Titlina, M. V. The Problems of Religious Freedom in Russian Philosophy, Theology and Law at the Turn of the 19th — 20th Centuries

Abstract: The article analyzes the public discussions on religious freedom at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries. The author of the article gives a brief description of legislation in the sphere of religion and traces back actualization of such terms as ‘freedom of conscience’, ‘religious tolerance’, freedom of belief’, ‘religious freedom’, and etc. The author reconstructs the public polemics on religious freedom and describes different approaches to it. In his study the author uses the method of a c omparative analysis and t ypologization. The author concludes that there were no clear and common understanding of questions related to religious freedom at the end of the 19th — beginning of the 20th in Russia. The author shows the poly semantic nature of all terms related to religious freedom. The most controversial is the question about the ‘freedom of conscience’. The author defines the four basic interpretations of this term: 1) freedom of conscience is equal to the freedom of choice of the world view; 2) freedom of conscience does not relate to the sphere of legislation because it is a philosophical and theological idea meaning a) freedom from the sin; b)freedom of the thought and dogmatic beliefs; c)free will; 3) freedom of conscience is interpreted as a propaganda of atheism; 4)freedom of conscience is a meaningless term and we should refuse from using it.

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