Archbishop Nikon (Rozhdestvensky) about the theological education: «To shake off the fashionable charm from the pastoral school is to be ashamed of Christ!»

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of Archbishop Nikon’s (Rozhdestvensky) views on the problems of the theological education in the Russian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the XX century: the need to bring the curriculums of seminaries and the education to the demands of parish life in the sphere prone to sectionalism and schisms, while academies should be left to engage mainly in scientifi c work, the importance of the spiritual education based on Orthodox asceticism for seminaries and academies and the assistance to obtention of Christian virtues by students. The author also refers to Archbishop Nikon’s proposals on personnel policy in theological education, the liberation of theological science from Western infl uence and the opening of an institute or academy of missionaries.