The question of the teaching of God's Law in the Journals and Minutes of the Presidium of the Supreme Court

Abstract

The subject of the Law of God was one of the most important subjects in the lower and secondary schools of the Russian Empire for two centuries. It was a subject which gave knowledge of God, a subject important not only in its educational, but also in its educational meaning, and under the influence of which several generations of the Orthodox population of Russia grew up. The study of this subject was obligatory for all children who received holy Baptism in the Orthodox Church. The Law of God was also taught at home, but the main place where a child could absorb religious knowledge was in school. The Law of God was taught mainly by priests, and their post was called a teacher of the law. The teacher of the law enjoyed all the rights of public service on an equal footing with other teachers. By the end of the 19th century, problems associated with the process of teaching the Law of God had appeared, the syllabus for the subject was out of date, there were repeated cases of negligence on the part of the teachers, and there were many cases of active protests against the teaching of God's Law by the students themselves. All the above-mentioned problems tried to be solved in the light of the church reforms of the beginning of the last century. This article is devoted to the question of teaching God's Law in the work of the Presidium of the Most High Council. The research examines the place of God's Law subject at the meetings of this body, the interest of the Presence members in it, the suggestions to improve the quality of teaching such an important subject and its preservation in the list of obligatory subjects in the educational institutions of the Russian Empire.