Berichte und Kommentare 
233 
Anthropos 105.2010 
nis, Detailgenauigkeit und Empathie - eine gelun 
gene Gratwanderung also, die die Filmreihe nicht 
nur zu einem persönlichen Gewinn macht, sondern 
auch ihre vielseitige Einsetzbarkeit garantiert. 
Zitierte Literatur 
White, Isobel M. 
1975 Sexual Conquest and Submission in the Myths of Cen 
tral Australia. In: L. R. Hiatt (ed.), Australian Aborigi 
nal Mythology. Essays in Honour of W. E. H. Stanner; 
pp. 123-142. Canberra; Australian Institute of Aborigi 
nal Studies. (Social Anthropology Series, 9; Australian 
Aboriginal Studies, 50) 
Engelhard, Jutta Beate, und Burkhard Fenner 
1996 Wer hat die Kokosnuß ...? Die Kokospalme - Baum 
der tausend Möglichkeiten. (Katalog einer Ausstel 
lung des Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museums für Völkerkun 
de der Stadt Köln vom 26. April 1996 bis 26. Januar 
1997.) Köln: Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum. (ETHNO 
LOGIC A, Neue Folge, 21) 
The Methodology 
of Classical Religious Studies 
A. N. Krasnikov’s Evaluation 
Henryk Hoffmann 
Contemporary Russian religious studies (Reli 
gionswissenschaft) has been, for some years, under 
going significant transformations. With the fall of 
communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union, 
the all-powerful Marxist ideology reigning there 
until the 1990s lost its support from the state. Until 
recently, Russian (Soviet) religious studies - ini 
tially known as the “history of religion and athe 
ism” (istoria religii i ateizma), and later “religious 
studies” (religioviedenie) - was linked to “scientific 
atheism” (naucnyi ateizm) and as such, with its ide 
ological slant, it did not win recognition among the 
religious studies scholars worldwide. The objec 
tives of Marxist religious studies, as an integral part 
of “scientific atheism,” have been clearly spelled 
out by D. M. Ugrinovic in his book Vviedenie v 
teoreticeskoie religioviedenie (Introduction to The 
oretical Religious Studies; 1973). Ugrinovic stated 
that the aim of “scientific atheism” (including re 
ligious studies as part of it) was to overcome reli 
gious relics of the past, and this endeavor was seen 
Fig. 1: Alexander N. Krasnikov (1949-2009) 
as a one of the nationwide tasks undertaken in then 
Soviet Union. 
The purpose of this review article is to introduce 
a book by the late Alexandr Nikolayevic Krasnikov, 
Metodologiceskye problemy religioviedenia (Meth 
odological Problems of Religious Studies; 2007). 1 
In this highly interesting and informative book the 
author postulates a thorough revision of the exist 
ing Marxist literature on religious studies. Krasni 
kov states that, “in the 1990s, Russian science and 
education moved from ‘scientific atheism’ to reli 
gious studies, from an ideologically biased critique 
of religion to its scholarly and philosophical under 
standing” (4). 
The new Religionswissenschaft or religious 
studies in Russia is now closer to the Western-Euro- 
pean understanding of its subject matter, and have 
now for some time been pursued by religion schol 
ars, chiefly from the universities of Moscow and 
St. Petersburg but also from the Amur State Univer 
sity in Siberia. The scholars are grouped around the 
Blagovescensk and Moscow quarterly Religiove- 
denie. Naucno-teoreticeskiy zurnal (Study of Reli 
gion. Scientific and Theoretical Journal), which is 
an official magazine of the Russian Association of 
Researchers of Religion, and A. N. Krasnikov was 
the editor-in-chief of this quality quarterly. 
Alexandr Nikolayevic Krasnikov (f 2009) was a 
noted Russian religious studies scholar and philos 
opher of religion. He was also a professor in the 
Chair of Philosophy of Religion and Religious 
Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, M. W. Lomonosov 
1 Krasnikov, Alexandr Nikolayevic: Metodologiceskye prob 
lemy religioviedenia. Moscow: Akademiceskiy Proiekt, 
2007. 239 pp. ISBN 978-5-8291-0856-4.