RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS IN MODERN RUSSIA: ADAPTATION APPROACHES TO SOCIOCULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Abstract

It is considered adaptation ways of religious traditions in the contemporary Russian society, which is characterized by powerful processes of globalization, social and cultural transformations. Three adaptation ways are stated in the article: modernization, conservation, archaization. Adaptation through modernization is expressed in “modernizing” the tradition: justifying its value for modern society, minimizing, but not denying the importance of those doctrinal principles that come into conflict with the new conditions of social life, the accentuation of those aspects of the doctrine that are consistent with these conditions. Religious cult is the main resource of adaptation through conservation. Other ways of conservation lie in a tie of a traditional religion with national self-consciousness and ethnic identity. Identification makes one turn to the religious tradition. Fundamentalism, social reality perception in strong dual system, “tribal” consciousness, when inclusion in some society is perceived as necessity to resist  to the other societies, are considered to be the manifestation of archaization processes in religious traditions. It is stated that modernization, conservation and archaization form a contradiction unity in religious traditions. Religion adaptation towards conditions of the modern society is not possible through a single way; and one way insignificantly prevails over the others. A situation when one of them has obvious domination is a situation of tradition destruction as a result of transformations. Domination of modernization leads to essential transformations of dogmatic consciousness and destroys confessional tradition. Archaization opens access for fundamentalism, which is a ground for radical religious groups. Domination of conservation leads to stagnation, breaking of adaptation processes, then – to reformation through archaization and to exceeding the limits of the confessional paradigm.