Abstract: Based on the theoretical developments of the scientific philological school of the Ural Federal University (UrFU), the article analyzes the category of "artistic consciousness" and identifies an existential paradigm within this category. Special attention is paid to tracing the history of the study of the category "artistic consciousness" by UrFU scientists from the Soviet period to our time. The author of the article explores the origins of existentialism using the examples of writers and philosophers of the XIX century. As existential writers and philosophers of the XIX century, S. Kierkegaard, A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche are represented among Western European thinkers and M. Lermontov, F. Tyutchev, F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov are among Russian writers. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the Russian literature of the XIX century is the bearer of unique ideas of religious existentialism. The author assumes the existence of an existential type of artistic consciousness, considered as a type of artistic and aesthetic interaction of a person with the world, expressed in artistic creativity, and suggests that in the twentieth century the existential consciousness of a free person who found himself in a world where "God died" fell into an enchanted circle of absurdity. The opposite approach, considering human freedom as a gift from God, suggests using it in the name of creative improvement. Such a path leads to harmony with God, elevating the human creator to the role of a co-author of Divine creativity.

Keywords: absurd, determinism, religion, philosophy, theory of literature, russian literature, foreign literature, artistic literature, existentialism, free will

Abstract: The goal of this work is to examine the sources of establishment of the image of Buddhism in the Russian cultural environment, as well as determine the degree of representativeness of this image. The author outlines the three primary sources: 1) academic research works of the Western Schools of Buddhism (based on Pali and Sanskrit material); 2) research carried out within the framework of the Russian School of Buddhology (mainly based on Tibetan and Mongolian material); 3) research of the Russian Orthodox missionaries. It is determined that the key theoretical provision developed in the Anglo-Germanic School of Buddhology is  the thesis on the authenticity of Theravāda Buddhism, which is considered as the "original,” and its other forms such as Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna) are its later modifications that emerged under the influence of external factors. The main features of Buddhism in Western Buddhology include: 1) Buddha Shakyamuni was not a transcendental being; 2) his nirvana is understood nihilistically, as the complete cessation of the process of existence; 3)  Buddhism denies the existence of soul; 4) the existence of God alongside the idea of the transcendental are also denied. Despite the fact that the research based on Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna material demonstrate the failure of such assessments, the aforementioned theses continued to be reproduced. This is explained by the interest of certain significant social groups in such image of Buddhism. Firstly, this view was supported by many Orthodox figures. The interpretation of Buddhism as a philosophical-ethical rather than religious system propelled Buddhism beyond the boundaries of the religious search for people who find foothold in faith. Secondly, similar interpretation entailed the antagonistic attitudes of scholars and scientifically oriented society. Rational aspects of Buddhism that align it with science were uncritically overemphasized. Buddhism was viewed as an ally of the scientific way of thinking, completely alien to faith.

Keywords: Orthodox Buddhology, Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Russian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Indian Buddhism, culture, Buddhology, missionary work, Buddhist culture

Abstract: This article examines the hierarchical systems established in Buddhist communities of Central Asia.  Hierarchies are viewed in the spiritual context: by level of taking of vows, educational attainment, level of practical implementation of knowledge, rank in the institution of “Reincarnated Lamas”; as well as hierarchies important in administrative context, such as levels of responsibility, governance of monasteries, rank within the structure of state administration, and interaction with government institutions. It is noted that genetically all of them ascend to Teacher – student hierarchy. This work explores the evolution of these hierarchies under the changing historical conditions, as well their complex interrelations. It is demonstrated that hierarchical system evolved depending on such factors, as the development of monastic education, increased role in the communities of “Reincarnated Lamas”, shift in the role of monasteries within state administration along with the role of government in regulation of the religious institutions. It is determined that hierarchies partially intersected, but also diverged due to the possibility of relatively autonomous practice of Sutra and Tantra, which formed different types of communities –  sangha and ganachakra respectively. In Russia, Buddhist communities were integrated into the system of state-religious relations, which required centralization of religious community resulting in the fact that the administrative church structures took the central stage. Liberalization of state control of the religious activity in post-Soviet Russia led to the emergence of multiple secular Buddhist associations that practiced Mahayanist and tantric methods structured as ganachakra. The central place was held by the structure of religious hierarchy along with “Teacher – student” relations. The conclusion is made that such structural differentiation of Buddhist communities is the results of the natural course of self-determination of various traditions in the conditions of freedom of religion.

Keywords: social dynamics, Mahayana, Russian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Sangha, social structure, history of Buddhism, religious practice, hierarchy, Buddhist communities

Abstract: The subject of this article is the historical evolution of the three world religions – Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. The author analyzes the development of these religions based on the model of religious cycle, which is common to the majority of historical religions, in other words, the religious systems formed after the invention of writing. According to the author’s concept, each of the indicated religions has undergone the six stages of development – initial, orthodox, classical, reformist, critical, and post-critical. Throughout their evolution, the religions experiences the two type of crises – structural and systemic. The main conclusion of the conducted research lies in the statement about the functional identity of historical development of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam regardless of their doctrine and ritual practice. The author’s special contribution consists in formulation of the abstract model of religious cycle, which he applies to evolution of the aforementioned religions.  

