Религия и история. Дилеми в навечерието на XXI век
Religions and History — Dilemmas on the Eve of XXI Century

Summary/Abstract: There exists a great multitude of religions, the world religions also included but this multitude does not form the Religion. The concept of religion has generally no ontological correlate. One can speak of a great multitude of histories, each one of them representing a peculiar individuum. The set of histories forms the world history as an individuum. Each religion has its history — internal and external but the sacred as a core of religion opposes history on principle: the sacred fills with thought and is identical to eternity while history like the transient and the profane fills time with meaning. Religions tend, each in its own way, to theologize history and to ascribe an ultimate meaning to it. During the epoch of modernity powerful processes of secularization develop. By pushing out religions from making of history the elements of the profane call to life more and more new idols, myths and megamyths and other quasi-religious substitutes of the sacred as a source of meaning to life and history. The development of modernity results in the globalization of world history. On the eve of the 20th century the globalization is a determining characteristic of the world. Under these conditions the changes go more and more beyond control. The problem of the meaning of history becomes more acute. Great and influential religions as if put the world to fragments. The expectation of new religious reformation seems unrealistic. Mankind faces dilemmas, the overcoming of which is connected to a series of fundamental issues.

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