Religious extremist associations as social systems: structure and functioning features

It is effective to consider the religious extremism functioning in the form of the arranged joint activities as social systems that have the structure and mechanisms of social control. The research methods are based on the structural and functional approach of T. Parsons. The study notes that the religious tradition is transformed and its separate elements are mythologized into the theological, social and philosophical concepts of religious extremism. The author reveals the specific nature of culture including the system of ritual actions, substantiates the place of a person in this and other worlds and his sacred mission within a social system. The extremist association and people involved in it serve the actors of social relations focused on communication in situations of social reality. Religious extremist associations strive for the sustainable development and the integrity. They construct the relationships between the participants that allow one to create subsystems for addressing some challenges. The social, psychological and cognitive conditions of involvement in an extremist association and functioning of the individual in it are described.