mostly unpublished materials from the political and diplomatic correspondence of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs and the legislation of the first half of the 1760s, characterizing the methods and territorial scope of the missionaries activity, in particular, their penetration into the Kalmyk steppe. The methodology of the study has been determined by the structural and functional approach to the system of state bodies of Russia. In combination with this approach, a historical-genetic method was used, which is optimal for the study of changes in the power system of the Russian Empire from the beginning of the 18th century through the first half of the 1760s. Results. The section demonstrates the reasons for the aspiration of the Capuchin Order to the North Caucasus and the place of the Kalmyk Khanate in missionary plans, describes the standard epoch-specific missionary techniques for influencing the non-Catholic population. It has been determined that the Capuchins, relying on the support of Austrian diplomacy, bypassed the formal restrictions on missionary activity in the studied region, which could not but cause religious friction. The activity of Russian institutions to resolve differences of this kind is traced, the difficulties encountered by the authorities in the capital and especially at the local level in connection with the need for an appropriate settlement are shown. At the same time, it is emphasized that the specific interests of secular and spiritual bodies in such cases did not coincide, which had a long-standing and stable character in the south. The dynamics of the attitude of the Russian authorities towards missionaries in the Russian south is outlined. If under the conditions of the “Austrian system” — orientation towards the Austrian court, which had been in Russian diplomacy since the times of Peter the Great and under Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, their position was favorable, then after the accession of Catherine II and the crisis in Russian-Austrian relations, the possibilities of missionaries in the North Caucasus and the Kalmyk steppes were significantly limited. The author states that in the process of settling religious tensions, the Russian authorities in the early 1760s faced a weak legal framework both in relation to non-Orthodox religions and in general. The solution to the problem was outlined with the accession of Catherine II and in connection with the empress’s policy in the spheres of religion and law.

Падежни остатъци при българските фразеологизми

This article analyzes the case remnants in Bulgarian phrasemes. As a source we used Nov frazeologichen rechnik na balgarskiya ezik (1993) by Keti Ankova-Nicheva. Where possible, a comparison has been made with phrasemes in Russian, Serbian, Old Bulgarian and Church Slavonic, which are taken from phraseological dictionaries of the respective languages. The origin of some case forms has been studied. The methods of definitional, component and comparative analysis with Slavic synthetic languages are used. The analysis of the material shows that under the influence of the Church Slavonic language, most of the phraseologies that have retained case forms belong to the sphere of religion.

Authoritarian Governance and Ambiguous Religious Policy: An Uncertain Future for Covenantal Pluralism in Tajikistan

The former Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan has witnessed a conflictual political and social transformation after 1991 leading to a devastating civil war between 1992 and 1997. After the civil war, international efforts of liberal peacebuilding and post-conflict rehabilitation allowed a domestic détente, in which political and, importantly, religious pluralism could flourish unprecedently for the standards of the country. Still, this form of pluralism did not meet the ideal standards of covenantal pluralism as such. In the past decade, moreover, Tajikistan has gradually turned into a consolidated autocracy in which even formal pluralism is suspended. Authoritarian governance, especially in the sphere of religion, has aggravated societal divides and undermined social cohesion in the country. Although the short-term prospects for pluralism in general and covenantal pluralism in particular are dim, a differentiated perspective on the ideal of covenantal pluralism in the longue durée might provide possible starting points for meaningful engagement in Tajikistan bridging religious, societal, and political divides.