Today the concept of "Islamic Reformation" acts as a universal framework for a large number of research projects within the field of Islamic and Muslim studies. This theory, mediated by Western modernization theory, claims a comprehensive understanding of Islamic reality and thus attracts many researchers. However, this universality results in a lack of attention to some important areas, which stimulates criticism from experts on Islam. The aim of this article is to identify and characterize the main approaches to understanding the phenomenon of "Islamic reformation." There are three different groups of researchers who accept the concept's validity, among whom there is no unity regarding its content. The first group talks about "Islamic reformation" as a positive political program, while the second connects it exclusively with the negative phenomenon of Islamic radicalism. The third group does not engage in polemics about "Islamic reformation," but rather consistently seeks to prove the concept's inadequacy in explaining Islamic realities and to offer alternative research models. A detailed consideration of a number of works demonstrates several different approaches within one discourse on "Islamic reformation". Keywords: Islam, Islamic Studies, Islamic Reformation, Islamic modernism, orientalism, ijtihad. Ragozina S. "Islamic Reformation": a positive project or an artificial concept? // State, religion, and Church in Russia and abroad. 2017. N 3. pp. 51-76. Ragozina, Sofya (2017) "'Islamic Reformation': Positive Project or Artificial Concept?", Gosudarstuo, religiia, tserkou' v Rossii i za rubezhom 35(3): 51-76. page 51MUSLIM communities in Europe, the phenomenon of the "Islamic State"1, Sufi communities in North Africa-these and many other aspects of Islamic reality remain relevant research subjects for scholars with a wide variety of backgrounds. Therefore, works devoted to Islam, both in a broad sense and with an emphasis on some particular points, are often cha ... Read more