On historiography of phenomenology of religion: critical essay

Abstract

This article continues the discussion initiated by M. A. Pylaev in № 80 (2018) of St. Tikhon’s University Review. Series I: Theology. Philosophy. Religious Studies. Taking into account historical data, this article proposes to distinguish: 1) phenomenology of religion in its proper sense which was shaped within the Dutch tradition and whose aim was to study and systematise religious phenomena, this systematisation being carried out with no relationship to the question about the essence of religion (with no religious study in the fi eld of philosophy), 2) the second tradition (noumenological) that is primarily typical of the German phenomenology of religion, where the study of religion was carried out on the principle of considering the phenomenon in its relationship with its essence. This article analyses the tropos of the “theological subversion” of phenomenology created in Russian religious studies as well as the statement that phenomenology of religion came to be marginal (theological) religious studies sui generis, which does not accord with the opinion of the most part of foreign historians of religious studies, who claim that phenomenology of religion has for a long time been not marginal but, in fact, the only form of religious studies per se.

Keywords

• феноменология религии
• религиоведение
• теология
• сравнительное религиоведение
• история религиоведения
• Ф. Макс Мюллер