This article is devoted to the main trends in the development of the science of religion in Russia at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Unlike in other European countries, Russian universities lacked theological departments, and the study of religion was concentrated exclusively within the Church schools. This was one reason for the late development of the science of religion in Russia.

This article presents the research of Orthodox priests who studied the religious ideas of the peoples of the Russian Empire. Their works, both published and in manuscript, can be classified into five main groups: studies dealing with Abrahamic religions; studies of other world and national religions; studies of religious dissidents (Christian sects and Judaizers); works on the traditional beliefs of the native peoples of the Volga Region, the Urals, Siberia, and the Caucasus; and works on popular religiosity.

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.