STUDY OF RELIGION AS A STRICT SCIENCE

The present article by Andrey Pavlovich Zabiyako, the Doctor of Philosophy, professor, the head of the department of religious studies and history, the head of the laboratory of archeology and anthropology of Amur state university, professor of department of philosophy and religious studies of School of arts and the humanities of Far Eastern Federal University, the editor-in-chief of the “Religious studies”, brings up and discusses the main questions and problems of modern religious studies as a science. According to him, religious studies arose already more than a hundred years ago, but the process of its isolation from other types of scientific and unscientific knowledge is still incomplete; therefore there is a need of an accurate boundary demarcation of religious studies as a science. First of all these lines should be drawn on the fields of contact of religious studies with philosophy and theology. Such a boundary demarcation is a guarantee of successful interaction between different types of knowledge. The development of religious studies is caused first of all by the progress of humanitarian and natural sciences. Since the beginning of the 21st century the latest discoveries in the field of anthropogenesis and culture genesis has had a particular importance for the science of religion. Huge successes of archeology and anthropology led actually to scientific revolution in understanding of the problems of origin and evolution of mankind, its culture, religion. Religious studies is a science which comprises, on the one hand, the level of knowledge of fundamental type, on the other hand, the level of applied knowledge. Religion is closely twisted in surrounding reality of social, political, ethnic life. Therefore examination problem is one of the most important issues of religious studies as a strict science. The procedure for the materials’ scientific expertise, methods of interpretation of empirical data, and outputs should be based on a uniform, strictly scientific basis within the expert community. Developing fundamental and applied components, the religious studies approves itself not only as a strict, but also as a necessary science.

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