Волинський благовісник (Oct 2020)
Hermohen Shymanskyi, professor at the Volyn theological seminary, a prominent ukrainian liturgist and theologian of the 20th century
Abstract
Hermohen (Ivanovych) Shymanskyi is one of the most outstanding national theologians and liturgists of the 20th century. The most productive period of his work in the realm of theology and liturgics is known to be the 1950s and 60s. Little information is available about this scholar, yet even the scarce data from the historiographic sources suggest that Hermohen Shymanskyi possessed remarkable religious knowledge and skills and may definitely be named one of the most popular national Orthodox theologians of the 20th century. However, he did not devote himself to theology straight from the beginning of his professional career, which was quite natural in view of the circumstances of life under the godless totalitarian regime. Before entering the Theological Institute in Moscow in 1945, H.I. Shymanskyi had led a life of an ordinary Soviet citizen. After finishing a secondary school, he entered the Vocational School of Mechanization in Ananyiv, Odessa Region. After the successful graduation from the vocational school, he studied at Kharkiv Institute of Engineering, became a postgraduate student there and a scientific associate at the Department of Tractor Building. In the two years of his postgraduate studies, H.I. Shymanskyi managed to pass all the necessary qualifying examinations for a Candidate’s degree, including those in a number of humanities, for instance, philosophy, psychology, English, and German, which later became of significant use to him in the study of theology. In 1951, Hermohen Shymanskyi successfully defended his thesis for a Candidate’s degree at Moscow Theological Academy under the title “Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation in Liturgical Books”. The thesis was highly evaluated by the Academic Council of Moscow Theological Academy. Immediately after that, H.I. Shymanskyi was sent to Kyiv Theological Seminary to teach there. It is while teaching liturgics in Kyiv that H.I. Shymanskyi actively worked on a textbook on this subject. His major theological interest lay in the research of the Orthodox public worship. After the closing of Kyiv Theological Seminary in 1959, H.I. Shymanskyi continued his pedagogical activities at the Volyn Theological Seminary. After two years of teaching there, he went back to Kyiv due to the deterioration of his health. He lived in Kyiv till the end of his life in 1970 and worked on a major theological study “The Teaching of the Holy Fathers and the Church Adherents on the Main Temptations and How to Fight Them and on the Main Christian Virtues”. H.I. Shymanskyi’s life and theological and liturgical oeuvre have been little researched so far, both in secular studies and in theological works. This lack and limitedness of studies and historical sources about the prominent national theologian and liturgist requires new research about the scholar. It is especially topical nowadays, in view of the revival and the general promotion of the liturgical heritage of the famous Ukrainian liturgists as well as the general interest of the contemporary Ukrainian society in liturgics and theology. In the long run, this article may become the beginning of a profound theological analysis of other aspects of H.I. Shymanskyi’s life and theological and liturgical oeuvre and activity. The factual material, observations, and conclusions of the article may further be used in scientific and theological research, in teaching the courses of history of the Volyn and Kyiv Theological Seminary, in teaching liturgics and moral theology, in compiling textbooks and their sections, in students’ research, ministerial practice, etc.
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