Teremko V. The religious community: essence and historical forms.

The dissertation is devoted to the religious community phenomenon, its essence and main historical forms. The research results have proved the availability of the universal algorithm of religious community that appeared by rise causes and forming mechanisms. The work analyses religious community and its correlation with such religious concepts as "group", "community", "organization". It also exposes their relationship and emphasizes their importance in religion forming processes. The historical reconstruction of religious communities' existence forms has been carried out. Their core and special features have been made clear. They are shown by the example of forming ancient religious communities and their functioning in the world religions.