To the Hermeneutics of the Word "Religion" and Its Analogues in the Religious and Philosophical Traditions of the East in the Context of Intercultural Communication

The aim of the article is to analyze the Latin word of “religion” and to search for its analogues or compensating religious notions in the religious and philosophical traditions of the East in the context of examining of processes of secularization, de-secularization and migration in the Western society and in the USA causing the growth of intercultural communication at the end of the 20 th century — 20s of the 21 st century. There used theological, hermeneutic methods, analysis of religious studies, comparative linguistic analysis and the method of corpus linguistics. The main results of the study are as follows: it was found that the Latin word of “religion”, which in the interpretation of early Christian philosophers meant the connection of a man with God or the restoration of this connection, in the discourse of ancient Hebrew monotheism corresponded to the word of “Testament” (as the union of a man with God), which remains central in the discourse of Judaism, and in Christian one it means the essence of religion before the Coming of Christ as the Old Testament and the essence of Christianity itself as the New Testament of mankind with God. In the discourse of Islam, a close analogue of the word of “religion” can be considered the self-name of Islam/“submissiveness” or the religious notion of «Din»/“judgment, retaliation, faith”. The most similar to the word of "religion" (understood as the connection between man and God) is “dharma” in Hinduism, meaning "ritual, law" (however, in philosophy of Jainism and Buddhism “dharma” has a different meaning: in Jainism it is one of the cosmic principles which are the base of things, in Buddhism, on the one hand, it has the meaning of "doctrine", on the other hand, is understood as “an element of psychophysical experience”). Close in meaning to the word of "religion" is the religious notion of "de" in Taoism which means a good power that provides the connection with Tao as Heaven and eternity. In the discourse of Confucianism, the absence of the word of "religion" is compensated by the word of "li"/"ritual" which provides the fulfillment of the "Heavenly Law" and the prosperous existence of a man and society. In the discourses of non-theistic Jainism and Buddhism the absence of the word of "religion" is compensated by the word of "a way” understood by the followers of these religions as a way of overcoming the lower human nature. In Shintoism discourse, despite the presence of the word of "a way" in the self-name of this religion, its understanding is completely different from how it is understood in Buddhism and Jainism. Despite such a contradictory situation with the search for analogues of the Western word of "religion" in the religious and philosophical traditions of the East, this word, particularly “religion” in English, is often met in the discourse of modern world society and is actively used in intercultural and scientific communication by representatives of both Western and Eastern religions.