Yarkova E.N. Religious culture as an object of cultural studies: the experience of typology

Abstract: The object of study is the religious culture as a form of culture. The author examines religious culture as a phenomenon of culture rather, than an epiphenomenon of religion. He allocates such types of religious culture as: traditionalism, utilitarianism, creativism. In his vision of such destructive phenomenon as religious extremism is semantic attribute of traditionalist religious culture. Partially it is overcome in utilitarianism and removed in the religious culture of creativism. Algorithm development of religious culture presented by the author as a dialectic triad, where the thesis is religious culture of traditionalism, antithesis is religious culture of utilitarianism and synthesis is religious culture of creativism.The methodology of research represents a synthesis of such research procedures as: method of semantic and axiological reduction, in which the researcher cutting off external formal aspects of religious culture explicates their internal informative value-semantic characteristics; and method of ideal typing, aiming at the construction of mental models of religious culture, to serve as its tools of cognition.Scientific novelty and originality consists in development of culturology approach to the study of religious culture, aimed at identifying some general types of religious culture. Use as a tool for cultural study generated by the author of the typological triad: traditionalism, utilitarianism, creativism, allows you: to debunk the widespread tendency for categorizing of such destructive phenomenon as religious extremism as attribute of any concrete-historical religion; to identify universal for different religions, the semantics of this destructive phenomenon; to develop certain universal semantic antidotes to semantically neutralized this phenomenon. The author puts forward the idea that semantic antidote traditionalism is utilitarianism, shook traditionalism revived extremism and terrorism, suppressing these destructive phenomena is carried out within the framework of creativism, to eliminate the opposition of traditionalism and utilitarianism.

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