Spiritual school. School of Spiritual Knowledge
Here you need to know a lot, be able to, think a lot. To deserve happiness, the Soul must work first, and then the hands. It doesn't come by itself. It's like gold, it is mined bit by bit with hard work. Only dirt sticks itself and spoils not only the costume, but also the state, mood of a person, his fate.
The ultimate goal of many spiritual teachings is for a person to become happy, so that every minute of his life brings joy. Happiness is all the components of life, it is when there is a lot of joy, but there is no suffering. You have to learn to make the right choice. If it's a job, it has to be loved to inspire you. It needs to be found, and for this you need to understand yourself. The people with whom you communicate, in order to be those who love you, do not insert anything into your back, do not slander. To do this, you yourself need to be worthy of true friendship, to be free from many negative qualities. Rest, with great pleasure, so that the soul sings, this is also serious. People spend 40% of their free time watching TV, but this is not your happiness - the life of other people flashes there. Happiness is the main or one of the main prizes that a person can receive in his life. To learn to be happy, a person must choose his Path. Secondary school or university does not teach this, there are spiritual schools for this. Basically, a person learns from his parents, then the street and the environment. But, it is not right to be treated by a sick doctor. It is necessary to be treated by someone who has cured himself. The same goes for happiness. To find happiness, you need to find those techniques and spiritual schools that can teach happiness.
There are three main areas or systems of knowledge that help a person - religion, science and esotericism. In a good version, they are not opposed to each other, each is in its place. Religion provides the basis of spiritual knowledge and, for most people, it is vital. According to scientific studies, people who believe in God suffer less than those who do not believe in anything. They have no inner basis for joy. Religion is the basis of spirituality, esotericism is the highest school in spiritual terms.
Science considers material and social issues - how the physical world works, what can be checked with instruments. If the soul cannot be weighed, photographed, disassembled into parts with the help of instruments, then this is not yet available to science. Science is necessary in order to understand the laws of the material world, the laws of society, social laws. In order to realize yourself in society, you need to be a specialist in any field.
Religion and esotericism are focused on different people. Religion is based on Faith (there is God, Angels). As a rule, a person with a higher education simply does not have enough Faith. Esotericism is based on the fact that you are a Human, you have an immortal Soul, God loves you, and you can become happy. Faith is also present, it must be in order to somehow get off the ground. But basically, the path of esotericism is different - to reveal abilities, so that you yourself can check whether there is a Subtle World, the beings of this world, how to learn to see, hear, communicate with them, how to influence ongoing events through the Subtle World.
The main fundamental differences of esotericism are work with energy and work with Spiritual Laws. Energy development - energy, how to learn how to gain it, so that you can reveal your abilities. In order not just to turn to the Angels in prayer, but to communicate directly and ask whether I deserved such an award or not. Not deserved - what do I need to do for this? If a person does not want to repent, then he will suffer. Work with energy in all manifestations is needed to reveal abilities and manage oneself. Self-management is a challenge to the sensations you need, strength, confidence (there are no barriers that you cannot overcome). A weak person - fear has arisen and it pushes a person somewhere. A strong person is calm, relaxed, eliminates all problems in one way or another. He has power over himself and is able to control energy.
Working with Spiritual Laws. In religion, many provisions are unconditionally correct: do not kill, do not steal, do not covet, etc. In esotericism, work with spiritual laws is at a qualitatively higher level. A person studies social laws and sometimes they can be circumvented. Spiritual laws cannot be circumvented. And a person learns to work with it. You can find out why failures occur in your personal life, what laws are violated, what you need to repent of in order to receive a prize. Much that healers do, a highly developed person must learn to do. If he is wrong, he gets an impact, you can learn to feel and see it. If a person has found the right decision, how to behave correctly, how to act in a given situation, then this influence goes away and another source for happiness is born in the Soul of a person. The work with spiritual laws takes place in the inner world. Transformations are being made, the influence of the subtle world is being monitored. Wrong - a problem, right - joy is born in the heart. What healers, sorcerers, fortune-tellers do is one of the manifestations of influence on fate. There is an opportunity to turn to the forces of the Subtle World and, under certain conditions, order what you want to receive. But, of course, a person must deserve it.
The study of spiritual laws gives an understanding of the rules of the game - what needs to be done in this world in order to receive certain prizes. One person has learned to make money - he will be rich, but this does not mean that he will have reliable and devoted friends. The other person has learned to appreciate friends, but if he has a wrong attitude towards material means, he will have friends and very pleasant soulful evenings, but he will be poor. Each law operates in its own area. And in order to get what you want, you need to understand how to act in this area. This is one of the tasks of esotericism.
The next question is how do esoteric directions differ from each other, what are the ways of development and how to choose your Path. There are a lot of schools, directions, religions, sects. But none of the religions, none of the directions is the most perfect at the moment, does not have a dominant influence, the possibility of achieving the maximum practical result. Everywhere has its pros and cons.
There are several dozen esoteric schools in the city. How can they be classified? Each school differs in what goals it sets for itself, what it wants to give people: in terms of completeness, in terms of level (to what heights it can raise), in terms of positivity (that is, towards God or towards his opposite).
By completeness. The simplest schools are courses where only one or a few small topics are covered (only the third eye, only health, or something else). They are small in time - a few lessons or a few months. This is where the development ends and we must look for the next courses. The choice of path depends on what you want. If you are interested in one specific question, say, learning to guess by the hand, then you need courses. More difficult - incomplete systems that consider a wide range of issues related to the fate and development of man. The last step is teaching: all questions of the inner world of a person and his Destiny (a person lives, touches something, communicates, works, sleeps, eats). Everything that affects his condition and Destiny: whether he will be successful at work, whether he will make a career, whether people will respect him, whether he will find feelings or be lonely and unhappy. Ideally, the teaching addresses all issues.
The level of the school determines to what heights this or that school can raise a person. Of course, much depends on the efforts of the person himself. Take the sports section: one person was like and quit - there are no results, and the other becomes an Olympic champion. Everyone disposed of the opportunities provided differently. We offer about the second higher education in terms of the amount of information, on human changes, even much more. The first stage of training is 4 steps.
In terms of positivity, there are schools of light (the ideals of the Creator are love, goodness, justice), dark (the ideals of evil are violence, fear, dependence - methods of pressure; a person gains strength by learning to manipulate people) and gray (a little from there, a little from here). In Kharkov, there are approximately equal numbers of one, the other and the third. Our school belongs to positive light schools. This does not mean that we do not have problems, but the basic principles and rules that are introduced at the Center are aimed at making a person follow the Path of Light.
The choice of development path is one of the most important decisions that a person makes in his life. In most cases, how is a person formed? Dad, mom rejoice at the guests, and he begins to rejoice at the people. He sees that they are dissatisfied (they came to eat) and he forms such and such an attitude towards people. Basically, it is not what they say to him that leaves an imprint, but how people behave. That is why many monks say, give us a child for a couple of years, and then do whatever you want with him, he will already be the person he was originally laid (what he believes in, how he reacts to this world). This is the initial program, which will continue to develop simply. What he does not believe in will be rejected as non-existent. What he believes in, what he is interested in, will develop. For most people, the parents laid the program, and they went on with their lives.
The choice of the path of development is a conscious decision of a person - what he wants to believe in and what he wants to be. What it is at the moment - you know very well. This is the degree of your happiness, the degree of suffering. What does a person want to be, what does he want from his destiny, how is he going to build his destiny? The time that is left on Earth, how does a person want to spend - worthy or unworthy, what does he want to achieve? What to believe, who to be and how to live in general. In fact, the choice of development path is one of the most important decisions in life. It depends on what you want: to try a little esotericism and you have enough for now, or you want to choose the path seriously and for a long time. Do you want to achieve practical results and do you need abilities, power over fate, over your inner world. Or you want to have a pleasant conversation on topics that are interesting in this world and the other world. The choice depends on what a person wants to receive.
Three sets of questions. The first is Good and Evil, the second is the types of schools, the types of systems, what they are, the rest is practical implementation.
The first key question for a person who chooses his Path is the question of Good and Evil. And you have to answer it for yourself. By and large, the distinction between good and evil is what is good and what is bad? Is the person doing the right thing in this situation or wrong? Subsequently, he will repent and suffer, he will have something to hurt, or he will be happy and proud of what he did. Questions of Good and Evil are determined by what is right in this life and what is not right. Distinguishing between Good and Evil is the ability to see what God wants. If he saw you, would he rejoice or grin with regret? And what does its opposite want? How to evaluate the actions of people, how to predict what consequences await them.
