Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia

or the Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary, containing information necessary for everyone on all subjects of theological knowledge in alphabetical order. Volume 2. Archeology – Buchner Volume 5. Don Diocese – Ifika Volume 6. Javan – John the Maronite Volume 7. John of Scythopolis – Calendar Volume 8. Biblical-Hebrew and Jewish calendar – Karmanov D I Volume 11. Clauda – Apocryphal Books of the New Testament Volume 12. Symbolic books – Constantinople This dictionary includes articles on all theological sciences such as: Holy Scripture and Biblical history and archaeology. Basic, Dogmatic and Moral Theology. Church history – general and Russian. Denouncing heterodoxy, schism and sectarianism. Canon law and parish practice. Liturgics, hagiology and church archeology. Preaching and its history. Philosophy and pedagogy at points of contact with theology. Senior censor Archimandrite Vladimir. Bringing to the attention of sympathetic readers the first volume of the extensive publication we have undertaken, we consider it not superfluous to briefly outline the motives that guided the publisher, as well as the principles that formed the basis of the publication. It is difficult to point out another publication that would constitute a more pressing need of our time, such as the publication of such a “Theological Dictionary” that could serve as a reference book on all subjects of theological and philosophical knowledge. Our century has expanded the scope of this knowledge to an unprecedented degree, opened new spheres and developed original terms that give a new formulation to many theological and philosophical questions and familiarity with which is absolutely necessary for every educated person who wants to stand at the height of modernity. Meanwhile, our clergy (and all educated society) are placed in the most sad conditions in this regard. While the clergy of all civilized peoples have long had at hand a mass of all kinds of aids and guides, giving them the opportunity to quickly become familiar with any theological and philosophical question, we have not yet had a single “Theological Dictionary” - not only one that would deserve this name, but even none at all. There were only attempts to publish a Bible dictionary; but this kind of dictionaries, as covering only one specially biblical area of ​​knowledge, for this reason do not constitute the Theological Encyclopedia, which should embrace the entire area of ​​theological knowledge, of which biblical subjects are included only as a part, and therefore the need for an Encyclopedic Theological Dictionary proper has not only not yet been satisfied, but no attempts have even been made to satisfy it. In view of this, the editors considered it very useful and timely to offer their readers a Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary, which will include articles on all subjects of theological science - from Holy Scripture and Dogmatic Theology to liturgics and canon law inclusive, with the addition of questions of philosophy and pedagogy, as far as they come into contact with the field of theology. We take as a model the famous “Real Encyclopedia” of the Duke (now in its third edition), and although we do not have the opportunity to reproduce it in the entire volume of its almost twenty large volumes, we still hope to model it on the Theological Encyclopedia, which, standing at the height of modern theological science and being adapted to the needs of our Orthodox Russian clergy, can provide some satisfaction to a long-felt need. We have invited all more or less well-known theological forces in our country to participate in this encyclopedia. At the same time, we consider it our moral obligation to express deep gratitude to our employees, who responded with great readiness to the call of the editors and generously shared the fruits of their scholarship and thoughts. From the list attached below (by no means complete) it is clear that representatives of all theological academies, as well as some universities, took part in our publication, and the responsiveness with which they all reacted to our publication undoubtedly showed both the need for such a publication, felt by everyone, and the sufficiency of the available forces for its implementation. This abundance of strength, among other things, influenced the very character of the Encyclopedia. Initially, we had in mind to publish only a short reference dictionary, which would provide only the most basic encyclopedic information necessary for the most basic references. But on the one hand, statements from many subscribers that the subjects in the Encyclopedia should not be treated briefly and dryly, but completely and thoroughly, and on the other hand, the nature of the articles presented by the employees, who, as if going to meet the statements of subscribers, gave detailed research on all the most important subjects of theological knowledge, forced the editors to change their original plan and immediately begin publishing a large Encyclopedia - in the same volume as it is in its first, proposed now to the kind attention of the readers, volume. Of course, this inevitably increased the efforts and expenses of the editors; but despite this, we hope to continuously conduct this large publication, which, according to our plan, will be completed in five years (in 1905). In view of the difficulties associated with this kind of publication, such a period, we think, is by no means very long, and in any case it is far shorter