Аннотация: The subject of this article is the historical evolution of the three world religions – Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. The author analyzes the development of these religions based on the model of religious cycle, which is common to the majority of historical religions, in other words, the religious systems formed after the invention of writing. According to the author’s concept, each of the indicated religions has undergone the six stages of development – initial, orthodox, classical, reformist, critical, and post-critical. Throughout their evolution, the religions experiences the two type of crises – structural and systemic. The main conclusion of the conducted research lies in the statement about the functional identity of historical development of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam regardless of their doctrine and ritual practice. The author’s special contribution consists in formulation of the abstract model of religious cycle, which he applies to evolution of the aforementioned religions.