22. Psychology of religion. Features of religious consciousness

Religion is one of the forms of social consciousness (social life) of social groups and individuals, with the help of which people communicate (try to communicate) with reality, but not with the one we face in everyday reality, but with the other, which lies outside the ordinary experience. .

Religion is a special sphere of manifestation of the human psyche, associated with the search for spiritual and psychological niches, ideological and other landmarks and functioning in the form of beliefs and practical actions that people turn to when they are not able to solve their everyday problems in their struggle for existence in the difficult conditions of the surrounding real world.

The deep roots of religion originate in the peculiarities of the functioning of the human psyche.

Believers tend to associate their initial appeal to religion with a miracle, with unexpected insight and enlightenment, communion with God.

Man’s contact with the reality of religion is his religious experience.

Religion can be manipulated and used for various purposes.

The peculiarity of religion.

There are a number of psychological indicators that help to understand what religion is.

First, religion is a specific form of social consciousness (public life) of people, having its own characteristics and causing peculiar states of mind of believers.

Secondly, religion presupposes the existence of special groups - groups of believers and confessional (group) exclusivity.

Thirdly, religion is associated with belief in images and concepts that are considered sacred and interpreted as supernatural.

Fourthly, religion implies a certain set of beliefs expressed in religious canons.

Fifth, religion implies a special combination of certain religious acts and rituals.

The classification of religions. The main approaches to the classification of religions are diverse.

There are normative, geographical, ethnographic, philosophical, morphological, linguistic and other principles of their classification.

For psychology, it is important to classify religions on two grounds — by direction and by geography, which make it possible to clearly identify both their specificity and their identical origin and similarity visible to the naked eye. Usually differ:

1) the religion of Abrahamic monotheism (belief in one god), growing out of ancient Judaism and including Judaism, Christianity and Islam;

2) religions of Indian origin, represented by Hinduism, Southern Buddhism (Theravada), Jainism and Sikhism;

3) Far Eastern religions - Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, Northern Buddhism (Mahayana).

This list is complemented by ethnic religions belonging to the diverse cultures of small societies, which are sometimes regarded as primitive, such as Aboriginal religions in Africa, Polynesia, Australia, and North American Indians.

Other ancient religions have already lost their existence: these are the religions of the Babylonians, the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Mayan Indians, the Aztecs, etc.

Religious consciousness is an illusory reflection of reality.

It is characterized by understanding not of reality, but of fiction.

The religious consciousness of both the individual and the group cannot exist outside of certain myths, images and ideas that are absorbed by people in the process of their socialization.

Religious consciousness is distinguished by high sensual clarity, the creation by the imagination of various religious images, the combination of adequate reality content with illusions, the presence of religious faith, symbolism, strong emotional intensity, functioning through religious vocabulary and other special signs.

The specificity of the content of religious consciousness gives the unity of its two sides - meaningful and functional.

The content side of religious consciousness forms the specific values ​​and needs of believers, their views on the world around us and the other-worldly reality, contributing to the targeted introduction of certain ideas, images, ideas, feelings and moods into their psyche.

The functional side of religious consciousness satisfies the needs of believers, giving the necessary direction to the manifestations of their ideology and psychology, forming their specific moral and psychological state, contributing to the effective influence on their psyche.

Features of religious consciousness :

1) close control of religious institutions over the psyche and consciousness of believers, their behavior;

2) clear thoughtfulness of the ideology and psychological mechanisms of its introduction into the consciousness of believers.

Religious faith unites the content and functional aspects of religious consciousness.

Faith is a special psychological state of people’s confidence in achieving a goal, in the occurrence of an event, in their intended behavior, in the truth of ideas, provided there is a shortage of accurate information about the attainability of the goal.

Religious faith is a belief in the truth of religious dogmas, texts, ideas, in the objective existence of beings, properties, transformations that constitute the objective content of religious images; the ability to communicate with seemingly objective beings, influence them and receive help from them; to religious authorities - fathers, teachers, saints, prophets, charismatics, church hierarchs, clergymen, etc.

The structure of religious consciousness includes religious ideology and religious psychology.

Religious ideology is a more or less coherent system of concepts, ideas, concepts, which are developed and promoted by religious organizations.

Religious ideology is the result of purposeful, systematized activity, which finds its expression in the form of teachings, fixing the foundations of religious understanding of the world.

Religious psychology - a set of religious ideas, needs, stereotypes, attitudes, feelings, habits and traditions associated with a particular system of religious ideas and inherent in the whole mass of believers.

It is formed under the influence of immediate living conditions and religious ideology.

A person becomes a supporter of a particular religion, not from birth, but for certain reasons: factors that, from the point of view of a given person, make its faith necessary.

Typology of ideological groups of people (based on their attitude to religion and atheism):

1) deeply religious. The presence of deep religious faith. Faith is mainly realized in behavior.

2) believers. The presence of religious faith. Faith poorly implemented in behavior.

3) oscillating. There is a hesitation between faith and unbelief. Separate elements of religious behavior are possible.

Religious indifferent people. Religious faith is absent, but there is no atheistic belief.

Religious behavior is absent, although its individual manifestations are not excluded.

Passive atheists. Atheistic beliefs exist, but are not always deep and deliberate.

Religious behavior is completely absent, but atheistic beliefs are poorly implemented in behavior.

Active atheists. The presence of deep atheistic beliefs. Atheistic beliefs are realized in behavior.

Religious, religious people in their thoughts and actions rely on certain role models.

The typology of religious personalities that has developed in the course of the development of religious practice by which ordinary believers are oriented:

1) a mystic is a type of believer seeking to distract from the outside world and his influence, most often an individualist is a loner;

2) A prophet is a person who has an irregular but intense religious experience.

A prophet, unlike a mystic, is always with people;

3) the priest - the mediator between man and god.

Its main function is to correctly build the order of worship according to religious canons.

A priest gains his authority in a religious organization through special education and training;

4) Reformat r - a person who is within the framework of a particular religious tradition, striving to transform this tradition in accordance with his own religious experience;

5) a monk - a member of a religious order, retired from secular life in a special solitary or already sanctified place to lead a traditional religious way of life and adhere to high moral and ritual demands;

6) a monk - a hermit - a person for whom it is necessary to live in solitude in wild, deserted places with harsh nature in order to achieve a purification of the soul and an intense religious experience;

7) Holy - a person who embodies the ideal of perfection in one form or another in the eyes of a religious society;

8) the theologian - a type of intellectual theorist whose task is to express the beliefs of a given religious community in a conceptually rational form;

9) the founder of religion is a figure, in scale far beyond all other types of religious personalities.

His religious experience is so unique and intense that it becomes the basis of a new religion.

The diverse forms of human social behavior are based on observations of other individuals in his community, who serve as a role model.