Kolyba M. Freedom of religion: philosophical and legal dimension

The paper deals with the comprehensive study of freedom of religion in the philosophical and legal dimension. The main emphasis of the work is on the fact that freedom of religion as one of the natural human rights occupies a prominent place in the history of human civilization, because, together with freedom of faith, it is one of the components of the personal self-determination of man. How much there is humanity, as much as it faces the problem of the right to freedom of religion in the internal and external sense, and it is connected with the outlook of the person and the state-legal attitude to his/her beliefs. The of understanding of freedom of religion, the content, and the peculiarities of the philosophical and legal category of “freedom of religion” are elucidated through the most important components of the natural law of man –freedom, freedom of conscience, freedom of faith. The gnosiological features of freedom of religion are analyzed and the understanding of freedom of religion is explained through the philosophical and legal analysis of the concepts of “law”, “category”, “freedom”, which are based on the natural principles of human right to confession of faith or belief. The author makes a modern interpretation of the definition of the philosophical and legal phenomenon of freedom of religion, where freedom of religion is a natural historically established human right to accept, change and exercise religious or other beliefs, the right to the proper attitude of the state towards religious feelings and beliefs of citizens, religious and ecclesiastical organizations acting in accordance with the law, and a valuable world-view paradigm without which civilizational progress is impossible. The methodological analysis is carried out and the state of the basic scientific approaches to the problem of freedom of religion in the foreign and domestic scientific practice is demonstrated; the main stages, tendencies of the formation and development of the philosophical and legal category of “freedom of religion” as a valuable element in its Western tradition are shown; the general principles of the theoretical and legal genesis of the Eastern tradition of understanding of freedom of religion are described; the peculiarities of the formation of freedom of religion in the domestic philosophical and legal thought under conditions of formation and development of statehood, positive law are investigated; the modern praxeology of the establishment of freedom of religion in the context of positive law in international legal acts, constructions of foreign national normative and legal acts and domestic legal practice is elucidated; the proposals concerning ways to overcome the difficulties and contradictions in the implementation of freedom of religion through the cultural approaches, and the improvement of the current legislation of Ukraine are substantiated.