Spiritual systems differ in goals, in methods, in ideas, on the basis of what knowledge and beliefs such and such goals can be set. You come to a spiritual school. What does it offer people, what do they need to believe in? If we take key attitudes, basic concepts, bright schools say that God loves Man, that Man is an immortal Soul, that every person, if he wants, can achieve happiness.
The bright schools say that the task of a person is to understand what God has laid in him. Understand what God wants to see from a person. The task of bright spiritual schools is for a person to realize his potential. So that he becomes strong, free, worthy, happy, and that he does something good for this world, for God. So that he lives not only for himself. And when a person does something for this world, for people, he has the opportunity to receive respect and sincere feelings from other people, he is taken care of, and he loves them himself. Light schools say - Man can. To do this, he must want and of course try. The goal is to become worthy of your Creator in all manifestations.
The task of dark schools is exactly the opposite. They believe and offer to believe a person - God is not fair. The evidence is obvious: such and such a person has a dacha on the Black Sea, but you don’t – it’s unfair. Someone earns money, and you are so honest, good, but poor. The dark schools say that the world is not fair, God is not fair, and man is nothing good. That people are divided into two categories - sheep and wolves, and some live at the expense of others (one is a hunter, the other is a victim). You are invited to make a choice - to become a hunter or a wolf. And then you can apply various dark methods, engage in black magic. If a person does not represent anything of value, you can do one, two, three things with him (deceive, kill, sacrifice). These are basic ideas and further, to what goals all this leads. This is a fight with God in different ways, bringing chaos (detonate everything, press the nuclear button) and no matter what happens. Man himself strives for death (Taliban, for example, martyrs). The construction of the dark world can be a highly effective system - if you lied or made a mistake, then you died. Therefore, everything works clearly - a person is responsible for every word. But it is built on violence, on blood, and there cannot be deep feelings. These are wolf laws. In dark schools, a weak, stupid person cannot survive. Neither happiness nor joy can be earned from violence.
In addition, there are gray areas, they are trying to be the most cunning. It’s a stupid option when people really don’t understand, they don’t distinguish between what is Good and what is Evil, they don’t understand with whom it is worth being friends, because a person will not betray, with whom it is not worth it. But if this is an esoteric school, then they understand that there is Good and there is Evil. In the Subtle World this is obvious - some are shining, others are dark. Being the most cunning means that it is profitable, which is what I will do for now. It is beneficial to lie - a person will lie, it is beneficial to seem honest, decent, radiate goodwill - he will be. Gray schools are based on calculation and what is right is what is beneficial to a person at the moment. Such schools also exist. Their motto is: There is no Good and Evil, we are the smartest, we are friends with one and the other. On the one hand, so, and on the other, they are beaten by one and the other. Moving along the gray path, a person is simply not able to receive deep feelings (respect, devotion, love), there is no reason for this.
The first is Good and Evil. It is desirable to understand where your heart is calling, you want God to love you or that he punishes you, and the dark forces help you. The first is to make a moral choice for yourself what values you want to embody in this life. The ideals of Good are Love, Justice, Nonviolence, Creation, Harmony... Evil is something that is based on fear, violence, dependence, hatred and the like.
Rules are methods of how best to reach such and such goals. In its purest form, dark and light forces are of super value. Light - service to God (to do something for God, to be worthy of him, to become a perfect person with a clear conscience). Dark - serving Evil and fighting God (the more a person commits crimes, the more impudent, cunning, resourceful he is in life, the more points he scores in the dark coordinate system). In one case, a person can find Faith, real feelings, in another, he can get power and material values, but according to wolf laws.
If you have made a decision to follow the Path of Light, then further, how all light schools differ from each other. Although these types of systems will be valid for both dark and gray schools. The first fundamental difference between all systems is professional or amateur organizations.
Amateur schools do not aim to achieve the final result, there are no rules of the game, there are no requirements. They can deal with a wide variety of issues and are one of the main types of clubs. They bring together quite strong people, but their goal is not spiritual development, but pleasant communication on a topic of interest (about magic, love, who has what kind of eyes and a charming smile). The club exists on the basis of some theme. The main goal is not a specific result, but communication, pleasant pastime, cultural events. There is no serious work on your inner world, there are interesting events.
Another option is shelters, when a person tries to literally run away from life. Life shows that the World is not fair, not perfect, it is not able to do one, two, three (the boss scolds, the wife makes moral suggestions every day), and there is nowhere for the poor to go. People come to asylum schools and they are told how good they are. Partly, you need a person to believe in it. But, in this way, a balm is poured on the Soul, pride develops, problems calm down, and a person begins to believe that he is good, and the World is not fair. He leaves this world, he has no goals to change his life and himself. An oasis is created where people compliment each other, drink tea together, but do not change. They soothe their own self-esteem.
Professional systems are focused on achieving results (to reveal abilities, form feelings, gain power over oneself). There is a goal, it is declared. And there are rules of the game - training (what needs to be done to get such and such a result). Any professional schools are focused on obtaining the final result. If a person wants to get something, he must work. It is not always pleasant to consider your problems. It's like appendicitis - you may not cut it out, but if you don't cut it out in time, you can die. It's not always easy to talk about your shortcomings. But spiritual development assumes that all shortcomings must be eliminated, and a person tries to cultivate all the virtues in himself. Professional schools are engaged in practical work. Professionalism means that there is a focus on the end result.
There are three broad categories here: teaching, incomplete systems, and courses. The fundamental difference is the completeness of knowledge and goals. Completeness of knowledge, these are the questions this school answers. Ideally, the Teaching gives answers to all questions: God, the Soul, the purpose of man, how it all works, what laws it is subject to. According to goals, a complete system of goals - how a person can realize himself in this life (find his place, work); how to behave in a team, how to find and not lose friends; how to have a good time; how to equip your home so that it pleases the eye, and does not spoil your condition; how to learn to hear and feel God, what to do to feel his love for yourself and kindle a fire in your heart. All questions related to life. If this is a teaching, then it becomes the subject of study of how the inner world interacts with the environment. And a person learns to bring it all to perfection. Development by and large is limitless, endless. Teaching is a complete system of knowledge, a complete system of values. The Teaching is forward and for a long time, and a person who has chosen the Path for life can be happy. He does not need to constantly look for something, change, he tries to build relationships, he creates the world around him. The more you invest in people, the closer they become to you. The formation of a Spiritual Brotherhood, when reliable and devoted friends are ready to come to your aid, is one of the tasks of a spiritual school.
The second type is incomplete systems. If the teaching is a whole, all that a person needs to know for strength, happiness, perfection, then not a complete system gives a part of this. Although, it covers a fairly wide range of issues: relationships with people, self-realization, the arrangement of one's home.
Courses provide answers to individual questions. In three weeks, open the third eye (or at least try), or only the ethics of relationships, or something else. A small circle of questions. Based on what you want, you make a choice. The main advantage of the courses is fast (three days, two weeks). Accordingly, what you can transfer in three weeks is what you get. If you only want to feel what it is, without going deeply into these issues, then the courses are just a good option - we tried a little and until the next time.
In addition, schools are divided by levels. This may be a complete system of goals, but for a simple person and a highly organized person, completely different answers are needed. One needs to work with his hands, the other needs to be able to speak. These are different spheres of activity, different laws of the material world or complex matter. The first, second level - those systems that are not esoteric, their main interests are the laws of the material world (cutting and sewing courses, etc.) and social (psychology, business).
Esotericism begins with the third level of development. In the first place comes: how to learn how to manage energy, acquire energy strength, learn how to gain energy and reveal abilities. When a person sets himself such tasks, he takes a step forward. These are aspirations of the third level.
By levels, people are distributed like a pyramid. At the top there are always a few, at the bottom there are a lot of people. Basically, after all, the aspirations of the people of our society are mundane - survival. For a weak person - life is survival - the less you know, the less you know how, the more you suffer. The flight of the Soul is necessary for the strong. To be happy, you need to be strong.
The first is energy strength, the second is spiritual purity. When a person reaches the third level in the spiritual plane, he receives the ability to build himself. He studies the issues of influence on others, develops the qualities of a leader, a person who is able to lead, who is listened to with respect, who is addressed with questions.
