From the Invisibility of the Familiar to the Construction of Religious Names in Russian and Chinese Cultures (the Perspective of Intercultural Communication)

The article examines a number of examples of how key terms were created in Russian and Chinese cultures, which were used to construct an understanding of religious phenomena, including religion, magic, atheism, superstition, etc. The analysis is conducted from the standpoint of modern religious studies (anthropological theories of J. Fraser, B. Malinovsky, etc.) and social philosophy (N. Luhmann’s concept of autopoietic systems). Religion is described as “overseeing the unknown”, which, on the one hand, always remains “invisible”, i.e. It is “invisible”, but, on the other hand, in all cultures it is also symbolically constructed in images and symbols of the “sacred” (individual and collective practices and representations), as proper and worthy forms of local worship of “the highest order of nature, which is called divine” (Cicero). Three levels of representation of religious phenomena by means of intercultural communication as languages of the first, second and third order (I1, I2 and I3) are considered.