Abstract

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.