Christian Psychology in Russia: its «History» and «Geography». The First Article: an Attempt of Periodization

Abstract

In 1990, when after decades of atheistic press Russian psychology was able to return back to discussions on religious problems, a lot of debates broke out concerning the possibility of «Christian psychology». The debates still continue to burst out, while during the past quarter of century Christian psychology grew into a whole variety of different researches, educational programs, psychological services. A demand of methodological reflection of this field, of its «history» and «geography» arose. Spe- cifically, on the one hand, a need in reflection of its developmental stages, and on the other, a map of the subject-thematical regions and methodological approaches in it. Current article solves the first task, it is an attempt in making a periodization of Rus- sian Christian psychology, which takes into account only the newest, post-soviet his- tory. A hypothesis is proposed, that the periodization has three stages («inspiration», «institutionalization» and «constitution»), each of these addresses specific tasks. It is concluded that in the present moment the most essential task is of constituting the Christian psychology as methodological wholeness, which includes in itself a variety of research, educational and practical projects.

Keywords

• Christian psychology
• periodization
• institutionalization
• constitution
• project