THE RELIGIOUS AXIOLOGICAL SPHERE IN THE SOUTH OF RUSSIA

Abstract

The author has studied the religious milieu in the South of Russia and analyzed the development of the religious axiological sphere as a complicated systemic entity, in which the secular and religious identities are intertwined. Reliance on an extensive set of social, philosophical, general scientific, and specific methods of studies allowed for a sociocultural analysis of the sphere of religious values in the South of Russia, interpreted as a sum-total of religious testimony to the existence of the domain of values, subjective reality of axiological conscience, and results of creative activities. The sphere of religious values is transformed in both spatial and temporal dimensions of the social environment, in which different religious values co-exist in a multitude of very different configurations. The religious situation in Russia as a whole, and in the South of Russia in particular, is fairly complicated: it demonstrates the pluralism in religious opinions, religiosity as a “current fashion,” and interference of religious organizations in secular life and education. The region, however, stands apart from the rest of the country where the sphere of religious values is concerned: a higher declared level of religiosity (formal religiosity) than the countrywide average; very specific separation and cooperation models in the state-religion relations; domination of secular rather than religious identity; impact of religious values on personal axiological identities; the role of interreligious dialog and the principle of non-violence in settling political conflicts that help stabilize the region’s social and political context.