Department of Philosophy of Religion The Department of Religious Studies of IF NASU during 2006-2008 carried out the specified planned theme. Below we present its sections in the summary. The full study material will be published in the monograph under the same title, which will be published by the end of 2009. The book can be used as a textbook on religious studies.

The History of Religion is a branch of religious studies that is on the verge of history and philosophy of religion. With regard to the latter, it has common and specific features. If history studies the origin and development of religion in its states and forms, if the philosophy of religion is intended to give a theoretical understanding of the essence and meaning of religion as such, then the historiography of religion is the doctrine of the historical nature of the (...) phenomenon of religion taken in its entirety. In this sense, the historiography of religion can be called the phenomenology of religious studies. (shrink)

Known numerous attempts to find in religion such characteristics that would not be the sum of its features, but would lead to the disclosure of its essence, nature and functionality. In general, these attempts helped to clarify the subject field of the categories of academic religious studies, which system reflects the religious phenomenon in its completeness and integrity, internally recognized certainty. As for the system itself as a logical-epistemological device for religious search, it places particular emphasis on the category "religion" (...) - the center of connections and relations of a specific way of man's entry into the world. (shrink)

The historiography of religion is the branch of religious studies, which is on the verge of the history and philosophy of religion. With regard to these latter, it has common and special features. If history studies the origin and development of religion in its states and forms, if the philosophy of religion is intended to give a theoretical understanding of the essence and meaning of religion as such, then the historiosophy of religion is a doctrine of the historical nature of (...) the phenomenon of religiosity taken in integrity with its essence. In this sense, the historiosophy of religion can be called the phenomenology of religious studies. (shrink)

An important problem of religious studies, the history of religion as a branch of knowledge is the periodization process of the development of religious phenomenon. It is precisely here, as in focus, that the question of the essence and meaning of the religious development of the human being of the world, the origin of beliefs and cult, the reasons for the changes in them, the place and role of religion in the social and spiritual process, etc., are converging.

"PHENOMENON OF RELIGION" - under this name on June 20-21, 1996, the All-Ukrainian Colloquium, convened by the Department of Religious Studies and the Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies took place at the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The purpose of the colloquium is to discuss the topical issues of Ukrainian religious studies concerning the nature, essence and functionality of religion as a social and historical phenomenon.