Methodological problems of Western religious studies of the 19th-20th centuries

Abstract

The methodology of religious studies is a complex structural formation that has undergone various forms as a result of its evolution. Concepts of foreign religious studies of the 19th-20th Centuries formed the theoretical and methodological framework for the genesis and development of the sciences of religion. Theoretical analysis shows that nonlinearity and bifurcation as properties of development are also inherent in religious sciences, which do not obey strict laws of development. The “theoretical and methodological diversity” that researchers write about is an integral part of religious studies as a science. The question of methodology and research methods is controversial in the modern problematic field of religious studies. This applies to both foreign and native religious studies. The conceptual foundations of religious studies, its theoretical matrix, and the basic principles of religious knowledge are problematized. Another methodological problem is the diffuse nature of religious studies as a scientific discipline. Taking into account all the pluralism regarding methodological practices and methodological procedures of religious studies, scientists in recent decades have been developing the concept of meta-religious studies. The development of scientific schools of religious studies at the present stage is associated with the need to produce systematic conceptual approaches in humanitarian knowledge, new models for understanding religious reality, and the development of a new concept of religion, taking into account all the multidimensionality of cultural, civilizational, religious, and substantial components. Also, the development of new forms of religious knowledge and the sciences of religion lies in the promotion of new research directions in the field of philosophy and epistemology of religion, interdisciplinary problems of humanitarian knowledge.