The Light and Shadows of the Ukrainian Soviet Religious Studies of the Second Half of the 1980s. (on Materials of the Journal Philosophical Thought)

Abstract

The subject of the research is the main directions of intellectual search in the field of religious studies among Ukrainian scientists of the second half of the 1980s. Publications in the central academic journal of the republic in the field of philosophy are considered. With the help of historical-genetic, typological and idiographic methods, the publications of Ukrainian scientists of this period con­cerning the issues of understanding the essence of religion and its place in public life are analyzed. The undertaken analysis makes it possible to identify the ideo­logical foundations in the question of understanding the social significance of re­ligion among Ukrainian researchers and public figures. The conclusions about the formation of several directions within which the authors tried to comprehend the role and place of religion in society are substantiated. The first approach, designated as a conservative direction, was closely related to the Soviet atheistic ideology. The authors, who wrote within the framework of a relatively “renova­tionist” approach, sought to rethink the attitude towards religion and believers, but in methodological terms they did not reach the critical analysis of the scien­tific tools of the Soviet scientific school. Publications that offered a historioso­phy understanding of the religious past of the country are singled out separately.