Catechetical enlightenment in the tradition of the Russian Church in the 18th and 19th centuries: based on catechetical literature

Abstract

This article examines the situation of catechetical teaching of the faith in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Russian Church could not fully adopt the catechetical tradition of Byzantium, which had already died out by the 10th century. In the 18th century, however, Russia began to rethink the task of spiritual enlightenment of the Russian people. The Holy Synod paid a great deal of attention to this, issuing a number of decrees on the need to not only teach the Law of God in school, but also to introduce public preaching for the congregation. Thus, during the synodal period, various kinds of catechetical texts were created, a significant part of which had the character of a manual for the teaching of catechism. In the 19th century they drew on the “Extensive Catechism” by Mitr. Filaret (Drozdov), noting its insufficiency for the younger generation and compensating for its dryness and brevity. Apart from this, in accordance with the decisions of the Synod, cycles of catechetical sermons are created, whose the authors set themselves the task of a brief but holistic presentation of the foundations of the Orthodox faith. An important feature of many of the texts under consideration is the correlation of faith and life, calling on readers to put their knowledge of faith into their daily practice. Of particular interest here are the works by Grigory Diachenko, “Lessons and Examples of Christian Hope”, as well as Ioann Zarkevich’s “Essays on the Teaching of the Christian Faith”, which deal in different ways with the adaptation of the material of the “Extensive Catechism”.

Keywords

• catechetics
• catechetical instructions
• catechetical sermon
• catechism
• catechesis
• enlightenment
• the most holy governing synod
• the law of god