Theological school in the enlightening activities of Metropolitan Eugene (Bolkhovitinov)
Abstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of the ideas of metropolitan Eugene (Bolkhovitinov) about the theological school, realized in his educational activities. The author sets himself the task of comparing the views of two religious enlighteners of metropolitan Eugene (Bolkhovitinov) and his mentor metropolitan Platon (Levshin) on the theological school of the and identify their interrelation. Two bishop went through the same school. metropolitan Platon (Levshin) studied at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (1746-1757), taught Latin and Russian poetry there (1757-1758), and in 1775 was appointed its director. One of the students of the Academy and metropolitan Platon (Levshin) in 1785-1788 was Evfimy Bolkhovitinov, later metropolitan Eugene. Platon strove to bring the education of future pastors of the Church beyond the framework of narrow-class. For this purpose, new academic subjects were introduced at the Academy, new forms and methods of teaching were introduced. One of the ways to broaden the horizons of students was to send students to Moscow University, where they listened to lectures by European scientists, improved their knowledge of foreign languages, and received literary and translation experience. The Moscow Academy was one of the centers for the formation of Russian scholarly monasticism. Its director, Archbishop Platon considered monastic solitude and spiritual concentration as the most favorable conditions for scientific work. He persistently inclined to monasticism those pupils in whom he noticed the necessary qualities for scientific work. Archbishop's Platon pupils held important church posts and continued the work of their mentor to develop the system of theological education in different parts of Russia. Evfimiy Bolkhovitinov was one of such pupils, but he took monasticism not at the Academy, but ten years after its graduation. Formed during his student years at the Moscow Academy, Bolkhovitinov's ideas about the nature of theological education, he implemented in theological schools of Voronezh, Petersburg, Novgorod, Vologda, Kaluga, Pskov and Kiev. Metropolitan Eugene was the author of one of the projects of the reform of theological education in 1804, a member of the Commission of theological schools (1825-1837). Eugene's educational activity consisted mainly in the development of the scientific direction of theological schools and his own contribution to church history.
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