In Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity and the Baha'i Faith Mikhail Sergeev offers a new interpretation of the Soviet period of Russian history as a phase within the religious evolution of humankind by developing a theory of religious cycles, which he applies to modernity and to all the major world faiths of Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Sergeev argues that in the course of its evolution religion passes through six common phases--formative, orthodox, classical, reformist, critical, and post-critical. Modernity, which was started by the European Enlightenment,...

For over a quarter century Russian scholars have operated apart from past ideological constraints and have been discussing in new ways the most acute problems of Russia and of the world community as a whole. Between Past Orthodoxies and the Future of Globalization makes available in English current research by leading thinkers in Russia in philosophy, political theory, and related fields. At the international level, one group of essays articulates Russian perspectives on key global issues. At the national level, another group of essays delivers analyses of the global dimensions in a...