Shokhin Vladimir

Philosolhical and Theological Discourse and Defnitions of Dogmata in Spiritual and Academic School of Synodal Period

Abstract

This article outlines the defi nitions of the dogmata in the most infl uential and mainstream tradition in Russian theology of the Synodal period, beginning from the “Dogmatic Theology” (Russ. Догматическое богословие) by archimandrite (future archbishop) Antony (Amfi teatrov) (1848) and concluding with the benchmarking article by Alexey Vvedensky “The Issue of Methodological Reform of Orthodox Dogmatics” (1904; Russ. К вопросу о методологической реформе православной догматики). The article shows that certain well-known modern handbooks in dogmatics render synodal interpretations. The article also reconstructs three aspects in understanding of the dogmata in the academic spiritual school. These are termed aletheological, institutional, and soteriological; attention is paid to discording opinions of spiritual and academic experts which manifested themselves most vividly at the end of the 19th — beginning of the 20th centuries. Besides, the “synodal defi nitions” and understandings of the dogmata come to be an object of critical analysis, particularly with regard to the lack of both historism and attention to the humanistic side of the synergetic nature of the “matter” of the dogmata on the whole.

Keywords

philosophical theology, Christian dogmata, dogmatics, theological academies, Synodal period, theory of doctrinal development, Pope’s infallibility, inerrancy of Bible, caesaropapism

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Information about the author

Shokhin Vladimir

Academic Degree: Doctor of Sciences* in Philosophy;
Academic Rank: Professor;
Place of work: Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences; Goncharnaya Str. 12/1, Moscow 109240, Russian Federation;
Post: Head of the Sector of Philosophy of Religion;
ORCID: 0000-0002-2111-8740;
Email: vladshokhin@yandex.ru.

*According to ISCED 2011, a post-doctoral degree called Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) is given to reflect second advanced research qualifications or higher doctorates.