The phenomenon of religious identity in terms of global and local trends

The research examines the specific nature of the religious identity in terms of the contradictory trends in the modern world development: globalization and localization. The search for a paradigm of further development updates a world-wide interest in religious issues. Denominational identification is affected by the new civilization that has led to the transformation of traditional social institutions. Both a personality correlating oneself with a particular religious system and a human community affected by the multidirectional global and local trends are subject to denominational identification. The author notes the development prospects of two potential models that are a unipolar world that imposes Western values on all peoples as universal ones and a multipolar world trying to preserve the diversity of different cultures and peoples. Religious identity is modified by the intensified global trends and the reduced local ones. The increased impact of globalization complicated the identification process, on the one hand, and the ethnic and religious consciousness was increased in its radical forms, on the other.