Keywords: Christianity, Buddhism, systemic crisis, structural crisis, sacred tradition, scripture, religious cycle, evolution of religion, Islam, comparativist studies

Abstract: Religiousness is rooted in the mental nature of a human. Initially, the nonreligious belief forms from the complex of the original intentions in hum consciousness. This can be the source for religious belief, as well as other spiritual forms. Transformation of the original intentions into religious belief is justified by the peculiarities of initial alienation alongside the processes of personalization. As a result, emerges a special mental world and special ontology of religion. The author believes that the constant renewal of religions in form of continuous manifestation of the new cults and sects is a sustained historical process. Its intensity rapidly grows in the era of drastic changes as a sign of their profoundness. Religiogenesis is a mental symptom of the epochal revolutionary changes in people’s relation towards the environment, which signifies a global adjustment of their lifestyle. Such eras create the new values and behavior, which transcend the routine, and mobilize people towards the radical transformations of their life. They originate the revolutionary idealists, reformers, and Charismatics, as well as capture attention of large audience over the short time. The first of them is the “Axial Age” (K. Jaspers). Then, the outburst of religious Protestantism (XVI-XVII centuries). It can be called the “Second Axial Age”, which creates a new system of values of the radical individualism. Humanity enters the third era of the Axial Age in the second half of the XX century. Current events in the religious sphere represent the best proof of radicalism of what is taking place. The renewal of religiousness is the “laboratory” of the new feelings and values, and later leads to conceptualization of the other spiritual abilities of a human.

Keywords: peculiarities of religious alienation, charisma, transcending, Axial Age, renewal of religions, intentions, new religion, personalization, religious ontologies, crisis of traditional religions

Abstract: The object of this research is the process of clericalization of the modern Russian society, as well as the main features of clericalism as a theoretical worldview and sociopolitical platform. The subject of this research is the relevant discussion within the sociopolitical space of modern Russia on theological education and possibility of a worldview synthesis based on the ideological platform of postsecularism. The authors carefully examine the relations between theologism and clericalism, tracing deep ideological and historical roots of the latter. A special attention is given to the prospects of theological education, the supporters of which, proclaiming postsecular thought as their ideological platform, secretly stand on the positions of clericalism, thus attempting to obtrude the “new Middle Ages” upon the society under the disguise of social democracy. Among the main conclusions of the conducted research are claims that the theological education, which bases itself upon the ideological platform of clericalism, promotes blurring of the borders between the scientific and unscientific knowledge, and to a certain extent the loss of the heuristic-rational potential and status of science and philosophy. In the current Russian political and sociocultural situation, the task of the representative of both, the scientific and philosophical thought, perhaps lies in taking up the “Occam’s razor” and attempt to “cleanse” the problematic field of the modern Russian socio-humanitarian thought from “essences” that are “exaggerated” by clericalism, in order to prevent the danger of its transformation into the “new maid” of theology.

Keywords: postsecular thought, secularization, scientific discourse, clericalism, religious worldview, secular culture, Russian society, atheism, pantheism, ideological synthesis

Abstract: In 1900–1914, Rozanov’s popularity in Russia was extraordinary due to his books and articles concerning the questions of the Russian Orthodox Church’s renovation, he received an enormous amount of letters from his contemporaries, including young clerics and monks yearning for answers to their religious and moral questions or for his comments on their spiritual works. But the preoccupation with religious reformism led him to confrontation with the Church, and in this confrontation he had had an ally and an advisor in the person of Alexsandre Ustyinsky, whose letters and notes the former used in his journalism. The study was based on unpublished letters of writer Vasiliy Rozanov and orthodox priest Ust’insky, the letters are from two .archival collections in Moscow (RGALI and literary manuscripts department of the Russian Public Library). The article provides the findings of the research on unpublished archival correspondence between V. Rozanov and the Russian Orthodox Church archpriest A. Ustyinsky as to whether the writer indeed was an original religious thinker among ‘neo-Christians’. The examination of unpublished correspondence between V. Rozanov and Novgorod archpriest Alexander Ustyinsky has shown that Rozanov was not independent in his judgments with regards to a range of religious problems which his contemporaries connected to the reformation of the Russian Church, and in this sense the writer’s oeuvre is only yet to be studied.

Keywords: Ustyinsky, Rozanov, religious reformism, neo-Christianity, Orthodox Church, ‘flesh and spirit’, letters, confrontation with Church, movement of ‘modernism, historic Christianity.