The thesis analyzes the influence of dualistic religious beliefs on sociocultural life and socio-transformational processes in Europe (IV – mid. XVII cen.). The state of the problem scientific development is clarified, the research source base and methodology are systematized and characterized, as well as the origins and historical evolution of dualistic religious beliefs are revealed. With the help of written sources array and modern research methods, the peculiarities of the dualistic religious beliefs influence on the tendencies of the sociocultural life of Western Europe (IV – mid. ХVIІ cen.) are revealed, and the role of religious dualism in the socio-transformational processes of Western Europe (IV – end of XVI cen.) is determined. Also the role of dualistic beliefs in the formation of the principles of imperial power in the Byzantine Empire is defined, and the dualistic context of the religious movements of Byzantium is traced. In addition, the influence of dualism over the sociocultural life in Eastern Europe (X – mid. XVII cen.) is reconstructed and the influence of the latter on the formation of the principles of state power in Eastern Europe is highlighted. Also the peculiarities of the influence of dualistic religious beliefs on sociocultural life and socio-transformational processes in Western and Eastern Europe is compared. The work hereof is written towards a new social history, the origins of which are the New Historical Science (School of Annals), and the methodological principles of founders thereof have been applied in the study. In this case we are talking about the principle of «total history», that is, the holistic comprehension of the studied society with a priority in the study of mentality, in which the sociocultural life acts as a system that includes the features of a social structure, lifestyle, people's thinking, beliefs, customs, moral principles, ideals and creative process of its individual representatives (poets, writers, thinkers, reformers, etc.).
The scientific novelty of the thesis is determined by the formulation and development of a historical problem, which has not been identified until now as a subject of special scientific research in the historiography. The originality of the conceptual design is to reveal the value principles of the Western European and Eastern European ecumene, which were formed during the period under study within the framework of the dualistic Christian worldview. The practical significance of the thesis is that the latter is aimed at revealing positive and negative lessons of the humanity’s historical experience, warning against deceptive ideological paradigms and illusions of the past.
