Religion, society, state: Challenges and threats of modernity

New forms of manifestations of religious intentions in socio-political space have constituted themselves as markers of transformation in the contemporary socio-political coordinates. Revision of the dominant traditional linear approaches placed the focus of ideological and political discussions about the correspondence of stable and variable, traditional and modern in a religious prism. Emerging new configurations in the public and private spheres mark transformation of the traditional relations between religion, society and the state corresponding to the logic of the project of modernity and the paradigm of secularization and require new interpretation optics. The contours of the new designs are evident in the contexts of new challenges and threats related to global political risks of religious terrorism, loss of monopoly on the description of reality, including moral connotations in the understanding of progress of the principle of secularism, with the increased importance of religious and confessional identity, civilizational, local and personal-individual levels, forming the hierarchy of values that determines horizons of public and personal goal setting. The penetration of religious meanings in the political and social reality of various areas, their incorporation into ideological discourses of identity build a wide variety of interpretations in the extreme poles of which is religious outline of internal and external threats to social stability and understanding of religion as a resource of optimization of the political system. Institutional, axiological and ontological projection refracts the religious factor in Russian society in polyvalent and nonlinear ways, reflecting the multidirectional vectors of ongoing transformation. On the basis of sociological data of The Institute of Sociology, RAS, the given article analyzes a number of subjects, reflecting qualitatively new social relationships. The emphasis is on multi-scale conflicts, correlation between the secular and the religious in the coordinates of importance of the democracy attributes and social significance of religion, institutional and value aspects as well as the dominant ideas in the Russian society about the role of Church, religion and religious faith in human life and society. Growing importance of religious factors and religious identities in contemporary conditions, the incorporation of religious meanings in different spheres of society intersect with ' the needs of ensuring the unity of values and stabilization of the social system, as well as close attention to Russian civilization experience. Despite increased sensitivity of contemporary debates on the tragectory of political practices in Russia, the religious factor could be a factor of social cohesion, determining the search of new forms of relations between the state and religious organizations based on the challenges and needs of society and identifying the need for improving mechanisms and practices of state-confessional relations.