Religious Education in Modern Russia: Ideological Aspect

The purpose of the article is to present justification of relevance of religious and educational activities in the system of public upbringing and education of modern Russia. The idea of education is considered in the ideological aspect, with special attention paid to the original Christian meaning of this idea, which is associated with the concept of the “light of Christ” and is adequately set out by Archpriest Vasily Zenkovsky in the teaching on the “church mind”. Drawing on the results of sociological surveys of young students at North Caucasus Federal University, the article argues that the introduction of disciplines of religious studies into the educational programs of universities, even small ones, leads to a significant increase in confessional identification among students. The conclusion is made that religious education at schools and universities, which is almost never found today, is necessary first of all in order to, firstly, help students realize their constitutional right to independently and reasonably choose a certain confession or to refuse this choice; secondly, facilitate their full communication with peers who are representatives of different confessions; and, thirdly, form a knowledge base in students for them to be able to effectively counter to sectarian and pseudo- religious influences.