The Department of Natural-Scientifi c Apologetics at the Moscow Theological Academy (1870– 1903) Represented by D. F. Golubinsky

Abstract

The end of the 60s of the 19th century was marked in the history of spiritual education in Russia by a wide-ranging reform. In 1867, new Statutes of the Theological Seminaries and Schools were adopted, and in 1869, new Statutes of the Theological Academies. The reforms promoted the development of theological and church-historical sciences in Russia. At the same time, as Archpriest Georgy Florovsky notes, the reforms "strangely failed to understand the inner necessity of theological science in the study of the exact and natural sciences. In those years, when in the name of these sciences a real campaign against the Christian worldview and against any faith at all was opened, it was particularly timely to pay serious attention to the study of natural sciences. In 1870 a supernumerary department of natural-science apologetics was created at the Academy, which existed until 1903.