A person of the third level is a Warrior (Kshatriyas in India). He can remain calm in extreme situations, control himself when everyone is in a panic. He is calm, relaxed, he thinks with his head, makes the right decisions. Most people are emotional. And it is not the heart, not the mind that leads them through life, but desires, emotions, fears and other nonsense.
The next fourth level (in Hinduism, Brahma) is the man of Knowledge. A person who is able to train others, form a leader, a Warrior, lead him to perfection step by step. A very difficult job. This is the first step for a Spiritual Master. A person who is able to work with information understands how good differs from evil, where there is a lie, where there is truth. He is able to create, discover what was not known before him. This is the first step of teachers and scientists. Most people are not able to create anything new, they believe in their habits. The higher the level, the more opportunities a person has.
Each school leads to its own. Where there is no energy development and no striving for spiritual purity, there is no third level. These are questions below those dealt with by the esoteric schools. Perfect knowledge, the formation of feelings are questions of the fourth level. How to influence people, how to change them, starting with yourself - the third level. You don’t need to try to change, you need to understand what they want, what they are afraid of, where they get annoyed and learn how to communicate without stepping on pain points, offering something that a person cannot refuse (he needs it, he wants it that way). First you need to learn how to communicate with people, understanding what they want, under what conditions they will feel good and what they will do with great pleasure. The next question is how to change people, to lead them to a higher goal. Realization depends on which direction a person will go: towards God (fortunately, strength, perfection) or vice versa (strength and power, but suffering and all other troubles). The first is the Path of Light or the path of darkness. Goals - what a person wants to learn. He wants to learn something one specific or wants to become a master in life, to do with pleasure everything that he spends time on.
Practical implementation - what and how a person can learn, what chance he has to achieve the goals declared by the school and how to determine this. Any scientific system, dissertation, whatever, where there is work with a decent amount of information, goes through several stages of its development. And the closer it is to its logical conclusion, the more returns it can give a person.
The first stage is the accumulation of information - individual answers to individual questions. There are many directions that just stop there. There is no algorithm here, what needs to be done in order to come to certain results, there are no requirements, no rules and no results. There is no whole here, no criteria for how to go to perfection, what needs to be done. How to determine spiritually, you are going up or going down? If a person performs self-suggestion and meditation, but abandoned work, family, do you think he is spiritually improving or degrading? Of course, there is no question of perfection here. A person needs knowledge, meditation, in order to become stronger and learn how to solve the issues that life raises. If, thanks to development, a person finds his soul mate, his career goes up - he is on the right track. If he started doing something, and his career crumbled, people fled, and he himself went into a binge - it's worth considering.
The next stage is the systematization of the acquired knowledge. There is a classification, steps appear, what a person must do in order to overcome certain obstacles in order to become stronger in life. Great opportunities open before him, he feels more, understands more. There is no program here yet, but there is an understanding of what logical stages a person must go through in order to reach his cherished goal. At least there is an understanding of the whole, how the individual elements are connected to each other and what is the path.
The last stage is the creation of a single program. For the Theological School, this is the Teaching. There are steps, methods and techniques on how to go through these steps step by step so that after many years a person can get what he came to study for. To get the best possible result, the system must be logically complete. It should have a full-fledged program with clear rules and evaluation criteria. The further the system is from its logical conclusion, the less likely it is to get something practical. Today they read one interesting thing, tomorrow another, the day after tomorrow something else, but this does not lead anywhere. Where there is no program, sequence, plan, algorithm leading to the formation of certain skills and abilities, to the accumulation of the results obtained, there can be no development. If there are no clear criteria for evaluation and understanding of how a person, starting from the step on which he is now, can rise to the very top, there can be no question of full development.
In relation to the rules, the systems are also different. The clearer the system is organized, the more pleasant it is to use. But not every person wants to do something, to obey the rules. By and large, the rules are what determines how you arrive at the goal. Achievement of any results cannot be if there are no rules. There are several options here.
Option one - the rules are completely absent: all people are happy, freedom, but there are no results. If a person does not have obedience to the rules, there is no training, then he will never reach his goal. Achieving the goal is the acquisition of certain skills. The rules define how best to do this.
The second option: there are a lot of rules, they are tough, many people are not happy, they are offended, they leave, they say bad words, but those who endured get what they wanted. In this case, there will be no inspiration. The ideal option is when there are minimum rules, only the necessary ones, everything else is an opportunity. If you want it, use it, if you don't want it, then you don't need it yet.
And the last indicator of the effectiveness of any system is whether the words of this or that spiritual school diverge from deeds. Look at the practical result, at the people who study there, what they got, what state they live in, talk to these people. There is only one but, this indicator works if the system exists for a long enough time. If it has reached its logical conclusion, then you can evaluate how well it works. If the system is just beginning to be built, like the world's first spacecraft, it is still unclear whether it will fly or not. If it is new and in the formative stage, you need to see if it is worth it or not, because the fruits will appear only after a few years. The spiritual system is built over decades, centuries. Depending on what this system is and what it wants to give people. But in any case, if the system lives for a long time, the main indicator is what it has given to people. There are thousands, hundreds of thousands of theological schools and directions, but only a few always remain at the top.
- You used to teach at the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary. What brought you there?For 15 years I worked as a senior research fellow at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for System Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences. My first spiritual mentor, Priest (now Archpriest) Sergiy Romanov, with whom I then communicated not only in the church, but also often at home, once said to me (it happened in the summer of 1989): “You need to teach at the Theological Academy.” Such a thought could never have crossed my mind. But since I had complete confidence in my spiritual leader, I agreed. Everything happened pretty quickly. I remembered that Father Vladislav Tsypin, whom I knew well, taught at the Lavra. I told him that I had the intention of becoming a teacher. Some time later, and it was in August, the Vice-Rector of the Academy, Professor M.S. Ivanov, called me and invited me to come to the Academy. He asked to prepare the program of the annual course "Christianity and Culture" for the meeting. With her, I came to him on the appointed day. The issue appears to have been settled. Mikhail Stepanovich spoke to me very kindly, as with a future teacher. Then he took me to Vladyka Rector Archbishop Alexander (Timofeev). Entering him, I went under the blessing. We sat down. He began to speak very kindly. But I don't remember the beginning of the conversation. Seeing the sheets of paper in my hands, he asked: “Is this your program? Can I see? After reading aloud one of the points, he asked to open it. After my answer, he, turning to M.S. Ivanov, resolutely said: "Prepare for the Council."
- What subjects did you teach?
During the 1989/90 academic year I lectured on the topic on which I prepared the program mentioned above. Lectures were held on Thursdays once a week in the assembly hall. Students of all courses of the academy and seminary were supposed to attend. Some lecturers also came to the lectures. I remember that Archimandrite Venedikt (Knyazev), who was then the first vice-rector for educational work, would come and sit in the back row.
- Did the students show interest in the topics of the lectures?
It's hard for me to answer this question. The people listened in silence. Some sent notes with questions. I remember that a lecture against evolutionism caused a lot of notes. The questions were not polemical. People just wanted to know more.
- How was your teaching then?
Vladyka Alexander demanded that teachers invited from secular institutes must graduate externally from the seminary, and then from the academy. I had to take exams and tests first for seminary. I graduated from the seminary course in May 1990, and passed the exams for the academy in the next academic year. In the fall of 1991 he defended his thesis for the degree of Candidate of Theology. At the end of the first year of teaching, Archimandrite Georgy (Tertyshnikov), whom many know for his study of the works of St. Theophan the Recluse, told me: “You will be offered the teaching of the Old Testament at the academy. Don't give up." He served as Assistant Inspector of the Academy and Seminary. First, I lectured on the Old Testament in the 1st year of the Academy, and then in the 2nd year.
- And in the seminary?
I was also assigned to teach "Basic Theology" in the 3rd year. Alexei Ilyich Osipov led the 4th class. Relations between us have always been smooth, but one day such a "misunderstanding" arose. Previously (I don’t know how now) he was a strict, almost merciless examiner. I have always felt sorry for the students. He knew that it was very unprofitable for them, but he could not help himself. Correspondence students who came to take exams came to me when Alexei Ilyich was away. Upon learning of this, he expressed dissatisfaction. I promised him not to examine 4th year students.
