On the attitude to conducting theological examination

Sociology

Abstract

The development of modern religious practices, growing diversity of these practices, and also some liberalization of legislation on the registration of religious organizations will serve as a trigger for the transition of religious groups that previously operated informally to the public sphere. All these factors open the door for many of these groups to obtain religious organization formal status. On the other hand, the emergence of eclectic teachings, which often include elements of scientific, commercial, environmental, and other concepts, also provides the basis for conducting theological analysis. These social processes allow us to forecast the further steady increase in the number of appeals of the state bodies to expert councils to determine the religious component in the activities of a particular social group. In the last few years, there were banned the religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses, some neo-pagan and Islam-oriented organizations, some pseudo-scientific cults, including Revelation of the New Century. These bans, as well as the decisions concerning judicial examination of some religious literature content (Bhagavad Gita and E. Kuliev’s translations of the Quran), indicate high demand for theological examination at present. However, the ambiguity of the society’s perception of some court decisions made based on theological examination and periodically criticized in the media quality of training for specialists involved in the process of theological examination make an additional analysis of regarding functioning of this institution, as well as decisions made following the results of theological examination, ever more urgent.