TRANSFORMATION OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY AND PRINCIPLES OF TOLERANCE IN THE PROCESS OF GLOBALIZATION

Abstract

This study analyzes how religious identity and the principles of tolerance are transformed under globalization, with particular attention to societies where tradition, modernization, and transnational cultural flows interact intensively. Religious identity is approached as a dynamic socio-cultural and psychological construct shaped by collective memory, normative systems, institutional authority, and individual meaning-making. Tolerance is examined not as a passive attitude but as a value-regulatory and communicative principle that mediates intergroup relations in plural environments. The paper argues that globalization simultaneously amplifies identity consolidation and stimulates hybridization: expanding digital networks and migration increase contact between worldviews, while perceived cultural risk can intensify boundary-making, symbolic differentiation, and selective religiosity. The study proposes an integrative framework linking macro-level processes such as media globalization, economic mobility, and global normative discourses with micro-level mechanisms including social comparison, moral emotion, and identity negotiation. Special emphasis is placed on the tension between universalist narratives of human rights and local religious-ethical traditions, showing how this tension can produce either constructive dialogic tolerance or defensive forms of communal closure. In the context of religious higher education, the research highlights the role of curriculum, spiritual mentorship, and civic education in cultivating reflective religiosity and principled tolerance. The study outlines conceptual indicators for diagnosing identity transformation and tolerance orientations, and discusses implications for educational policy and interfaith engagement.