No. 1 (2022)

We are happy to present to your attention the first issue of the new scientific and theological journal of the Sretensky Theological Academy ‘Sretensky Word’. In the Gospel there are well-known words of the Savior: To everyone who has it will be given and multiplied, but from those who have not, what they have will also be taken away (Matt. 25, 29). St. John Chrysostom explains these words as follows: “Whoever has received the gift of the word and teaching for the benefit of others and does not use it, he will ruin this gift. On the contrary, those who take care of it will get even more”. Following  these instructions, our journal was created so that a wide range of researchers, for whom the knowledge of God, the pursuit of truth, the thirst for knowledge of the world as God’s creation, are not empty words, could share their observations, reflections, discoveries, so that their knowledge would multiply and readers would be enriched.

In other words, the main goal of the ‘Sretensky Word’ journal in terms of content is to become a fruitful information environment for publishing and discussing the results of modern research related to the main areas of theology, church history and Slavic philology; and in terms of scientific development, to stimulate through new publications the scientific and theological activities of not only the Sretensky Theological Academy, but also other scientific and educational centers where relevant theological topics are being developed.

In accordance with the new nomenclature of scientific specialties approved by Order No. 118 of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation dated February 24, 2021, three scientific specialties have been selected within the framework of the ‘Sretensky Word’ journal, which are of primary importance for the activities of the Sretensky Theological Academy:
5.11.3. Practical Theology;
5.11.2. Historical Theology;
5.9.5. Russian Language. Languages of the Peoples of Russia.

From the first issue of the ‘Sretensky Word’ journal, all the papers are included in the RSCI (Russian Science Citation Index), each of them is assigned an international DOI identifier. In addition, all incoming materials undergo a double ‘blind’ peer review, on the basis of which a decision is made on further publication.

From the very beginning of the existence of our journal, the general position of the Editorial Board can be characterized as the principle of openness for all researchers, both ecclesiastical and secular, whose developments will correspond to the subject of this edition and the necessary level of scientific and theological publications. Therefore, the Editorial Board of the journal includes various church and secular scholars and scientists, representatives of different cities of Russia and a number of foreign countries.

The year 2021 was full of church and scientific events dedicated to the 800th anniversary of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky. The Sretensky Theological Academy also hosted the international scientific and theological conference ‘The World of Alexander Nevsky. Russia in the XIII century’, where many interesting reports were made. Some of them became the basis for scientific papers included in this issue of our journal. They are presented in the section ‘Historical theology’ and ‘Philology, hagiography’.

We very much hope that thanks to the efforts of our employees and the publications of our authors, the ‘Sretensky Word’ journal will not only not get lost among similar publications, but will become a peculiar scientific and theological space with a high level of research done by the authors who remember that, even if someone was perfect among the sons of men, without Your wisdom
[Lord] he will be recognized as nothing (Book of Wisdom 9, 6).

Archpriest Vadim Leonov,
Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Sretensky Word’ journal