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Taking into account Durkheim’s declaration about religion as a base for human solidarity, this article aims to trace the dynamics of those mechanisms that allow religion to play this role in transient conditions. The paper demonstrates how E. Durkheim’s theoretical programme is interpreted by one of his followers, the founder of cultural sociology J. Alexander, and how it is used in cultural and sociological methodology. The paper also draws attention to the fact that J. Alexander remains within the paradigm proposed by E. Durkheim, in which cognitive and social structures correlate and interact; however, at the same time he develops the Weberian approach emphasising an important role of such symbolic systems as language, myth, narrative in the organisation of human experience, behaviour and consciousness. J. Alexander draws on both approaches to the understanding of religion, but redefines religion as a discourse or as a series of narratives that transmits, on the one hand, a certain tradition of describing social reality, and, on the other hand, makes possible for this reality to be rewritten and to acquire a different meaning. The paper demonstrates the relevance of E. Durkheim’s basic assumption about the solidifying role of religion and describes the way how the emphasis on the authorising role of religious practices is gradually moving to the sense-building function of religious narratives.

The paper examines arguments of the “Christian materialist” Trenton Merricks that he provided in support of the claim that the Christian doctrine of resurrection from the dead is compatible with the materialist understanding of the nature of human beings. In his paper The Resurrection of the Body, Merricks discussed two aspects of the materialist interpretation of the traditional religious doctrine of the bodily resurrection. On the one hand, he analyses and tries to overcome objections against the possibility of the general resurrection in case the materialist understanding of the nature of human personality should be true (mainly the problem of the temporal gap). On the other hand, he provides some reasons why the materialist understanding of human nature is more relevant than its dualist counterpart to the doctrine of the bodily resurrection. The present paper evaluates his arguments and discusses the suggestion that the doctrine of resurrection is not only compatible with materialism, but is also tenable if human beings are identical with their physical bodies. The conclusion of the paper is that Merricks’ apologetic arguments achieve their aims in defending the doctrine of resurrection only partially; the resurrection doctrine appears more tenable if we accept the dualistic conception of human nature.

This paper gives an outline of relational sociology, which understands and explains society and human existence as “relationally constituted”, i.e. as constituted by social relations. Modern and postmodern sociological mainstreams see relations as an emanation of the individual, whereas in reality individual’s identity depends on relations. The fallacy of individualism is due to the fact that current social theories avoid addressing what the author calls “the enigma of the relationship”, i.e. an order of reality able to unite the diff erent ones while preserving, and even promoting, their differences. This new approach understands relations as a sui generis reality that cannot be reduced to the terms of the relations, their qualities and properties, because the relation is “emergent”. Thus, it overcomes the fallacies of subjectivism and objectivism in understanding the nature of social reality and can make visible the enigma of its relational constitution. This approach stems from a new social (relational) ontology, according to which substance and relation are co-principles of being. Such an ontology, in turn, needs to refer to a specifi c “theological matrix”, since every society depends on a kind of “symbolic code” that determines the uniqueness of its structures and sociocultural dynamics. Symbolic codes always have religious origins where “religion” broadly means the ultimate latent values of society. Within the framework of Western thinking, three symbolic codes or theological matrices can be observed, depending on how the diff erence between the Self and the Other is interpreted, namely dialectical, binary and relational. Within the dialectical symbolic code, the distinction between the Self and the Other is understood as a point of constant confl ict, discussion and negotiation: the theory of J. Habermas serves as a good example of this code. The binary matrix, presented by N. Luhmann, understands the diff erence between the Self and the Other as an insurmountable separation. Within the relational code, this difference (indeed any difference) is considered to be a social relation, i.e. a true interchange between the terms generating “emergent” eff ect. The relational matrix goes back to Christianity and its theological Trinitarian matrix.

The article suggests sociological analysis of the social relationships in the parish as a factor which promotes parish social work development. The paper is based on the data of two field research. First (quantitative) source is a survey of the on–line educational course on church social work participants, conducted in 2014–201530. The second source of data is a qualitative study «Social work organization on the Russian Orthodox Church parishes in the first half of XXI. Sociological Analysis31». Within this research in 2012–2013, 154 in-depth interviews were conducted with parishioners, priests, and non–parishioners, involved into parish non–liturgical activities in 10 regions of Russian Federation. Basing on the empirical data, in the first part of the analysis we trace the connection between the type of priests and laity social relationship in the parish and the quantitative indicators of parish social work development. These indicators are the number of non–liturgical activities in the parish, the number of people involved into parish social activities, and the number of organizations the parish has contacts with. In the Second part of the article, we present the description of the parish prior (head of a parish) styles of working with people in the relation of these styles to the formation of different types of priests–laity cooperation and promotion of the corresponding types of social work in the parish.

One of the important aspects of institutionalization of the religious studies in 1870– 1910s was the publishing of the fi rst handbooks on history of religion and comparative religion. The aim of the paper is to analyze methods and approaches of religious studies, as they described in these handbooks. The main characteristic of religion for the historians of religion was its universality. The most important methods, according to them, were historical approach, comparative approach, using of the notion «development». It is important, that we deal foremost with the «history of religion» in these handbooks, not with the «history of religions». Primitive religions were usually excluded from these handbooks, because they «have not history». First handbooks on history of religion often were edited in the series of theological handbooks, that’s why Christianity was described in them quite often as «higher» religion. Researches on comparative religion were based upon the history of religion. One of the main principles of comparative religion was that it should not deal with religious values, but only with a comparison of facts. The author concludes that scholars of religion nowadays should not only collect the facts, but also realize projects on the general history (theory) of religion.

This paper provides an analysis of contemporary Russian academic literature on spirituality. The authors single out key features of these texts, especially their approach to defi ning their subject. They formulate major semantic contexts within which spirituality is discussed by sociologists and psychologists, as well as practical implications of the term. The authors compare the academic usage of the term ‘spirituality’ with its usage in everyday language; the comparison is based on a mass survey conducted in 2006. In the literature that served as the material for the present study, we can observe political, cultural and religious aspects of spirituality. It can be viewed as a form of patriotism, as religious worldview, as overcoming the limitations of human nature, as erudition, as a means to fi ght the non-spiritual character of modern society, or as an aspiration towards the ideal. The overall fuzziness of the term is a consequence of its emotional and utopian connotations in the Russian language.

The article investigates the literary controversy in the Russian Church in the fi rst half of the XVI century. Author conducted a literary and textual analysis of one of the largest polemical writings of Metropolitan Daniel of Moscow — «The word of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.» This work was part of the composition «Sobornik slov» of Metropolitan Daniel, however, was never published and attracted the attention of researchers. At the same time it is the only writing in ancient russian literacy, where polemics with «netlennomnimaya» heresy, in which during the council in 1531, Daniel has accused the prince-monk Vassian (Patrikeev). The author established the county direct textual relationship «Sudnoe delo» of Vassian from «the Incarnation of the Word.» In addition, based on the study of ancient lists of «Words» author identifi ed the major literary devices and methods of Josephite polemicists school in the beginning of XVI century. «The word of the Incarnation» and many other works of Metropolitan Daniel examined in the paper as complex literary works, where identifies several levels of meaning. Analysis of a compilation of the «Word» has allowed the author to identify the strict sequence of citing biblical and patristic texts, and to identify the logic of argument advocated by Metropolitan Daniel. In this regard, the author attempts to refute the preconceived idea that the scribes Josephite schools were compilers, and destitute of original art. The author came to conclusion that existing in the national historiography technique of studying polemical writings of Russian medieval writers is in need of major changes.