Studies on History of Protestantism in the Journal “Trudy Kievskoi Dukhovnoi Academii” (1860th – early 1900th)

Abstract

The article presents the first attempt of a complete analysis of historic studies of Protestantism, published by the Kyiv Theological Academy professors and students in the journal “Trudy Kievskoi dukhovnoi academii” starting from the 1860s to the beginning of the 1900s. The author outlines the main directions of historical studies, including the history of the main religious protestant directions, trends, and movements; the history of theological problems; the history of the modern Protestant movements, aimed at union with Orthodoxy; the history of dogmatic and canonical Protestant principles; the history of the symbolic and liturgical books of religious denominations; research of prereform movements; and biographical studies. The article proves the effectiveness of comparative and hermeneutic methods used by Kyiv historians in determining the specifics of religious phenomena. It has established that a characteristic feature of their historical studies is the consideration of religious phenomena in the broad historical perspective by clarifying the historical preconditions of formation and development of these phenomena. The analysis of historical studies shows transformation in Kyiv historians understanding of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of religious traditions different from Orthodoxy. In the works on the history of Protestantism from the 1860s till the 1870s the use of dogmatic-theological approach is common, while in the studies from the 1880s to the beginning of the 1900s the use of church-historical approach is widespread. The first dogmatic-theological approach concentrates on researching only dogmatic principles of a certain religion, while the second church-historical approach pays attention to the definition of the religious phenomenon specificity. The Jjournal publications present the results of the Kyiv Theological Academy professors’ and students’ involvement in the solution of the actual Church life problems in the end of the 19th– beginning of the 20th century, such as the problem of Anglican and Orthodox Churches dialogue. Article received 16.02.2019