Discussing the New Volume «‘The Science of Religion’, ‘Scientific Atheism’, and ‘Religious Studies’: Current Debates about the Study of Religion in Russia of 20th — 21st Centuries»

English

«Scientific Atheism» as a Case for Discussion (Responses of the Volume’s Authors to Reviews)

In their reactions to A. Kyrlezhev’s and M. Shakhnovich’s reviews, the authors of the volume under discussion provide further clarifications of key methodological issues. They stress that the volume pursued academic goals rather than engaging in a wider public debate. Speaking of the Soviet science of religion, they prefer the concept of «extreme science» instead of «pseudoscience» or «normal science in extreme conditions». The volume focused on creating a framework of understanding the phenomenon and did not claim to cover the variety of archival materials.

The Post-Soviet Transition and the Science of Religion

This text is an extended review of the volume «Science of Religion, Scientific Atheism, Religious Studies. Current Problems of the Science of Religion in 20th-21st centuries Russia » (editor K. Antonov, 2014). The review emphasizes the need of de-Sovietization of the religious studies that in the Soviet times existed under the rubric of «scientific atheism ». The volume’s authors were right to present the Soviet religious studies as an amalgam of scientific and non-scientific approaches and practices.

The Ethos of the History of Science: a Reconstruction of Religious Studies in Soviet Russia

The paper provides a review and reflections on the book «The Science of Religion, Scientific Atheism, Religious Studies: Issues of the Scientific Study of Religion in Russia in the Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Century» (Ed. by K. M. Antonov, Moscow, 2014). The author of the review critically examines the volume in terms of the basic principles of the study of the history of science.