Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

5-16

Authors: Boris F. Kolymagin

The article deals with the theme of the Holy Land based on the material of Russian poetry of the 1960s–1980s. In the literature of this time, Palestine appears in the context of religious search. Poets, as a rule, speak about the Promised Land, relying on works of art. Palestine often emerges as a sacred place. It is indicated with sacred points. Tabor, Bethlehem, Galilee and, of course, Jerusalem make up sacred geography. It is interesting that in the texts of the poets the Holy Land invisibly, and sometimes even visibly, is connected with Soviet everyday life. At the same time, some of them managed to visit Israel and write poems based on their observations and experiences.

37-56

Authors: Alexandr G. Grouchevoy

The history of the Russian Orthodox schools in Syria and Palestine came to its end a few days before the First World War. Adoption of a well-thought-out school plan for pedagogical seminaries in Nazareth and Beit Jala was its last episode. World War I made realization of this plan impossible. Nevertheless, this project is still interesting in our days for several reasons. The Society has made an excellent teaching plan that corresponded to the level of the scientific knowledge of that time. This elaborated final plan of teaching shows significant advancement comparing to the first ideas about organization of teaching and learning process in the Russian orthodox schools. It proves that Russian officials were truly thoughtful for the demands of local Christian population. The most radical teaching plan can be found in the note by I.Iu. Krachkovsky, a young Arabist at the time. He considered the aim of Russian schools to be to help Arab-Christian population to comprehend themselves in connection with their language, culture and faith. The history of constructing the new schools program for the Society Seminaries in 1909–1914 casts a new light on some Russian Empire officials. They appeared to be genuinely interested in the development of Russian scholarship and capable of serving Russian state interests in the Near East.

66-98

Authors: Morten Bøsterud

Christian exegesis is based on philosophical positions comprising ontology and epistemology. Within different Christian denominations the views on what are acceptable sources for learning Christian truths varies, and with it the position on epistemology. This article presents a praxis oriented Reformed epistemology that draws on historical lines comprising the pagan philosophers of antiquity, Christian thinkers, as well as secular thinkers including the modern and postmodern paradigm. From this, a coherent yet not comprehensive systematic for the establishment of a Reformed practical interpretive exegetical platform is demonstrated. Core philosophical concepts are clarified and linked to the historical development of western philosophical thought. How these concepts are connected to systematic interrogation of scriptural sources is clarified and expressed in an exegetical context. Trajectories for scriptural interpretation based on biblical assumptions are outlined, and their application in connection with practical application among the human family for real-life use in the human experience is highlighted in a wider philosophical context. With the author’s main research interests to be found within the theological fields of ethics and pastoral studies, the article makes clear that the presentation of a Reformed epistemology contextually is established within the realm of these academic disciplines. The article concludes that Reformed epistemology remains holistic, agile, in continuous conversation with human reality, and represents a model in a state of constant becoming open to influences whether they be informed by secular or ecclesiastical sources.

111-178

Authors: Inna G. Menkova

Seventeen years ago, the consideration of the Synodal Commission for the Canonization of Saints was offered a biography of the priest Michael Kritskiy, who was shot by a guard. But since there is a version according to which the priest tried to escape, Father Michael was declared a suicide and was not numbered among the holy martyrs. Over the following years, a lot of materials were collected about his life path and death, completing the initial information. Father Mikhail belonged to the family of hereditary rural priests, who were well aware of the problems of the material and spiritual condition of the peasants. He also saw how they affected the attitude of the people to the Church, he knew that the clergy led at times a beggarly existence. All this did not stop Mikhail from choosing the path of life. Having assumed the priesthood, he was called to help these very hardened people, now entrusted by the Providence of God to his spiritual care. The priest was an ardent man, faithful to God to the depths of his heart. Together with his parishioners, Father Mikhail went through the most difficult periods in the history of the Russian state and the Church at the beginning of the 20th century. His selfless pastoral care for people in an atmosphere of spiritual mortification, bitterness, and sometimes aggression, his labors to improve the moral state of the people and the churching of fallen parishioners were a daily feat. State and church events soon demanded a wide participation of the clergy in public life, and Fr. Mikhail was involved in educational and anti-schismatic activities, which he conducted with considerable success. The priest turned out to be a talented preacher. He was also elected a deputy of diocesan congresses. Then, for the first time, his spiritual gifts manifested themselves: the ability to foresee future events and control what was happening at an unattainable distance, which the priest covered with some foolishness. The decree of the Soviet government on the separation of church from state became an incentive for an all-Russian church pogrom. The property of the Church, deprived of the rights of a legal entity and, consequently, of all civil rights, was plundered, and the clergy were destroyed by lynching. During this period, the inhabitants of the Diveyevo Monastery, deprived of the opportunity not only to use the fruits of their labors, but also bread and water, suffered greatly from the unrestrained and cynical arbitrariness of the authorities. Father Michael could not remain indifferent. Being a beggar himself, he collected alms for the sisters in the villages, for which he was arrested, and after the second imprisonment he was shot by a guard along the way. The article uses materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation, Nizhny Novgorod archives, historical and local history works, as well as the personal archive of Priest Georgy Pavlovich.

193-223

Authors: Dmitry V. Zubov

The article presents a study of the monastic economy of Mount Athos in the era of the late Palaeologus and Ottoman rule, mainly in the XIV-XV centuries (on example of St. Panteleimon Monastery — Rossikon). The viability of the monastery in Byzantium directly depended on the maintenance of the financial relationship between the three subjects in an efficient state: the state, as the owner of the land, controlling its use with the help of the apographers service and interested in the prayerful quiet life of the monastery; the monastery, whose abbot is also concerned with the quiet prayer life of the brethren and the availability of their daily bread; metochs, where wigs on stats are engaged in agriculture and, if possible, help the monastery. The monastery's economist is responsible for ensuring the feasible coordination of the delivery of the harvest to the monastery or for processing, as well as protecting the borders of the metochs on the basis of stored documents.