Philosophy of religion from antiquity to our times

Religion is an integral part of the spiritual life of society. Probably everyone knows what religion is, its definition can be formed as follows: it is belief in divine or supernatural forces, in the power of Providence. A person can live without religion, of course, maybe in the world about 4-5 percent of atheists. However, the religious worldview forms a high moral values for a believer, Therefore religion is one of the factors reducing crime in modern society. Also, religious communities actively promote a healthy lifestyle, support the institution of the family, condemn deviant behavior, all this also contributes to the maintenance of order in the society.

However, despite the apparent simplicity of the question of religion, the best scientists have been trying for centuries to understand the phenomenon of the ineradicable faith of humanity in forces that are much stronger than us, something that no one has ever seen. So one of the directions of philosophical thought was formed, called the philosophy of religion. She deals with such issues as studying the phenomenon of religion, religious worldview, the possibility of knowing the divine essence, as well as trying to prove or deny the existence of God.

The philosophy of religion was studied by such prominent scientists as Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Feuerbach, Huxley, Nietzsche, Dewey and many others. The philosophy of religion in ancient Greece was born during the Hellenistic period, its main question was how to get rid of the problems of being and merge with the Divine. In this period A gnoseological worldview is born, however, cognition was interpreted not as an objective study of the surrounding material world, but as a process of obtaining divine revelation. Gradually, all the Greek philosophical schools-Platonic, Skinic, Aristotelian, Sketchic, and many others-begin to be imbued with this idea, this position persisted until the period of the decline of Greek culture.

In the Middle Ages, when all spheres of the life of society were totally controlled by the church, religion becomes the only way to cognize being, the only law is the Holy Scripture. One of the strongest trends of religious philosophy of the time was patristicism (the doctrine of the "fathers of the church") and scholasticism, defending the foundations of Christianity and the institution of the church.

As an independent discipline, the philosophy of religion originated in the era Renaissance, when philosophers questioned many church doctrines and defended the right to independently consider religious issues. The brightest philosophers of the time - Spinoza (the unity of nature and God), Kant (God - the postulate of practical reason, religious demands should be carried out only because society needs people with high morality), whose views were also followed by his followers: Schleiermacher and Hegel. The philosophy of religion of the era of bourgeois prosperity is characterized by increasing criticism of religion, a desire for atheism, which jeopardized the very existence of the philosophical religion as a research discipline.