The Essence of Religious Legal Culture Through the Prism of the Peculiarities of Jewish, Christian and Muslim Legal Consciousness

Abstract

This article is a kind of continuation of the author's publications devoted to the problems of the relationship between law and religion, the state and the church. In particular, in this article, the author examines the concept of religious legal culture through the prism of modern ideas of the theory of law about the concept, types and content of legal culture, and also identifies and examines its characteristic features. Among the latter, special attention is paid to the syncretism of religious and legal norms in a single mechanism for regulating public relations under the domination of religious legal consciousness. In addition, the article shows the importance of religious legal culture and religious legal awareness in the historical process of development of the socio-political institution of law. At the same time, the distinctive features of religious legal culture highlighted by the author are illustrated by the relevant provisions of both Jewish and Muslim law in the form of quotations from the Holy Scriptures – the Pentateuch of Moses (Torah) and the Koran, as well as their assessments and comments contained in the scientific works of domestic jurists (theorists and historians of law) and Christian theologians – biblical scholars. Special attention is paid by the author to the peculiarities of religious legal consciousness and their manifestations at the levels of intellectual, emotional and volitional components.