Theology of education: An introduction to the subject

Abstract

The article introduces the subject of theology of education, presented by the author as one of the forms of philosophy of education. The close relationship between education and religion is most clearly seen in the Christian educational paradigm, within which the school and university have developed into a system of translatio studiorum and formation of human personality. The Christian idea of education is based on the principles of dogmatic doctrine and theological anthropology. Its main goal is to develop an individual’s personality, based on the highest example — the image and life of Jesus Christ. Theology fulfilled a standard-setting function in education until the beginning of the Modern Age. Pope Pius XI’s encyclical “Divini illius Magistri” (1929) provided impetus to the development of modern theological thought about education in the West. Formed at the same time as the philosophy of education (after the Second World War), theology of education appeared as a reflection in which new fields of research, new approaches and new methods of joint activity of theologians and teachers are analyzed and constructed (Giuseppe Groppo, Pedro Gil Larrañaga, Enrique García Ahumada et al.). Separately, one can speak about the theology of education in Protestant denominations (Paul Tillich et al.). In Orthodox thought, perhaps the only figure in the theology of education is protopresbyter Vasily Zenkovsky (1881–1962), whose teaching reveals the depth of Orthodox approaches to education and gives relevant material for modern Orthodox theology of education, in demand in the 21st century. The article is dedicated to the 140th мanniversary of the birth of Father Vasily Zenkovsky.