Discursive research of religious identity

The study examines the impact of various types of discourse on the religious identity by a case study of the Russian Orthodox Church. The authors postulate that the religious intelligence, a specific set of social and psychological traits of character of the individual that is the prime cause of creating religious feelings and relations, serves as a basis for the religious identity. Having gained the first religious experience during the specific denominational practices, the individual becomes acquainted with different discourses containing the pivotal and unique religious topoi. They include philosophical, mythological, artistic, ideological, and political discourses. Depending on the domination of a discourse when creating an individual religious identity, it develops the standard confessional, folklore-related, and marginalized types of identity.