Abstract

The article demonstrates the experience of religious reading of the iconic work of the prominent Kyiv bibliologist and academician of the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century V. Rybinskyi. The need for such a reading is determined by the fact that the Biblical texts contain a lot of empirical material relevant from the point of view of the history and theory of religious studies. Therefore, a kind of reconstruction of the field of theoretical positions important for the formation of the “science of religion” in the domestic intellectual tradition is actualized. At the same time, given the weak systematization, a certain theoretical amorphousness and the need to carefully “read” such provisions, it would be correct to say that Rybinskyi’s work has only the motives of “proto-religious studies.” The article proposes relevant provisions that characterize the position of the Kyiv researcher in the field of the source and methodological problems of religion research; in matters of the origin and historical development of religious phenomena; in evaluation of the socio-cultural and political dimensions of religious institutions. The arguments given by V. Rybinskyi on the structural components of a religious ritual or religious institution in general, both in its evolution and in functional connections, are valuable for religious studies. It is shown how the Kyiv Biblical scholar in his own research hypostasis and apologetic intention closely approaches the formulation of “protoreligious” provisions. The eloquent example once again traces the complexity of disciplinary formation in the na­tional culture of the “science of religion” and the complexity of rational knowledge of this phenomenon as a specific way of spiritual and practical development of reality.Manuscript received 07.08.2020.