Relationship Between the Religious and the Corporate in Associations of Believers Based on Example of Modern Russian Religious Organizations

The article examines the relationship between religious and corporate principles in religious organisations, illustrated by comparing the Russian Orthodox Church and the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan. Based on the analysis of legal literature, provisions of Russian legislation, charters of the organizations mentioned above and positions of their official representatives, the conclusion is made that a religious system can be considered in three aspects: an institution, a tradition and an association. Depending on the approach, a religious organization is considered either as an ordinary corporation among similar entities or as a special association that includes all believers who consider themselves its members, and has no analogues among legal entities. In the latter case, the organization claims a higher status in relation to its own internal regulations. A position is proposed that a religious organization is a “hybrid” religious- corporate entity and its internal regulations are of a mixed nature: based on religious prescriptions, they also include local regulations adopted on the basis of the requirements of the state and the subjects of corporate relations — only those persons who are in a legal relationship with the organization (founders, representatives of administrative bodies, employees, formal members and other participants). Other believers (parishioners) do not belong to the subjects of internal regulations of organizations, since they are not legally connected with them, do not participate in decision- making, but follow general religious regulations due their own free will.