Orthodox priests as the researchers of religion in Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries

Abstract

This article is devoted to the academic work of clergymen in the Russian empire in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The author proves that until the middle of the 19th century it should be spoken with a great caution that there was a Russian theology, as well as of individual clergymen’s scientific studies, despite the fact, there were certain talented researchers. Nevertheless, it is in the first half of the 19th century when there were changes both in secular science and theology that made real a scientific resurgence that had started in the Age of Great Reforms. These innovations wouldn’t have been possible without changes in Higher and Secondary education of clergymen. A very important step in integration of education was permission for students of Russian spiritual academies to continue their education abroad. The author considers that this provided for the development of national Biblical studies. Another important factor, that made clergy’s academic studies more intensive was an increase in the number of scientific periodicals. The third factor that enabled the academic work of clergymen in the Russian empire in the second half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries, was an increase in the number of scientific societies in which scholars could take part. The greater part of clerics’ writings were published as the labours of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society which had many regional departments. The intensification of missionary work demanded from clergymen a knowledge of traditional religious beliefs and syncretistic religious views of the peoples of Siberia, Povolzhye and the Caucasus. The ethnographical materials, brought by them, are relevant even up to the present time. Refs 19.