- You haven't taught at the academy for a long time. Whom do you most often remember from those with whom you were united by joint work?
The most precious memories for me are everything connected with Bishop Alexander. I felt his constant love. Although he was only five months older than me (born in August 1941), I treated him like a caring father. I remember such an episode. Lectures on "Basic Theology" were given in the large assembly hall, because there were four classes in the third year, which was about 120 people. However, in the first week of September, this audience was provided for the newly recruited first year. They read various lectures of a general nature. I forgot about this and came to give a lecture to the third year. Carried away, I did not look at those sitting, and only at the end of the lecture I realized that people unknown to me were sitting in the hall. I finished the lecture. And then I found out that my students had been waiting for me all this time in the small assembly hall, which was located behind the central archaeological office. This could happen because the teacher, whose lecture was scheduled for the first year, could not come. This became known to the rector. He told Vice-Rector M.S. Ivanov: “Ask Father Athanasius why he didn’t come to the lecture. Only softly, without reprimand.
- Who else do you remember the most?
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I well remember Archpriest Boris Pushkar, who soon became Veniamin, Bishop of Primorsky. Invited to the Synod, he refused to accept this appointment for a long time, which prompted the members of the Synod to show great perseverance. When I was ordained a deacon, before the all-night vigil I put on a cassock for the first time. As best he could, he tied a belt woven from a black sutasha. Father Boris saw and tied it on me again. Then he passed one end through the loop and said: “It won’t untie like that.” After his ordination to the bishopric, I saw him only once at the Academy. He said: “I came with a report. His Holiness jokes: "Everything is quiet: the Pacific Ocean, the quiet bishop."
In general, the relationship between teachers was simple and friendly.
On the day of my deacon's ordination, after dinner I met Archimandrite Jonah (Karpukhin), now the Archbishop of Astrakhan, in the front garden. He sincerely congratulated me and said: “I am glad that you are now with us.”
I fondly remember the calm and benevolent Archimandrite Sergius (Sokolov), who in December 1995 became Bishop of Novosibirsk. In my first year of teaching, I took exams for the entire seminary course. Father Sergius then taught the Old Testament. I went to him for an exam. Putting an estimate in the statement, he added: "This is my first signature as an archimandrite." He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite on the feast of Holy Pascha in 1990.
I often recall my friendly interactions with Archimandrites Venedikt (Knyazev) and Platon (Igumnov). Their location allowed me to join the traditions of the academy.
- You have taught a lot in theological schools. Tell us about where you studied?
I am one of the “perpetual students”. My studies began at school when I was 7 years old, and at 49 I was still taking exams in academic subjects. At school I was interested in philosophy and physics. But the Lord directed my cognitive interests along the channel that led me to the priesthood and theology. We lived on the outskirts of Ufa. There was a library not far from us, in which I discovered the classical works of R. Descartes, G. W. Leibniz, G. Hegel and other philosophers. I took these books home. After graduating from high school, I wanted to enter the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow University, but they were accepted there only with a work experience of at least two years. Mom didn't want me to put off continuing my studies. She persuaded me to enter the history department of the Bashkir State University. There I completed four courses, moved on to the fifth. But my desire remained unsatisfied. Unexpectedly for me, the rector of the university, who knew about my passion for philosophy, offered to try to transfer to the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow University: “I have good relations with the head of the department of universities and humanitarian institutions of the Ministry of Higher Education N.V. Pilipenko. I will write an application for admission to Moscow State University. Indeed, everything went without difficulty. I was accepted into the third year. An extremely stressful life began: the dean of the faculty, Professor V. Molodtsov, strictly told me: “We are accepting for the third year, but during the academic year you must pass all the exams for the first two years.” It was a difficult task to complete three courses in a year. I managed to pass everything, but I felt a huge fatigue.
- Who do you remember at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University?
Then Professor Valentin Ferdinandovich Asmus was still teaching, but he didn’t teach anything with us. Most of all I remember Piama Pavlovna Gaidenko. Young, fascinated by German existentialism, she taught seminars with us. Once we met at the entrance to the faculty building on Mokhovaya. She said she wanted to talk to me. She then asked what I would like to become. I don't remember what I said then. Now this case gives rise to reflections on how unexpectedly the course of a person’s life can change. The idea that I would be a priest and a monk was absolutely fantastic then.
After graduating from Moscow University, I returned to Ufa. At the Bashkir University he taught philosophy and logic. A few months later, my studies continued in another unusual educational institution - the school of life. I got into the army as a soldier. Served a little less than a year. I don't regret my time in the army at all. New facets of life have opened up. This came in handy for me later.
After the army, I entered the graduate school of the Institute for Concrete Social Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was then headed by Academician A.M. Rumyantsev. There I prepared a dissertation on the topic “System Analysis of the Mechanism of Changing Social Organization”. After graduating from graduate school, he began working at the Institute of Scientific Information in the Social Sciences. In December 1973, I defended my dissertation at the Institute of Philosophy. From 1975 to 1990, I worked as a senior research fellow at the All-Union Research Institute for System Research of the Academy of Sciences, as I have already mentioned.
- What influenced you to become an Orthodox priest and monk?
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- You have teaching experience in various seminaries (Moscow and Sretenskaya). What problems do you consider the most serious in the life of theological schools?
The most painful problem is related to spiritual education. Some seminary students do not have a genuine reverence and fear of God. Some of the students are infected with the worldly spirit. This is hard to avoid. Young men do not come to spiritual schools from any particular tribe. They are supplied by our morally sick society. At the age of 18, a person already has a fully formed spiritual appearance. For five years of study, it is not easy to re-educate him. This is disturbing because many become clergy soon after graduation. What? Everything depends on their piety, and this is laid from childhood. Therefore, others become unworthy servants, about whom it is said in one of the hymns of St. Simeon the New Theologian:
Entering My Divine Court with boldness,
Shamelessly standing in altars and chatting,
Not seeing me and not feeling at all
My impregnable Divine glory,
After all, if they had seen, they would not have dared
Always act, would not even dare
Enter the vestibule of the Orthodox church.
(Hymn 58)
- How to avoid it?
The life of the spiritual school must be inseparable from the life of the Church. The very name of it - seminary (Latin seminarium - nursery) clearly expresses its purpose. Its goal is the same: to educate clergy and pastors, i.e. people of the Church. Therefore, ecclesiasticism in the highest and deepest sense should permeate theological schools. This is achieved, first of all, by a sensitive attitude to past experience, continuity, fidelity to the centuries-old tradition, in which the best experience of previous generations has crystallized.
There is no need to strive for external scientificity, introducing various secular disciplines to the detriment of theological ones. The Holy Fathers considered theology to be a science of sciences. If in seminaries the teaching of theological disciplines is properly organized, and if the students strive with love and diligence to enrich themselves from this treasury, then such a theological school can be placed above any secular educational institution. There should be no feeling of inferiority.
The entire creative and administrative potential of the leaders of theological schools should be directed towards making seminaries and academies become true breeding grounds for people with a firm Orthodox worldview and a deep theological education.
3. Spiritual school of the Syrian East
1) Syrian Christian education
Let us now move on to the next topic - to consider the foundations of theological education in the Syrian East. Despite the difference in cultural soil and historical conditions, the theological schools of the Syrian East developed according to a pattern similar to that along which the Christian educational institutions of the Hellenistic world developed. However, in the Syrian East we can find a somewhat different intuition, a different concept of spiritual education, which is not without its originality and depth.
The largest centers of Syrian Christian education - the famous academies of Edessa and Nisibin - arose, like Hellenistic schools, on the basis of small catechetical schools at Christian churches. According to Syrian sources, only boys attended these parish schools. Education began with mastering the basics of reading and writing in the Psalms and memorizing the psalms by heart; thus, the founder of the Nisibi Academy, Mar Narsai, entered the school of the city of Ain Dulba at the age of seven; thanks to his extraordinary abilities, after nine months he “answered all of David,” that is, he memorized the entire Psalter. Further primary education included the study of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the biblical interpretations of Theodore of Mopsuestia. The system of this primary education also included the memorization of the most important liturgical hymns and some experience in homiletics.