than the periods in which this kind of publication is usually produced [As a reference, it is not superfluous to inform that the Duke’s “Real Encyclopedia”, even in its third edition (hence, with a mass of ready-made processed material that only needs updating!), began to appear in 1896, after It took five years to get to the 7th volume, so it will take about 15 years to finish the entire publication. The Great Roman Catholic Encyclopedia (Kirchenlexicon) of Wetzer and Welte, having begun to appear (in the 2nd edition!) in 1882, is now - after 18 years - brought only to the letter T, which is included in the 11th volume. Finally, even Meisel’s short theological dictionary (Kirchliches Handlexicon von Meusel), begun in 1887, was completed (in six volumes) only in 1900, therefore 13 years later. In view of this, the five-year period we appoint for the Orthodox-Russian Theological Encyclopedia, which does not have any preparatory work for itself and is forced not only to develop raw material, but even to develop the very plan and method, is extremely insignificant.]. The nature and purpose of the publication itself can be sufficiently evidenced by the rules developed by the editors for the guidance of employees. These rules read: The Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia is not intended for special scientific purposes, since it intends to satisfy the urgent need of the general public and, above all, our clergy for a detailed reference book on all theological subjects. Therefore, the presentation of the subjects in it should be popular in the best sense of the word, that is, without going into dry scholarship, accessible and interesting only to a limited circle of learned specialists, it should give the essence of the subject in an accessible form with such details that can arouse interest and meet the knowledge needs of any theologically educated person. But the 2nd point does not exclude the requirement that the last word of science be given in the popular presentation, so that the dictionary can stand at the level of modern knowledge and serve as an exponent of the advanced movement of Russian theological thought and science. The Duke's Real Encyclopedia (3rd edition) is taken as a sample of the "Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia", and the processing of subjects can proceed in parallel and with the help of articles of this encyclopedia, mainly in subjects related to the field of general Christian and especially Western Christian knowledge, but with the indispensable condition that all material is subject to processing in the interest of Orthodox theological thought, and in such subjects as dogmatics, Eastern Orthodox and Russian church history, hagiology, liturgics and other similar sciences, completely independently. Since the “Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia,” by assumption, should consist of ten volumes of 30–35 sheets each and, therefore, the volume is at least half the size of the Duke’s Encyclopedia, then the articles for it should be consistent with this scale in their volume, and, however, subjects of particular interest to the Orthodox-Russian society may deviate in their volume from this norm and sometimes even exceed the volume of the articles of the German prototype. Although the publication is intended for the general public, in accordance with point 3, which puts forward scientific interest, each more or less significant article is accompanied by an index of the most important literature on a given subject - foreign and especially Russian, so that the dictionary can serve as a handy reference book for people of science. The language should be concise but clear, and the use of foreign words and terms that can easily be replaced by purely Russian ones should be avoided. From this first volume, readers can see how these requirements are implemented in it. In any case, the editors can say with a good conscience that they spared neither labor nor expense to make the publication one that would meet the mental and practical needs of society, especially our Orthodox Russian clergy. In these types, special attention is paid to the development of questions on Christian apologetics and the denunciation of schism and heresies, in order to put in the hands of pastors ready-made material for defending the truths of religion and Orthodoxy against attacks on them from unbelief and false teaching of all kinds. In ecclesiastical and practical interest, liturgical issues are presented in great detail, and a complete dictionary of all the saints of the Orthodox Church is given with the necessary information from their lives and activities. Finally, in order to satisfy the immediate practical needs of the clergy, the history of the dioceses is presented in particular detail, moreover, illustrated with large detailed maps (for an example, see map of the Arkhangelsk diocese) and images of the main institutions, such as cathedrals, theological seminaries, etc., with portraits of diocesan archpastors. Of course, as in any new business, and especially such a large one, the publication will inevitably contain various shortcomings, oversights and errors. And the editors, fully aware of them, hope for the readers’ forbearance towards these inevitable shortcomings and will take all measures to eliminate them, if possible, in future volumes, for which purpose they will gratefully take advantage of all the indications that serious and well-disposed criticism can provide. Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin You might be interested in: