Contents

Editorial

Religion in modern society

METHODS OF INTERPRETATION THE TEXT OF THE SCRIPTURE
Valery Savrey
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-9-22
Abstract:

The article is devoted to the search of the hidden meaning of the Bible, and to the birth of the tradition of patristic hermeneutics and exegesis in the history of the early Christian Church. Actually, in the works of early Christian apologists, the five main methods of exegesis of the Holy Scripture were already used, including: literally-historical, moral, theoretical, typological, and allegorical. The author examines the influence of Philo of Alexandria, who identified two stages in the study of God – knowledge of God from the “created things”, and the ascent of mind to the understanding of the transcendence of deity. Clement of Alexandria, unlike his predecessor, didn’t try to turn the biblical text into a philosophical treatise, but sought to transform the philosophical ideas into the Christian ones, and with the help of the typological method he succeeded in it. The purpose of this study is to reveal the mechanism of interaction between two theoretical and methodological traditions: the tradition of the apology of the truths of Divine Revelation and the tradition of interpreting the text of the Scripture, which was systematized in the Alexandrian philosophical-theological school.

ONCE AGAIN ABOUT THE SPECIFICS OF INTERACTION BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND EUROPEAN CULTURE
Gennady Pikov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-23-36
Abstract:

  The article is devoted to the problematic character of the relations of Christianity with other cultures as one of the brightest features of European civilization. Attempts to understand it were made throughout the History of Christianity. It is necessary to consider continuous penetration into Europe of the most diverse cultures from the other continents which entered into the existential conflict with this religion. At the same time it is necessary to consider the problem relations of Christianity with the European mental and cultural arrangements. They naturally came into conflict with Christianity which had been created outside the continent. It is especially vividly seen in the period of early Christianity when Christianity was more presented by a set of ideas, than the sum of artifacts. Besides, Christianity was formed not due to the evolution of a certain initial paradigm, but as a result of synthesis of elements of almost all known at that time cultures. The author gives a general characteristic of the history of interaction between Christianity and the European cultural streams, and also he considers some forms and methods of fight, which Christianity used against those cultural streams. The Church played a special role in this fight, and сhristianization might be presented as the movement of the Church, not a religion. At the same time сhristianization is an information gain of new space. Simultaneously, it is necessary to highlight the role of this religion in preservation of the European information unity and also in the fight against cultural interventions from the outside.

ESCAPISM AND EARTHLY SUCCESS: ECONOMIC CULTURE OF FOREIGN OLD BELIEVERS
D.E. Raskov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-37-53
Abstract:

The article deals with the economic culture of the Old Believers, known as «chasovennye», who live in North and South America. The interviews and observations, collected during the expeditions to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Canada; as well as previously published works became the material for the generalizations. The first part outlines the nature of the activities and the economic culture of the Old Believers in America, and the second part deals with the Old Believers’ choice of the place of residence and their main activity; finally, the third part reveals the phenomenon of the dialectics of escape from the world and earthly success. A comparative overview of the economic life of a community of Old Believers named “chasovennye” shows the intensity of movements and the voluntariness in choosing the place of residence. In terms of theory, the article shows the dialectical logic of economic and religious choice. Economic success, followed by the loss of traditional ways of life and the language, provoked searching for the new places of residence. Like medieval monasteries and mendicant orders, the Old Believers, who had consciously chosen isolation and escapism, often found themselves in even more advantageous economic conditions, as it can be seen in Alaska and the Canadian Alberta.

IMAGES OF MAN. A CURSORY LOOK AT OUR WORLD AND THE WORLD OF OUR GRANDCHILDREN
Wolfgang Sassin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-64-77
Abstract:

The specific images of man stand for any canon of values and for any behavioral code. They determine not only the desire to achieve certain public goals. In the end, any change in these images leads to revolutions, radically influencing the development of entire countries. The article highlights some of the linkages and concealed contradictions hidden behind the Ten commandments of the Old Testament, the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ, the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, and related French Constitution of 1791, and finally, of the UN Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The image of free and rightful man with innate dignity stands in glaring contradiction with the reality of modern humankind, which will reach the ten billion mark quite soon. The limited capacity of finite resources of planet Earth decidedly demands the change of our traditional ideas about man. The lives of our grandchildren will be determined by the new image of man and the way of when and how it will be developed.

Philosophy: problems, approaches, decisions

LANGUAGE AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM AND COMMUNICATION VALUE
V.V. Kryukov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-78-85
Abstract:

The article considers the fundamental role of language in communication from the axiological aspect of communication theory. The aim is to show that speech, as the embodiment of the language, is a real value or a product of activities of generations of a certain culture in their phylogenesis as well as of an individual in ontogenesis. Language is a system of signs, which serves as a means of human communication and mental activity; the way of expressing self-consciousness; a means for storing and transmitting social information. Linguistic behavior is connected with the history of mankind, its culture, and the actual existence of the society. The process of individual and group speaking is embodied into the actions of people, modes of behavior, and phenomena of consciousness into the forms of thinking. Speech, undoubtedly, has value. To become an educated man, an interesting interlocutor, a partner worthy of love, a respectable friend, a professional – all of these is great work. To have a talent means to work, to be a genius means to work again and again. This is an axiological law: the dignity of a human personality is defined by joint efforts, made by a community and an individual him/herself, who have formed identity of a person and helped to self-actualize his/her accumulated spiritual wealth. The inner world of a person is only slightly expressed externally: in facial expressions, in the eyes as a mirror of soul, in clothes and demeanor. Mainly, a soul is revealed in the dialogue.

DE-SOCIALIZATION AND PERSONAL FORMS OF ALIENATION IN SOCIETY
E.A. Krutko,  Tamara Rubantsova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-86-93
Abstract:

The article considers the problem of de-socialization and alienation of an individual in the social space. The aim of the article is to conduct a socio - philosophical analysis of the conditions of the emergence and development stages of these forms and identification of types and forms of personal alienation in society. The article analyzes the complex of objective and subjective social conditions which lead to de-socialization of an individual. The buffer zone of alienation is examined in the article as a reflection of social exclusion processes. De-socialization of the individual is the result of social exclusion process which leads to alienation and its acculturation.

Problems of the modern economy

ECONOMIC POLICY AFTER THE CRISIS
,  K. Rych
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-94-108
Abstract:

At the moment, we can observe that the systemic economic crisis is still far from its ending. In place of Keynesianism the neo-liberal doctrine came and has become a standard policy in the UK called Thatcherism and Reaganomics in the United States. The policy was based on the free operation of the market mechanism, deregulation, the limited role of state, low taxes and liberalized labour market. However, do these fundamental megatrends in the global economy should not be reviewed in the aftermath of fi nancial crises and world economy fi nancialization? This article takes a signifi cant development dilemma. The authors believe that the omnipotent bureaucratic state is just as unacceptable as a completely free market. But the state, in particular periods of crises must develop an industrial policy and sectoral policy, in order to prevent such negative phenomena as unemployment or social exclusion. In the discussions of the last time a lot of attention is paid to the social consequences of the ongoing economic crisis. This article will address the social aspects of economic policy, and in particular the social consequences of the neoliberal model of the policy, especially in the fi eld of employment and distribution of national income will be discussed.

Native culture as a subject of study

NGU: TO THE HISTORY OF THE STUDENT’S MOVEMENT IN 1960-s. Part 2
Irina Zhezhko-Braun
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-109-134
Abstract:

The students movement in the 1960s in the Novosibirsk State University (NGU), the longest open legal students movement of the Soviet period, is analyzed in this article.  The previous publications on this subject do not present the movement in its entirety, nor properly reflect the nature of the phenomenon. The civil movement in Akademgorodok (the Academytown) and, in particular, at the NGU was a by-product of the famous Siberian experiment. Nowadays, this by-product is quite topical in search for the best strategy of social change. The article reconstructs and analyses the preconditions and factors of the students movement, as well as the spectrum and directions of its political activities: self-organization and self-management, club activities, participation in choosing the Rector, protection of student political and academic freedoms, preservation of the autonomy of the university, etc. The conclusions about the nature of the movement are made based on numerous memoirs and available documents.

SOVIET COMPUTER ENGINEERING IN THE CONTEXT OF ECONOMY, EDUCATION AND IDEOLOGY (LATE 1940-s – MID 1950-s)
N.Yu. Pivovarov,  V.V. Shilov,  Irina Krayneva
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-135-155
Abstract:

Computer engineering became a reality in the USSR in the mid-1950s. Capabilities of this new branch, demonstrated in the Soviet Atomic Project, generated an urge to expand the production of computers not only in the defense industry but in the civilian economy as well. Since the USSR’s economy developed in confrontation to the capitalist world, the political cliché “to catch up and outdo” introduced by V.I. Lenin back in 1917 was reiterated by other Soviet leaders in different situations. In particular, it was popular after the Second World War and, among other things, was applied to computer engineering. The comparative production of computers in the USSR and in the West was not in favor of our country. Our modest success was primarily attributed to the general slippage in this area. The situation with computer engineering is an example of the catching-up nature of the Soviet technological development during the period of late Stalinism. Nevertheless, since computer production was launched, there emerged a need for specialists both in industrial production and maintenance. Hence, appropriate disciplines were introduced in the Soviet higher educational institutions. Computer specialists were trained in Moscow, Leningrad, Gorky, Kiev, Penza, and in other leading universities of the USSR. Dating back to this period, until the mid-1950s, there are three out of the four principal academic programming schools, based in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.  At the same time, A.A. Lyapunov laid back the foundations of the theory of programming and L.A. Lusternik organized, in 1950, a workshop on programming at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Computer Engineering, USSR Academy of Sciences. Computer design was improved simultaneously with software development. From the very beginning, the civilian applications of computers took computer engineering beyond mathematical calculations, to automatic translation, and with time this tendency grew stronger. The new industry developed in the conditions of severe competition between the two establishments: the USSR Machine-Building Ministry and Academy of Sciences, each promoting their own project. Various means were used in this struggle, up to classifying information about computers in academic and mass media. The ideological pressure on some scientific areas of biology, genetics and physics, characteristic of the late Stalin’s period, did not have any serious consequences for computer engineering. Yet, computer advocates intentionally distinguished themselves from the “bourgeois” theories of computer animation. Computer applications in civilian branches of economy were artificially held back: no small share in this had the authorities’ stance to strengthen, above all, the national defense potential.

Round table

CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN TODAY’S RUSSIA: THE POSSIBILITY OF DIALOGUE
G.N. Minenko,  P.V. Kajjgorodov,  P.L. Zajjcev,  Oleg Donskikh,  V.L. Danilov,  Sergey Isakov,  Sergey Flakh,  Lev Shtuden,  Dmitry Tsyplakov,  I.A. Remorov,  S.N. Ovodova,  Nina Makarova,  E.V. Kuzmina,  E.V. Kuzmina,  Vasily Kuzin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-156-179
Abstract:

The round table participants discussed a number of interrelated questions: how can we evaluate the relationship between the Church and society in Russia at the present stage? What is causing the obstacles for the dialogue between the Church and other social groups in modern Russia? Is there a possibility for such a dialogue in modern Russian society? What is the actual and possible role of intelligentsia in the formation of a neutral space for such a dialogue? The participants discussed different aspects of the problem: the history of the church and society relations, the problems of these relations at the present stage, the role of the church in the life of modern Russian society, the problem of the dialogue between the Church and atheists. The participants also discussed the burning problems of the Church's participation in the formation and education of youth, issues of influence of the church on the processes of cultural development, the acute problems of the fight between the Orthodox church and religious extremism, the danger of which influence, especially on young people, is often underestimated. In the final analysis, there is a multi-dimensional picture of the relationship between the institution of the Church and civil society represented by different social groups.

New books

THE REVIEW OF THE BOOK “Religion and Culture: the cognitions of acceptance and reciprocity” by I.N. MOROZOVA
A.S. Gagarin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.1-180-183
Abstract:

The reciprocity between religion and culture is the key theme of the book by I. N. Morozova "Religion and Culture: the Cognitions of Acceptance and Reciprocity". In modern socio-humanitarian discourse there is an urgent need in elucidation of the logical-conceptual, thematic and content subject areas, where theology and a secular worldview can be the participants of the dialogue (keeping the distinction in their original spiritually-aimed orientations). The ideals and values of classical culture form one of the foundations for Christianity and secular culture. The origins of tensions are in the relations between religious and secular components in modern Russian education, the eclecticism of their combination. The author also introduces into the scientific circulation the original texts of foreign scientists-naturalists, who are speculating on cultural dimensions of the sacred; famous sociologists; religious scholars (S. Kaufman, H. Casanova, L. Woodhead, etc.), and theologians. The author considers post-secular culture at the stage of its denial of the rhetoric of confrontation with religion. The author collected and summarized the significant scientific and publicistic material, revealing the uncertain picture of the Russian society ̓ s searching for the necessary consensus in the relationship of religion and culture after Perestroika.