We have only fragmentary information about the early years of the existence of the Edessa Academy. It is known that after Nisibin was captured by the Persians in 363, many Christians fled from there to Edessa. Among them was Mar Aprem, better known to us under the name of St. Ephraim the Syrian. He founded in Edessa the famous "school of the Persians" (i.e. refugees from Persia). “The teaching in it can be judged by the biblical commentaries of St. Ephraim... It was a school of the Semitic type, like Jewish schools, a hostel school, a kind of brotherhood. The main subject of teaching and subsequently remained the Holy Scripture. I had to learn to read and explain the Bible. The students wrote down and memorized the teacher's explanations.
During the life of St. Ephraim and for several decades after his death, the Edessa school used his interpretations of Scripture as exegetical models. However, in the year 420, Mar Kiora, one of the successors of St. Ephraim as rector of the school, decided to translate into Syriac the biblical commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia, which, unlike those of Ephraim, covered almost all books of the Bible. After the translation was completed, the interpretations of Theodore of Mopsuestia supplanted all other interpretations in the curriculum, and Theodore himself became the main authority in the field of theology and exegesis in the entire East Syriac tradition: he was called only “Blessed” or “Universal Interpreter” .
As is known, Theodore of Mopsuestia was a representative of an extremely dyophysite trend in Christology, later identified with Nestorianism. After the condemnation of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in 433, the entire East Syrian tradition was suspected of heresy. Disputes between the Monophysites and the Dyophysites swept over the Edessa school as well. In 489, the school was declared a center of Nestorianism and closed by order of Emperor Zeno. A few years before that, its leader, mar Narsai, moved to Nisibin with his students. By the end of the 5th century, the Nisibi school became one of the main spiritual and theological centers of the Syrian Church.
Mar Narsai was an outstanding personality. He lived a long life that began in the 4th and ended in the 6th century (399-501). His popularity in Nishibin was very great. He was famous both as an ascetic and as an outstanding interpreter. According to the chronicler, six qualities most of all attracted the people to him: the novelty of his thoughts, the ability to behave with dignity, a disposable appearance, responsiveness, kindness and eloquence (the beauty of his teachings). The name of Narsai is associated with the emergence of an interesting document - the "Rules of the Nisibi School", which we will consider below.
Another famous rector of the Nisibis school was Enana of Adiabene, who headed the school in 572. Under him, an attempt was made to abandon the biblical commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia, which Enana wanted to replace with those of John Chrysostom and his own. Enana was a bright personality and an outstanding theologian, but the authority of the "Ecumenical Interpreter" remained unshakable, and not only numerous theologians and monks rebelled against Enana, but also the leadership of the Syrian Church. The Local Council of this Church, convened in 585, confirmed Theodore's unshakable authority, forbidding anyone "overtly or covertly to reprove this Doctor of the Church or reject his holy books." Subsequently, two Councils, in 596 and 605, condemned the interpretations of Enana and repeated anathemas against "those who reject the comments, interpretations and teachings of the faithful teacher, the blessed Theodore the Interpreter, and who try to introduce new and strange interpretations full of madness and blasphemy" .
Enana belonged to that current in the Syrian Church that sympathized with the Council of Chalcedon: it was with this that Enana's desire to free herself from the heritage of the "father of Nestorianism", Theodore of Mopsuestia, was connected. For quite a long time in the Nisibi school, the struggle between Enana's supporters and his opponents continued. Despite the conciliar prohibitions of the end of the 6th century, Enana continued to enjoy authority at the turn of the 6th and 7th centuries, when additional rules of the Nisibi school were promulgated (we will also consider them below): there Enana is called "experienced in knowledge and glorious in humility" .
I will now say a few words about the educational process, curriculum and structure of the Edessa and Nisibis schools. Teaching lasted three years and was divided into two academic semesters - summer and winter. After the propaedeutic course, students began a systematic study of the Holy Scriptures, as well as philological, historical and theological disciplines. In addition, Greek philosophy and literature, secular history, geography and rhetoric were studied. The teacher of rhetoric had the title of mehagyana. Philosophy was studied according to primary sources: they read, in particular, the works of Aristotle, Porfiry, as well as Syrian authors. Philosophical disciplines taught "baduk"; Among the philosophical disciplines, one of the first places was occupied by logic. Classes in writing and calligraphy were conducted by "safra" - a scribe. McRayan taught the rules of reading.
The key figure in the school was "mepashkana" - an interpreter. His task was to teach biblical exegesis. Mepascana used not only the "normative" interpretations of Theodore of Mopsuestia; he could also refer to the interpretations of other Greek and Syriac authors. In addition, there was an oral tradition of interpretation that passed from generation to generation. Mepashkana was usually also the rector, that is, he carried out the general spiritual leadership of the school.
Mepashkana, the rector, was not an administrator: the "rabbaita" - housekeeper was in charge of economic and administrative issues. He was entrusted with all the property of the school, he was responsible for finances, followed discipline and was responsible for the maintenance of the library. The position of economy was elective. The steward's assistant was a xenoarch, who, in particular, was responsible for taking care of the school hospital.
Despite the fact that the rector and the housekeeper enjoyed unconditional authority, they were not the highest authority in the school, but the assembly of the community, in which both teachers and students always took part (the latter, due to their numerical advantage, had a decisive vote). At this meeting, all the most important issues related to the activities of the school were discussed. It was on it that the economy was elected. It also decided to expel one or another delinquent student from the school. All members of the community were accountable to the assembly, including the rector and housekeeper, who could not make responsible decisions without the consent of other members of the community.
This structure of the school ensured a high level of mutual trust between, on the one hand, the “teaching corporation”, and, on the other hand, the students. It was inconceivable that a student was expelled from the school on the basis of a "secret" sentence by several members of the school administration. Naturally, the attitude towards the housekeeper (who combined in one person the modern positions of inspector, assistant rector for administrative affairs and head of the library) was respectful, since he was not appointed by higher authorities, but was elected by the community itself.
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From the book Spiritual and Cultural Traditions in Russia in Their Conflict Interaction author Khoruzhy Sergey SergeevichSpiritual practice and spiritual tradition. Concept Khoruzhy: The topic of the lecture includes the word "Russia" and suggests that it will be about the spiritual and cultural traditions in Russia and how they interact. Not in general and always, but in our country. Maybe
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From the book Essays on the History of the Russian Church. Volume 2 authorIn memory of the Monk Varadat, the Hermit of Syria The Monk Varadat was a native of Antioch. Having chosen for himself the exploits of a contemplative hermit life, he first confined himself in one hut, and then after a while he retired to one high mountain and hopelessly
From the book History of the Russian Church (Synodal period) author Tsypin Vladislav"CEDAR" OF THE SYRIAN APOCALYPSE OF BARUCH *** The Apocalypse of Baruch appeared in the interval between the two Jewish uprisings (70-135), when the apocalyptic genre was already becoming obsolete in Jewish literature. The most complete version of this work has come down to us in Syriac
author Kartashev Anton Vladimirovich From the book Essays on the History of the Russian Church. Volume II author Kartashev Anton Vladimirovich From the book Essays on the History of the Russian Church. Volume II author Kartashev Anton VladimirovichTheological School All antiquity was not characterized by a bright consciousness of the school, for the assimilation of certain knowledge in the shortest possible time, by the widest possible range of students. The principle of not only the intensity of thought and its depth, but also its extensiveness, the broadest
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From the book Orthodox Theology at the Turn of the Century the author Alfeev HilarionTheological School All antiquity was not characterized by a bright consciousness of the school, for the assimilation of certain knowledge in the shortest possible time, by the widest possible range of students. The principle of not only the intensity of thought and its depth, but also its extensiveness, the broadest
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From the author's book1. The Apostolic Community as a "Spiritual School" Let's start with the apostolic community led by Jesus Christ. This community was the first New Testament school in which the disciples assimilated Divine Revelation from the mouth of God the Word incarnate Himself. It is in the assimilation of this experience and
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spiritual school
All antiquity was not characterized by a bright consciousness of the school, for the assimilation of certain knowledge in the shortest possible time, by the widest possible range of students. The principle of not only the intensity of thought and its depth, but also its extensiveness, the widest distribution and possible accessibility, even at the cost of its simplification and flatness, is the principle of a new European culture that has won our earthly "universe" with its general accessibility. Capturing us later than the Western nations for a quarter of a millennium, this process of schooling all the ramifications of life could not but run into the natural inertia of passive resistance. After the opening under Tsar Fedor of the highest school in the plan - the "Academy" in the Zaikonospassky monastery, systematic school reproduction and development did not begin immediately, despite the close example of Kyiv and southwestern Rus'. The most book-loving bishops and abbots of monasteries were zealous for "reverence for books," that is, for the reproduction of copies of ancient books kept in the libraries of a monastery or bishop's house. They were jealous of the creation of the apparatus of "partisanship". Church enlightenment stood for centuries at the level of dogmatism and random personal talents. From an excess of personal talents and from the instinct of writing, a certain increase in this “something” bookishness also happened by chance. But the thought of actively increasing it, retelling "in one's own way", and even more so teaching this "retelling" - did not arise. To teach and learn meant: - to be able to read and write and - only. Hence the strangeness of the general impression of the Russian Middle Ages, which was prolonged from the Tatar yoke, as if Russian monasticism and bishops, enriching the believing people with literacy alone, were stingy, regretted spending material resources on schools and at the same time spent them on church construction, on decorating churches and on their own. rich noble life. Such an explanation of the centuries-old Russian lack of schooling would be a slander on the energy of monastic piety and zeal that never fell asleep, not to mention the heroes of holiness and heroism. No, just the category of the development of the mind, thought, science and human earthly culture in general was absent from the teachings of the Orthodox Church. Zeal for culture belonged to the concerns of this world. This is the business of the kings and the state. The Church accepted this under its own control and with its own conditions. But she did not consider it her direct "business". Here is the "minimum" of enlightenment, thought and bookishness necessary for the cult, she cherished and carried safely through all the centuries devastation, military defeats and national disasters. On the fund of education preserved by the church, peoples and states could easily build their common secular, utilitarian education. So it was in fact in the East and especially here in Rus'.
