Psychology of religion is a rapidly developing feld of interdisciplinary research, which covers a wide range of phenomena from the formation of religious conceptual systems and specifcally religious patterns of behavior to processes of religious socialization and indoctrination, phenomena of religious fundamentalism and extremism, etc. The advent of the psychology of religion as an independent discipline in the frst quarter of the 20th century went through a complicated formation, with a search of its subject and its methodology. This article briefy highlights the main stages of development of psychology of religion, sets out the key ideas of leading scientists, and the current state of the discipline. The history of psychology of religion is a history of "ups and downs", in which Western and Russian traditions were clearly diferent. In the West, the development was more gradual and almost without serious interruption, and the main emphasis was on empirical research, while the history of the discipline in Russia was subject to political upheavals, which led to the domination of theoretical and historical works of descriptive nature. Key words: cognitive science of religion, psychology of religion, religion, religious. The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant 14-18-03771 "Modern Western Psychology of Religion: Adaptation in the Russian context", the recipient organization of funding-St. Tikhon Orthodox University for the Humanities. Folieva T., Malevich T. Psychology of religion in the XX century: main milestones of development // State, religion, and Church in Russia and abroad. 2016. N4. pp. 68-91. Folieva, Tatiana and Malevich, Tatiana (2016) "Psychology of Religion as an Academic Project: an Historical Overview", Gosudarstvo, religiia, tserkov' v Rossii i za rubezhom 34(4): 68-91. page 68PERHAPS none of the sciences that are included in the complex of religious sciences is so interdisciplinary and does not gravitate so much towards natur ... Read more