Teaching the Law of God and the use of catechetical literature in gymnasiums and other secondary secular institutions of the Russian Empire in the 19 th — early 20 th century

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of teaching the Law of God in gymnasiums and other secondary educational institutions of the Russian Empire during the 19th — early 20th century and attempts to regulate it on the part of the state and church authorities. During this period, the subject was introduced as mandatory, but the results of its teaching constantly caused complaints from both students and teachers. For a century there was a search for the most favourable forms and methods of teaching the Law of God. The Catechism of Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov), created at this time, was met with criticism and was edited several times by the author, and each revision solved some problems, but at the same time posed new ones. In this regard, numerous attempts were attested to create various kinds of manuals based on Metropolitan Philaret’s Catechism which was approved by the programme. However, until the Bolshevik seizure of power, when the teaching of the Law of God was cancelled, its critics argued that the study of this subject never achieved its main goal of training people who would be religiously educated, moral and faithful servants of the Church and Fatherland. The discussion was interrupted by the Bolsheviks’ abolition of the very subject of the Law of God in educational institutions, and therefore left open the question of how the course could achieve its goal.

Keywords

• the law of god
• catechism
• ministry of public education
• christian pedagogy
• orthodox gymnasiums