Studia Relygiosa Rossica. Scientific Journal of Religion No. 1. September 2018

Here is a new religious journal, published by the educational and scientific center for the study of religions of the Russian State Humanitarian University. The emergence of this magazine is a logical consequence of the 25-year research and educational activities of the Center. Research of our employees are well known in the domestic and international religious community, and we have long needed a magazine expressing our scientific position. However, we should make a reservation: we in no way contrast ourselves with other religious sciences, as well as domestic religious magazines. The composition of the editorial board and the International Council indicates our desire to attract the best scientific forces of Russian and world religious studies to cooperation.
In the current situation, when the very possibility of an impartial study of religions is questioned, the consolidation of Russian religious studies is especially necessary. Our magazine should contribute to this task.
We believe that a scientific objective study of religions is not only possible, but it is also necessary that a researcher of religions can belong to any faith, to be an agnostic or an atheist, but religious studies cannot have a confessional character. We also believe that religious studies and theology are various complexes of disciplines, the subject and object of which do not coincide and the synthesis of which is impossible. At the same time, the dialogue between religious studies and theology is necessary, and we will contribute to this dialogue as much as possible.
Following the domestic tradition, we attribute to the field of religious knowledge the philosophy of religion, although we are aware of its special character among other religious disciplines