Local scholars have done much in the study of religion as a complex socio-historical phenomenon. Structurally, religion appears to them as a cohesive unity of religious consciousness, religious activity, religious relations and religious institutions and organizations. Such a structural sequence of elements, which in their totality constitute the phenomenon of religion, recognizes as its initial component religious consciousness. A characteristic feature of the latter is its conceptual impact on other structural entities of religion. With the erosion of religious consciousness comes (...) the weakening of other elements of religion. (shrink)