Religious meaning in anthropological dimension: historical retrospective and modern state. Part 1

The subject of the author’s research is the correlation of the religious worldview with the understanding of the essence of man at different stages of historical development. In the first part, the author emphasizes the historical retrospective of the dynamics of the interdependence of religious and non-religious bases of the meaning-making process. The influence of social development factors on the position of religion in society, on the interpretation of fundamental human qualities is revealed. The hypothesis, according to which the interdependence of religious meaning and ideas about the essence of man influences the emerging system of social relations both in the past and in the present, is substantiated. It is revealed that the sense of human being as a necessary condition of its inner unity can be achieved only through turning to the transcendent Absolute, which finds a concentrated expression in religion. Thanks to the transmission of meaning, religious values find their continued existence in the shell of secular teachings. Replacing them with a scientific picture of the world naturally leads to dehumanization and generates the demand for the restoration of the religious source of meaning.