Byzantine Christian enlightenment, which still flourished on the roots of antiquity, has been extinguished by the power of Islam. Only the onset of Latinism, armed with a school, prompted the Eastern hierarchs to cry out about the creation of a school in Russia for the entire East. The Latin offensive in southwestern Rus' forced the latter, whether you like it or not, to create church schools. And yet, these demands of the time did not find a strong-willed response in Moscow - III Rome. It was precisely the detachment from the highly learned but heretical West that experimentally, visually justified, sometimes unspoken, but deeply rooted in the Russian Orthodox heart, the conviction that culture is not at all necessary for the salvation of the soul, that it is an extraneous matter for the Church, even tolerable, but in any seductive case.
Thus, the theological school and the new Orthodox literature throughout the East, but especially characteristically in Russia, were not considered an indisputable church value and did not enter into the consciousness of the hierarchal and monastic vocation and duty, even in the sense of simple ambition and ostentatious merit in public opinion. The banner of the newborn Old Believers surrounded the universal church schoollessness with an aura of some traditional virtue and did not make it easier for possible zealots of schooling to go against this primordial trait of Russian piety. In a word, it was difficult, even unnatural, to awaken the Russian hierarchy and Russian monasteries to the pathos of school activity. Neither the mind nor the heart of the Russian monk and bishop said anything about the call to science and school. It was not materialism, not selfish hoarding and selfish gluttony that made the Russian hierarchy deaf and incapable of advancing the cause of school theological enlightenment, but honest conservatism and almost fanaticism of schoollessness. The last, typically traditional, schoolless and anti-school Patriarch Adrian watched with indifference as before his eyes the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow was destroyed in every sense and came to naught.
In order to create a theological school in such an atmosphere hostile to mysticism, the "club" of Peter was inevitable. But the club is not a creative force. Since there was no creative force in Moscow, it was necessary to take it on the side. This is where the almost inevitable call came from outside, from the Kiev region, to Great Russia of school Vikings, who in their own virtuous way fulfilled their historical duty.
***
What else could Peter the Great have done to plant "enlightenment" in general, including special ecclesiastical, theological enlightenment, but to borrow it from outside? Fortunately, this borrowing did not come from someone else's, but from its own Russian source. Only by a play of historical accidents, he was temporarily fenced off from the younger center, however, by the will of fate, now set up by the collector of the great empire. The source was the Kyiv school - a copy from the Latin-Polish sample. Bookish people from the Kiev region and southern schools poured into the Moscow region in a significant wave after 1654. After the death of Patriarch Adrian (1700), a typical Great Russian opponent of his Western reforms, Peter V. school in the hands of the people of Kiev. And he honored (1701) the Kyiv school with the name of the Academy in comparison with the withered Academy in Moscow. He handed over the latter to the care of the newly arrived from Kyiv simply for the episcopal consecration to Stefan (Yavorsky). To Stefan, he, in an exceptional manner, temporarily entrusted all church affairs and the decaying Academy in particular. Stefan simply copied all the orders of Kyiv, invited Kyiv teachers, with Kyiv textbooks, dividing students into classes and teaching everything in Latin.
According to this example and direct directives from Met. Stephen, his countrymen - the southerners - were inspired to sincerely open schools in their dioceses, to which the Great Russians did not immediately "swing". Already in 1700, Archbishop John (Maximovich, now canonized) opened a school in Chernigov. In Rostov Yaroslavl in 1702 Bishop. Demetrius (Tuptalo, also canonized). In Tobolsk (1703) Metropolitan. Filofei (Leshchinsky, also a Little Russian). In Novgorod in 1706 Metropolitan. Job - Great Russian. Job of Novgorod, like Athanasius Kholmogorsky, the schoolless Great Russians themselves, belonged to that breed of people of great common sense who overcame the narrow obscurantism of their environment. These people were a joy to the "enlightened" Peter, and he distinguished and appreciated them.
Still, there was no voluntary attraction to school. The stick of the law was needed. And so, in order to ensure an influx of students, a law is being issued: the children of the clergy are no longer allowed to take church positions until they have passed a single step of a special theological school. And the civil government helped this “corral” to the theological school by immediately declaring in the law that without certificates from the theological school, priests would henceforth not be accepted into any “civil service ranks”, except, of course, the “soldier rank”, which is practically frightened off almost on a par with the entry into serfdom.
But since regular theological seminaries were still slowly being created in various dioceses, the Petrine government, itself interested in accelerating the pace of public education, ordered, in parallel with special church seminaries, to open elementary general education schools, so-called. "digital". Children of all classes were invited to these schools, and the children of the clergy without exception, without fail. Who among the children of the clergy evaded, he was threatened with compulsory soldiery, and, in case of malice, and entry into the capitation salary. It's good if on state land, or even in landowner slavery. And those who have not even passed this "tsifiri" are forbidden to issue even a marriage license. You can blame Peter the Great for the cruelty of his construction, school, military enterprises. But you also need to understand it. Our historian Golubinsky, citing the testimony of the chronicler about the tears of mothers of the advanced Russian estates, who wept for their children as if they were dead, when St. Vladimir mobilized them for aristocratic school preparation for the highest state and church service, he is sadly surprised at this spontaneous resistance to the light of science and then blames his people for his lack of taste for school throughout his subsequent history. It must be admitted that, despite all the extremes of Golubinsky's conclusions, there is something accurately noticed in the character of the Russian people in this observation of his. it is not so easy to mechanically apply methods of government to such a people, which are suitable for many other peoples.
The year 1721 came. The patriarchate was abolished. At the head of the management of church affairs, a state body was placed - the Holy Synod. Its constitution - the Spiritual Regulations - now prescribed on behalf of the supreme authority: in each diocese to open a bishops' school "for the children of the priests or others, in the hope of a certain priesthood." And this is for a special appropriation from the income of the bishop's house. Considering that no small amount of money is needed, the regulations also establish a new tax in kind for this purpose. This means is always heroic. But here the tax is indicated in a very high percentage: collect 30% bread from church lands and 20% from monastic and bishops' lands.
It could be said in advance that such a "heroic" tax could not be realized, and the programmatic height of school disciplines would not be reached soon, with the exception of rare exceptions. And so it happened. This is what Feofan wrote in the Spiritual Regulations.
