The article considers the pro-anorexia (pro-ana) movement an audience cult. The author defines the pro-ana movement as an Internet movement whose members view anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders not as severe mental illnesses, but as a lifestyle choice. The audience cult is a term proposed by sociologists R. Stark and W. S. Bainbridge in the framework of the theory of religious movements. According to Stark and Bainbridge, an audience cult is a community of people who are not bound by a fixed membership, but are united by a set of ideas spread by the media. Adherents of the audience cult act as “consumers” of cult ideas, and not members of a religious organization. The author considers the materials of Russian-speaking pro-ana communities, collected by the methods of the virtual ethnography. The author uses research conducted by Olivia Knapton, Beata Hoffman, Grace Overbeke, Michelle Lelwica and other authors who researched English-speaking pro-ana communities. The article describes the mythology and practices of the pro-ana movement. The article also uses the research of Rudolph Bell and Caroline Walker Bynum on medieval women mystics in order to separately discuss the similarities between the food restriction practices of the pro-ana movement and the ascetic practices of the Middle Ages saints. The author concludes that there are features of an audience cult in the Russian-speaking pro-ana movement.

The article attempts to analyze the evolution of the image and cult of Azazel in ancient Judaism. The research was based on Middle Eastern cuneiform sources, texts of the Tanakh and other Jewish literature, as well as archeological data. The article aims to reveal how and why the image of Azazel was subsequently used in the ritual practice of the Jews. On the basis of a comparative mythological analysis, the author proposes a development scheme of the Azazel image as a deity of the desert, which is a typical deity ofthe Middle Eastern region. This article expresses the assumption that initially Azazel was a separate desert master, but in a length of time he retained only one of the main characteristics of the cult character – the communication function, the function of a «bridge», connecting two spaces – the sacred desert and the cities of Israel. Since the establishment of monotheism, no one else could appear as the owner of the desert, except for the One True God of the Jews. According to this theological logic, Yahweh should have absorbed all the functions, attributes and personalities of Azazel as the god of the desert, but, evidently, in this case, the image of Yahweh would become too cumbersome and uncomfortable, so it turned out easier to keep Azazel in the tradition.

Secular messianism, placed in the center of the article’s topic, isn’t a consistent religious or philosophical tradition. However, though it doesn’t have a consistent philosophical genealogy, and tears ties with religious tradition, “weak” messianism could be considered as a unite discourse, which unites authors of heterogenous philosophical and religious traditions. At the core of the messianic discourse, placed in the article’s focus, lies the critic of a positive exclusivist cult as a system of power, and construction of a negative cult on a basis of a critical discourse. In the article with the help of conceptual apparatus, developed by Michele Foucault, Judith Butler, Giorgio Agamben, and Bruno Latour’s version ANT’s elements, Walter Benjamin’s “messianic” texts and Jacques Derrida later texts, in which he turns to “messianic” problematic, are discussed. As a result of the deconstruction of a subject– oriented metaphysics, against which stands “weak” messianism’s discourse, modern linear temporality of an assymmetric ontology changes into messianic time of an onto–epistemologically symmetric hauntology (hontologie). In hauntology there is no room for economy of violence, based on the practice of exclusion and systemic production of violence upon those who are excluded.

The aim of the study is to reconstruct the elements of the narrative that contributed to the transformation of a spiritualist group into a cult association. The focus of the study is on Russian spiritualists’ perceptions of the figure of medium as a special anthropological type, its purpose and features, as well as the specificity of Russian spiritualists’ evaluation of mediums’ activities. The basic thesis of the research – cult character of spiritualist group was created by means of a narrative about the medium as the person, sacrificing himself in the name of spiritual enlightenment of mankind and, simultaneously, allowing making over himself physical “violence”, consisting in an establishment over him total control. The article examines the characteristics of the medium that are intrinsic to spiritualist discourse, through which the notion of the medium as a victim was constructed. The spiritualist cult was shaped by the transfer of spiritualist guilt to the medium, which was to some extent facilitated by the widespread understanding of the medium as a sacrifice for the social unity.

The study focuses on the contemporary anti-cult movement in the Russian Federation. The object of the study is four large and active virtual groups dedicated to anti-cult themes. The research objectives are to identify the main characteristics of “sect” in the discourse of the anti-cult movement; to establish the specifics of the construction of the “sectarian” image in the anti-cult movement through the prism of modern media and to offer an analysis of the activities of the virtual groups’ participants. The study found that anti-cult communities are platforms for polemics between followers and opponents of the anti-cult movement. They reproduce and offer their participants to complement and develop a negative image of a “sectarian”. At the same time, judging by the materials of the communities, the anti-cult movement largely limits its activities to the space of the Network and, with a few exceptions, does not conduct any actions outside of it.

The study focuses on the interaction between the state and religious associations in the Russian Federation at the present stage. The subject of the study is “civil religion” / “civil cult” as a special set of practices and ideas that serve to reinforce and justify the existing socio-political order. The article raises the question of the presence of civil religion in Russia and the degree of integration of traditional religious denominations into its established practices. The main objectives are to consider the main characteristics of “civil religion” and “celebration” as key categories of research, to give a historical overview of the institutionalization of Victory Day celebration, to investigate the degree of integration of traditional religions in Victory Day celebrations. The article considers some events organized and held as part of the Victory Day celebrations at the Victory Park memorial complex on Poklonnaya Hill in May 2022.

The article deals with the perceptions of the family of young followers of The Moscow Church of Christ. It examines the process of religious socialization, the relationship between parents and young followers of a religious association, and ideas of the ideal family and divorce. The study finds that children from single-parent families are more likely to become members of a religious association, while children who grew up in a religious association are less interested in starting a future family. Ideal family relationships are based on the “biblical” model, which affirms the primary role of the father as the head of the family. The importance of the institution of “family” mentoring as a factor in strengthening family relationships was noted. The interchangeability of the kinship and spiritual understanding of “family” in the rhetoric of the respondents was revealed. The research is based on field material collected in 2018–2019 in Moscow.