“NEW RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS” AS A SOCIAL PROJECT

The paper researches the concepts of such representatives of the “new religious consciousness” movement as D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, and D. Filosofov as part of the history of Russian sociology. The “new religious consciousness” is recognized as the religious and philosophical movement in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, whose adherents advocated the need for renewal of Christianity and spiritual revival of an individual and the society. Contemporary researchers, who recognize the need to study the sociological component of the ideological heritage of religious philosophers of the late XIX – early XX century, turn to the works of such thinkers as V. Soloviev, P. Struve, N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, S. Frank, and E. Trubetskoy. Theories of other representatives of the “new religious consciousness” are not taken into account by the Russian sociologists.

The aim of the work is to analyze the concept of D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, and D. Filosofov – the representatives of the radical wing of the “new religious consciousness” movement – from the perspective of their contribution to the development of sociological thought. The author suggests that, due to certain features of this concept, it can be viewed as a social project. The social project is characterized by the presence of a certain image of an ideal social order and also provides for the creation of the socio-cultural conditions necessary to achieve this ideal. It is found that the social ideal within the framework of this concept included religious and socio-political content. Characteristic features of Merezhkovsky’s, Gippius’s and Filosofov’s theory are analyzed. The author comes to the conclusion that the “new religious consciousness” as a social project differs in its orientation towards a practical change in social relations. The results of the research show that the religious and philosophical projects of the early 20th century rank high in the history of Russian sociology.