Feofanov's school, by today's standards, is a secondary school, and even, according to the Kyiv example, a secondary higher school. Elementary literacy is tacitly assumed to have already been passed, whether in digital schools, or anywhere. Here is the content of the steps - years - classes at Theophanes: Year I - grammar, geography, history; II - arithmetic and geometry; III - logic and dialectics; IV - rhetoric and piitika; V - physics and metaphysics; VI - politics. Metaphysics can be transferred to this class; VII - VIII classes are devoted to theology. Languages are taught all the time: Church Slavonic, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. For educational purposes, a hostel system is being introduced "in the image of a monastery", completely unknown to Moscow. The rector, prefect, overseers and students live together. Pupils, if possible, are separated from the free home environment and rarely see their relatives. "From such education and teaching, one can truly hope for great benefit to the fatherland."
According to the program of the Regulations, new schools began to open: two in St. Petersburg. Metropolitan Theodosius (Yanovsky) opened a seminary in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in the capital. Feofan Prokopovich, who was at that time the Archbishop of Pskov, but was a Permanent Member of the Synod and, at the request of Peter, built himself a wooden house in St. Petersburg on the river. Karpovka, where he also built wooden buildings for the seminary. These two metropolitan seminaries, and they were joined in Nizhny Novgorod, were the first to be opened under the Spirit program. Regulations. But they, like other episcopal schools both before and after this year, were not yet complete. They grew as teachers and students were found. In 1722 theological schools were opened in Tver, in Belgorod. In 1723 - in Kazan, Vyatka, Kholmogory, Kolomna. In 1724 in Ryazan, in Vologda. The Synod watched over them through its Office of Schools and Printing Houses. Since the opening of these seminaries, the clergy were obliged to send their children to them instead of the previous obligation to enroll them in digital schools. And these latter, since they were maintained by bishops, were closed and merged with new theological schools. Universal "school duty" for children of the clergy was confirmed by the decree of the Synod (1723), with reference to the "will of the Sovereign", that parents for evasion are deprived of their posts, and children are recorded in a capitation salary.
Despite the formidable laws, the new spiritual and school work did not find sympathy in the very clergy of Great Russia. It seemed to be a "foreign" affair, not only because it was practically handed over to the Little Russians, as it were, but also was presented in the shell of the Latin heretical language. It was difficult for the Great Russian to overcome this instinctive repulsion from Latin, to which the Little Russians had long been accustomed. The children of the clergy were taken to the diocesan city for a school review, semi-examined, sorted out according to their abilities. But it was not possible to collect everyone. They were hidden by both relatives and strangers. The agents of the Monastery Order searched for the fugitives and brought them in as prisoners in shackles. Others pretended to be fools. Knowing this method of deceit, once done by David, in order not to fall into the hands of the Philistines, the Spiritual Regulations ordered that these deserters of science be subjected to a year's trial. The clergy and monasteries themselves sabotaged the grain collections laid down for the maintenance of theological schools. And the authorities that established the schools were powerless to supply them with a sufficient number of teachers. The Synod itself, sensing its impotence, allowed the new theological schools to be content with grammar, arithmetic and a short catechism so that the whole thing would not fail. Not to Latin, not to Greek! With such almost spontaneous passive resistance, it is not surprising that after the death of Peter the Great, a number of these rudimentary seminaries simply fell into disrepair and closed. Against the background of this instinctive everyday sabotage of the theological school by the Great Russian clergy, it is not surprising that in the post-Petrine stagnation only the Little Russian hierarchs were distinguished by special theological school activism. Ep. Gabriel (Buzhinsky) restored the decayed seminary in Ryazan, ep. Gideon (Vishnevsky) - in Smolensk. Bishops of Irkutsk - Innokenty (Kulchitsky - canonized) and Innokenty (Nerunovich) opened schools in their distant Siberia. In Pskov in 1725 he opened a theological school, Bishop. Raphael (Zaborovsky). Bishop in Kharkov Epiphany Tikhorsky opened a collegium in 1726, which then developed brilliantly.
With the accession of Anna Ioannovna (1730), Feofan (Prokopovich) became the "dictator" of church affairs. He made special efforts to realize as much as possible his dreams of a theological school, set forth by him in Spirits. Regulations. Already in the manifesto on her accession, the new empress indicated - in all dioceses to open theological schools in accordance with the letter of the Spirits. Regulations. And since forced openings in all dioceses were limited to very elementary schools, a new nominal decree of 1737 demanded that they everywhere introduce a course of secondary educational institutions in relation to the Spirit. Regulations and made annual reports to the Synod. Bishops' schools were transformed into "Slavo-Latin seminaries". An example was the Kyiv Academy. And the "Slavic-Russian" schools that had developed became the lowest preparatory schools for secondary schools, that is, for seminaries. This was how the prototype of the future "spiritual schools" of the 19th century was formed. By the end of the reign of Anna Ivanovna (1740), there were already 17 seminaries of the secondary school type. However, this was only a "type" of secondary schools, but not the completeness of their subjects and levels. There were not enough teachers or financial means. Even Anna's "cabinet" government, which took control of the entire economy of church lands, was convinced in practice that it was beyond the strength of the bishops to develop a full program of theological schools, even only from the material side. In 1738, the question of state "states" for seminaries was raised for the first time. But "temporarily and for the time being" only three "prominent" seminaries received various appropriations: St. Petersburg Neva, Novgorod and Kazan. Anninsky's cruel "analysis" reduced the number of candidates for seminaries; this was met by the lack of teachers themselves. So in fact it turned out that it was necessary to recruit students into schools by force and they could hardly teach them grammar, not even reaching rhetoric, not to mention philosophy. Only in the Kharkov Collegium did they rise to the level of theology.
Under the pious Empress Elizabeth, only two academies, Kievan and Moscow, retained their staff allowance. But the ecclesiastical authorities, which again received the old land holdings under their control, received better opportunities to raise funds for the development of theological schools. Indeed, by the time of the reign of Peter III and Catherine II, 8 more new seminaries were opened, and their total number grew to 26 with a total number of students of 6,000. But many of them have not yet reached the level of theological classes. The first place in terms of the number of students was still occupied by the Academy in Kyiv. In the middle of the 18th century, there were 1,200 students there, while in Moscow there were at most 600, and in some years only 200.
Simultaneously, with this growth of theological schools, there was a spontaneous turning point in the essence of school theology itself. In addition to the borrowing by Moscow from Kyiv of the Latin-Roman interpretation of dogma and morality, which dominated there both in form and essence, already under Peter the Great, the school struggle between the dominant Roman Catholic and Protestant trends was transferred to us from the same Kyiv source. Feofan Prokopovich was a prominent representative of the last minority trend in Great Russia. If he had not been a "charmer" for Peter V. in the matter of church practice, the Latin-Roman direction of all school theology could have prevailed for a long time. Moreover, to the schoolless Moscow zealots of all ranks, the pathos of the Latinizing Kyivans seemed more dear, more Orthodox than Peter's heretical Germanism, which blew from Feofan, a friend of Peter and Anninsky's Germans.
But the victory of the talented Feofan and his Protestant direction was won by him on Kyiv soil, because there he found both his sympathetic response and his school continuation. The fight was moved in flagrante to Moscow. And here, in the younger generation of theologians, spontaneous instinct, instinctively, decided in the direction of preferring the Feofanovsky concept, despite its obvious "excesses" for the students themselves in the direction of Protestantism.
The old Kyiv professors, Theophylact (Lopatinsky), Joasaph (Krokovsky) followed Aristotle in philosophy, and Thomas Aquinas in theology. The new ones chose Baumeister and a new philosophy: Descartes, Leibniz, Wolff. Following the example of Theophan, professors - Sylvester (Kulyabko) and George (Konissky) read theology already under the anti-Latin guidance of the Protestants, but all in the same common European Latin. The Orthodox confession of faith of Peter (Mohyla) was studied according to its Latin text. And only in 1759, at the direction of the Kyiv Metropolitan Arseniy (Mogilyansky), they began to cram his text in a Russified Church Slavonic transcription. From Kyiv, this new trend of delatynization and Russification of theological science was even more readily accepted in the Moscow "Academy" by its teachers, who came from the same Kiev region. The turn from the Roman Catholic monopoly in the school took place irrevocably, but it was slow until the new local theologians, the Great Russians, grew up and became stronger.
