The book provides students with an opportunity to become acquainted with basic materials on the history, interpretation and functioning of religion in culture. Issues of general theory are closely linked by the author with the problems of modern religious studies and spiritual and moral education. Based on the ideas of the leading religious studies department of Russia at Moscow State University, the author considers the phenomenon of religion as an independent multidimensional whole, characterized by five main dimensions. The main categories are shown in the process of their formation, in connection with the empirical content, with the identification of their interconfessional, philosophical and methodological dimensions.[No comments]