Рецензия

Secretary of the Academic Council of the KDA Hegumen Panteleimon (Lugovoy) on the dissertation of His Eminence Anthony (Fialko), Bishop of Khmelnytsky and Shepetovsky, on the topic: “St. Demetrius of Rostov and his shepherding”, submitted for the degree of candidate of theology Bishop Anthony's (Fialko) dissertation on the topic “St. Demetrius of Rostov and his pastorate,” submitted for the degree of candidate of theology, consists of an introduction, five logically completed parts and a conclusion. The theme of the essay, expressed in its title, is fully disclosed and, “undoubtedly, is useful for modern shepherding, since the study of the pastoral experience of St. Demetrius brings us closer to the patristic heritage, provides an example of genuine pastoral self-sacrifice and pastoral wisdom, savingly guiding the sheep of Christ’s flock in the most unfavorable conditions” (p. 43). The relevance of the topic follows from the basic idea of ​​Christianity: the reconciliation of man with God, the cessation of all enmity against the Creator, so that His all-encompassing love meets the active reciprocal love of man. Reconciliation of a person with God is impossible without his moral and spiritual rebirth, which takes place, first of all, in the Church of Christ under the leadership of shepherds called to recreate the image of God in people. Following the thought of St. Demetrius, the author argues that the main thing on the path to human salvation is the acquisition of Christian virtues - faith, hope and love. In this matter, the shepherd plays an important role. It is in him that people can see the ideal of piety and service to the Church. One of the most important tasks of pastoral activity is the evangelization of the Word of God. It was to this problem that Bishop Anthony devoted his work, based on the example of the life and work of the outstanding hierarch of the Orthodox Church, Saint Demetrius of Rostov, for “no one, having burned a lamp, covers it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed; but he places it on the candlestick, so that he who enters may see the light” (Luke 8:16). One of these lamps, placed by God on the church candlestick, was Metropolitan Demetrius of Rostov, who shone forth in the difficult times of Peter the Great. The historical objectivity and philosophical courage of St. Demetrius has always attracted scientists and theologians, archpastors and monks, students and ordinary lay people - the children of the Orthodox Church. The saint not only raised the study of religious-philosophical and literary-historical questions of existence to the proper level, but presented them in such a way that they still sound as modern today as they were modern for people of the 17th–18th centuries. The value of Bishop Anthony’s work lies in the fact that, based on the systematization of enormous church-historical material, he was able to present a theological and scientific interpretation of many factual data relating to the personality and works of St. Demetrius. The dissertation author conscientiously and comprehensively revealed the topic of the work; when writing it, he used a large number of works of St. Demetrius, which are quoted from the five-volume edition of 1839–1840, as well as studies by various authors about the life and pastoral activities of Metropolitan Demetrius. The essay is easy to read and the presentation of the material is concise. The bibliographic apparatus of the work and footnotes are designed correctly, in accordance with the rules of bibliographic description. The only drawback in this regard is that the list of sources does not indicate the Bible, although there are footnotes to the Holy Scriptures in the work. The introduction should provide a more complete overview of the literature on the research topic. The practical significance of the dissertation lies in the fact that it provides a theological understanding of the works of St. Demetrius, which makes it possible to more fully reveal the essence of the ministry of the priesthood as performers of the Divine Mysteries and preachers of the truth of Christ, especially in difficult external church circumstances, during turning points in history. The work makes a worthy contribution to the development of pastoral theology; its material can also be used in general theoretical works on the history of Ukraine and the Church, in the development of individual educational topics for special courses in the specialties “Homiletics” and “Church History”. Pedagogical practice shows that without a serious manual, a thoughtful attitude to the patristic heritage on the part of the children of the Church and, above all, Orthodox students is impossible. It should be noted that, like any development done for the first time, this work has some shortcomings, but they are not of fundamental importance. They can rather be attributed to the individual characteristics of the author’s style, which do not affect the significance of the work done. All of the above allows us to conclude that the dissertation work of Bishop Anthony (Fialko) is a completed, independently carried out study that meets the requirements for candidate dissertations, and its author deserves to be awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Theology.