With the accession to the throne of Catherine II, the Great Russian hierarchs, who were ready to accept the secularization of immovable church property, rightly expected to receive serious compensation for their readiness for this reform from the state budget for the reconstruction, in particular, of theological schools. By the hand of secular secularizers, a merciless description of the then state of theological schools was inscribed on behalf of Catherine II in the instructions of the Commission on church estates in 1762: “Forty years have passed since their appearance, but even to this time, bishops’ seminaries consist of a very small number of worthy and reliable students, in a poor institution for the sciences and in a poor content.The seminarians of today are usually taught in some places Latin and Greek from inexperienced teachers, they do not know other teachings, as soon as the very first and school foundations of the Latin language: they do not study either the philosophical and moral sciences, they do not know the history of the church, nor civil, is lower than the position of the circle of the earth and the places in which, in the reasoning of other peoples, they live. They are recruited in the seminary from their fathers and mothers, for the most part in captivity and are kept indiscriminately.
This gloomy characterization served as a preface to the ensuing commission of a special commission under St. Synod to draw up a plan for the transformation of theological schools. The commission was made up of people of a new hierarchical shift, from the Great Russians: Bishop Gabriel (Petrov) of Tver, Innokenty (Nechaev) of Pskov, and Hieromonk Platon (Levshin). The commission, apparently, was in a "great-power" mood. The Moscow Academy is supposed to be freed from middle school classes, reduced only to the highest course of theological disciplines and called the Theological University. Leave Kievskaya as it was. And the secondary schools-seminaries are divided into two categories, into senior seminaries - in St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Yaroslavl and Kazan, and into junior seminaries in all other dioceses. The latter were conceived as ordinary schools for the preparation of an ordinary parish priesthood. But just as the junior seminaries were devoted to the disciplines of the church and general education at the secondary school level, then for the passage of primary literacy, and in this case, not only the children of the clergy, but also all others, it is assumed in each diocese, with 3-4 monasteries, to establish lower schools, primary with the pretentious name of "gymnasium". These junior schools were already conceived not as class-based, but open to everyone and serving the national tasks of public education in general. This idea of serving the enlightenment of the people is generally carried out in the project and even deeper, to the end. For the sake of the systematic and all-encompassing, enlightening influence of the church on the people's soul, this project includes the idea that at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. gave grounds for a political struggle against parochial schools and for the monopoly of zemstvo schools. Here our Catherine's Great Russian hierarchs showed sensitivity and perspicacity, fearing unfavorable consequences for the Christianization of the soul of the people and the Peter's and Catherine's banner of "enlightenment". They realized that the lower public school should not go completely into secular hands. Therefore, our Great Russian hierarchs designed to bring the elementary school closer to the village lower classes of the people, but the material costs for this, in addition to the labor of teaching, should be entirely covered by church funds. It was suggested that these public schools be set up in the deaneries under the close supervision of the deans. And entrust the highest supervision of all school affairs to one of the members of the Synod. In the outlined project, the Catherine's government (unlike the new era of Alexander III and Nicholas II) did not see anything hostile to itself, even rejoiced at this zeal of the clergy - to sacrificially contribute to public education and instructed to re-examine this project of specially lower parochial schools.
But, like many broadcast plans of Catherine II, the entire project described was not accepted by the government for implementation. However, his "charge" was not in vain. Muscovite hierarchs, now deprived of landownership, strove all the more zealously for regular salaries for theological schools and their increases as they grew internally and multiplied in number. The first states after the selection of church estates for schools from the treasury in 1763 were reduced to 40,000 rubles. in year. In 1784 they were raised to 77,500 rubles. The seminary accounted for 2,000 rubles a year. Teachers received 150 rubles. in year. There were few devotees of such a teacher's salary. And even for these workers, the established beggarly system of teaching did not give them the opportunity to strengthen their specialization in the sciences. One teacher, or at most two or three, led their class through all the levels of the school. Moving to the upper class, they undertook to teach new disciplines in this class, etc. Schools below seminaries, called "district" schools under Catherine II, were not at all provided by the treasury. As before, the bishops and clergy contrived to support them with their own household means. At the same time, there could not be one program level of teaching. There were no identical funds, nor the same required teaching staff. In some seminaries, the school course was completed at 8 years old, in others at 13 (!). Be that as it may, theology was now taught everywhere. And here is another result of new pedagogical trends, Great Russian "modernism": separation from Latin in philosophy and theology, teaching them in their own Russian language. The course of theology of Plato (Levshin), written in Russian, became a textbook of theology. The discipline and punishment system has been modernized based on the "noble ambition" of the students.
Through the efforts of Platon (Levshin), teacher, prefect, rector and high leader, the Moscow Academy and the Trinity Seminary were raised above the level of the conservative-provincial Kyiv Academy. In 1788, the St. Petersburg Seminary according to the plan of Met. Gabriela (Petrova) was also improved in the completeness of the taught disciplines in parallel with the newly opened Pedagogical Seminary. The SPB Main Seminary set as its task the systematic training of teachers for ordinary seminaries. And therefore, Mr. Gabriel asked the Synod for the right for his seminary to annually call from all the provincial seminaries one or two capable students. In the order of this very call from the Vladimir-Suzdal Seminary, by virtue of this establishment in the St. Petersburg Alexander Nevsky Main Seminary, the famous M. M. Speransky appeared as a capable student, a brilliant teacher, and then a Secretary of State and Count.
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This is a jubilee year for the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary - Kyiv theological schools are celebrating their 400th anniversary. We bring to your attention a selection of 10 theological educational institutions of the Orthodox Church around the world.
Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary
Kyiv Theological Academy is the oldest higher educational institution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Located in Kyiv on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. It has a history dating back to the beginning of the 17th century.
St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy and Seminary
The St. Petersburg Theological Academy is one of the higher educational institutions of the Russian Church, founded in St. Petersburg since 1721.
At present, it is a complex of spiritual and educational institutions, united by the code name St. Petersburg theological schools.
Today St. Petersburg Theological Schools include: the Theological Academy, the Theological Seminary, the regency and icon-painting departments, the faculty of foreign students.
Currently, students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Greece, China, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Thailand, Finland, Montenegro, Sweden, Estonia study at the Faculty and one student from Norway is studying.
Moscow Theological Academy
Official name of the organization: Religious organization - spiritual educational organization of higher education "MOSCOW SPIRITUAL ACADEMY OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH"
The founder of the MDA is the Orthodox religious organization Russian Orthodox Church. The MDA is accountable to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' and the Holy Synod.
Founded in 1685 and originally called the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, the Moscow Theological Academy (hereinafter referred to as the Academy) is the first higher school in Russia and one of the centers for the development of Orthodox education and church science in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Higher Spiritual Academy of Athens
The Higher Theological Academy of Athens is the official educational institution of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Academy provides higher education, on a par with higher education institutions administered by the Greek Ministry of Education.
Pochaev Theological Seminary
Pochaev Theological Seminary is one of the youngest theological schools of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It was founded in 1925 on the territory of the Pochaev Lavra in the form of a monastic theological school with a three-year course of study, in which novices and monks of the Pochaev Lavra initially studied.
Theological Institute of Saint John of Damascus
The Theological Institute of St. John of Damascus is a theological educational institution of the Orthodox Church of Antioch, located in the Balamand Monastery. Operates as a faculty of Balamand University.
Tbilisi Theological Academy
Tbilisi Theological Academy - a higher educational institution Georgian Orthodox Church, founded in 1988 on the basis of the Mtskheta Theological Seminary, which has been operating since 1963. The Tbilisi Theological Academy trains priests and theologians. In 2005, the Faculty of Icon Painting and Restoration was opened at the Academy.
Theological Academy in Thessaloniki
Theological Academy
in Thessaloniki is one of higher schools of Greek public sector.clergymen and lay students learn in accordance with high standards, the diploma of the Academy corresponds to any other Greek university.
Sofia University named after St. Kliment Ohridski
Sofia University is the oldest institution of higher education in Bulgaria. St. Clement of Ohrid is one of the founders of Slavic writing, the patron saint of Sofia University. Kliment Ohridski University was founded in 1888, 10 years after the liberation of Bulgaria. Rector - Ivan Ilchev. 3 departments, 16 faculties, own publishing house, the latest computer and sports centers, 14 thousand students.
Karlovac Theological Seminary in Serbia
The Seminary of St. Arseniy Sremac in Sremski Karlovci is a theological seminary of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is one of the oldest and most important educational institutions among the Serbs.
The first Serbian Orthodox seminary, also called the old Karlovac Seminary, was founded by Metropolitan Stefan (Stratimirovic) in 1794, 3 years after its founding of the Karlovac Gymnasium.
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