January 18, 2023, a theoretical seminar "Spiritual practices in the Urals: organizational forms and main participants" was held at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Speaker: Kuznetsova Olesya Vasilyevna, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Religious Studies Section of the Department of Ontology and Theory of Cognition of the Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin.
Summary:
In the twentieth century, along with religion, a discourse of spirituality is being built, suggesting a personal search, a movement towards answers to existential questions outside the established religious systems. The result of individual answers to life-meaning questions and the search for contact with supernatural forces that took place outside the established confessions was the emergence of "patchwork religiosity", "non-confessional religiosity", "faith without belonging", etc. There are people who refuse to unequivocally relate themselves to any denomination, agnosticism, atheism, and use such a construction as "spiritual, but not religious" for their designation. It is these people who are involved in spiritual practices that are becoming noticeable in Russia in terms of the number of participants, and their significance becomes the subject of discussion of new public actors ("influencers" and "bloggers"). On the basis of interviews and observations, a wide range of material has been collected and comprehended, which allows us to assert the existence of all types of organizational forms of spiritual practices and the established market of spiritual practices in the Sverdlovsk region. The report will show the religious, psychological and social motives for turning to the spiritual practices of their participants (masters and students). The current religious situation in the Urals can be characterized as favorable for the functioning and development of spiritual practices.