2015.1

The article discusses some main directions in the religious policy of China in the 20th century, when China becomes one of the most important global manufacturers and investors. Cultural policy, in general, and the attitude to religions, in particular, change radically with the beginning of reforms in 1978. The policy of struggle against religions, which caused death of tens of thousands of priests and the destruction of temples during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), has gone into the past. Since the beginning of the reforms in 1978 the communist party has pursued liberal permissive policy towards religions. Moreover, the state itself becomes organizer of religious life, investor in religious activities, religious institutions and spiritual education. However, the Chinese authorities behave rigidly when religious activities are considered to be connected with sectarianism, non-recognition of communist ideology, the struggle for self-determination or separatism.

This article is dedicated to the analysis of monastic exploit in ancient Georgian hagiographic literary monuments and, in particular, to dispensation of prayer by the example of Georgian saints. Article comments on different stages of prayer life: verbal prayer, pure prayer, spiritual prayer and prayerful contemplation. The path of mystic ascent of St. Shio Mgvimeli, Abo Tbileli, Grigol Handzteli, Ekvtime Atoneli and others is analyzed taking into account basic settings of hesychast teaching, unceasing prayer, noetic prayer, contemplation of uncreated light and fragrance, glory and theoria.

The paper traces a number of developments in Burmese monastic thought in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that were instrumental in the formation of Buddhist social movements. It argues that the redefinition of the notion of Buddhist canon as well as the debates on monastic discipline and proper relations between the monks and the laity provided a basis for the emergence of new Buddhist identities and social roles. The pivotal role of the sangha in these processes offers a new perspective on the reform movements in the nineteenth-century Theravada Buddhism, as so far these movements are more commonly interpreted as a product of lay activism.

The article discusses aspects of Nirankari Darbar’s and Sant Nirankari Mission’s history focusing on their relations with mainstream Sikhs after 1947.

The represented article is devoted to the analysis of the activities and the ideological legacy of the Syrian Islamic scholar Yusuf bin Ismail al-Nabhani (1849–1932) who represented conservative trend in the Islamic thought of the Ottoman Empire. For sheikh al-Nabhani and his followers the modern age was neither associated with modernization nor with Islamic reforms. Al-Nabhani fundamentally rejected such approaches towards Islam, considering the system of Islamic Sciences complete and universal. In this, his views corresponded with the policy of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II. However, al-Nabhani can hardly be considered only as a guide to the governmental course.

This article, exploring the case of Morocco, investigates demographic, structural, hierarchical, spiritual and ethical background of social importance, attributed to descent from Prophet Muhammad (sharifism) in traditional life of Muslim societies. The author makes distinction between the concepts of ‘sharifs’ and ‘aristocracy’, as well as clarifies the intricacies of maintenance of corporate spirit, cohesion and sociopolitical mobilization of sharif-s in the Muslim Far West. The article also provides explanatory account for sharifian benefits and privileges, historically accepted by Moroccan society and ruling circles.