religious experience

Do Religious Senses and Ideas Really Exist? Critique of the Current Psychology of Religion

Since the 1990s, there has been a huge discussion in religious studies on the uses of the terms «secular» and «religious». In this article we use the methodology of critical study of religion within the psychology of religion. There are two main strategies to construct an object of research in this field: 1) studying of how religious senses occur (neurotheology, transpersonal psychology) and 2) studying of how religious representations emerge (cognitive religious studies).

The Origin of Science and Religious Experience

This article describes the «beginning of science», that initial actof thought, through which scientific research begins. It is also demonstrated that the experience of the subject accompanying this act of thought is close to the religious experience. The specific scientific use of language and related ontological assumptions are analyzed. A comparison of language and the ontology of science with language and the ontology of utilitarian practices is made. Description is considered as the language typically used for science. Description is opposed to instruction.

Ethos of Religion and Forms of Rationality

The article examines the relationship between religion and science (or rational activities as a whole) as two irreducible basic aspects of human existence and two subsystems of culture, constituted by different systems of values and norms. Theories postulating their harmonious coexistence are failures, and we need to understand the profound causes of conflicts. These causes are not in the sphere of particular or general cognitive disagreements, but in fundamental difference of spiritual settings, that stand behind both religion and science.

Philosophy, Religion, and Science: the Models of Understanding

This article deals with the basic models of philosophical understanding of religion, those constitutive characteristics of it that determine its specificity in relation to other forms of human existence. The article outlines several approaches to the description of religion: Kantian, Hegelian, phenomenological, and analytical. The special character of religious thinking is defined by its participation in faith: religious thinking is like a meeting with an object of thought that reveals itself for the thought and thereby determines our thinking.

The Scientific Legacy of Evgeny Torchinov and His Typology of Religions

Ten years passed after the death of outstanding Russian sinologist and religious studies scholar Evgeny Torchinov. In this paper the authors conceptualize his life and career and his academic