“Hello, Brother. It Is Very Difficult to Write…”, about the History of Concepts, among Other Things: A Review of Sergei Shtyrkov, Religiya, ili Uzy blagochestiya [Religion: The Bonds of Piety]. St Petersburg: European University at St Petersburg Press, 2021, 172 pp. (Azbuka ponyatiy [ABC of Concepts])

Abstract

The book under review is devoted to the history of the concept of “religion”. The aim of the book is to show that the concept introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero cannot be considered as a universal category, since it has a close connection with Christian culture. In this regard, the author continues the trend of deconstructing “religion” which was started in the mid-1970s by Protestant theologians and continued by the works of Talal Asad, Brent Nongbri, Dmitry Uzlaner and others. The review criticizes the position of the author, who seemingly has abandoned the analysis of anthropological theories of religion, including modern variants, caused by the development of evolutionism and cognitive studies, as well as any attempts to describe the content of new concepts used in the anthropology of religion (“vernacular religion”, “material religion”, “poor religion”, etc.). The review notes that if the author chose a philosophical approach to analyze the concept of “religion”, then it is impossible to do so without at least some reference to the views of philosophers who wrote about religion as a political institution (Hobbes, Spinoza, Marx) and about religion in its relation to morality (Kant). The review indicates that the author himself is aware of the frailness of the methodological basis chosen by him for writing a work on the history of concepts, and academic conscientiousness makes him admit in the conclusion that the position stated in the book is not supported by all researchers.