ЧИ БУЛА В ЯПОНІЇ РЕЛІГІЯ?

Abstract

The paper deals with the specifics of the functioning of “religions” in the countries within the Chinese civilizational sphere in general and in Japan in particular. For this, an attempt is made to clarify the theoretical understanding of what religion is in its essential and functional aspects, and also to compare the specificity of the religious outlook in the countries of the Far Eastern with that of Western civilizations. From a theoretical point of view, the concept of primary and secondary functions of religion are introduced and with an emphasis on the impossibility of the universal application of the concept “religion” if it is based solely on the “Western” understanding of religion in one of its Abrahamic (Judeo- Christian-Muslim) variants.