The Theme of Religious Fanaticism in Ivan Ilyin’s “Axioms of Religious Experience”

The article is devoted to explication of I. Ilyin’s ideas about prevention of religious fanaticism. In the book “Axioms of Religious Experience” Ivan Ilyin presents the philosophical analysis of the essential characteristics and nature of religious fanaticism s the religious activity of a prejudiced individual. This analysis allows us to determine the number of measures for the prevention of religious fanaticism. The main measures are: formation of such personal qualities as love, humility, good spirit, responsibility, understanding traditional religious values and knowledge of religious culture, favorable social and psychological climate, reflexion
on one’s own religious experience. Criticism of religious fanaticism should not be made through the doctrine of faith, but through mental accentuations, which lead to amoral, asocial, and anti-social actions of religious fanatics.