Lectures on liturgics

Lectures on liturgics. Part 1: Courses of lectures given to students of the Kazan Theological Academy in 1882–1884. This publication opens the series “Sources and Research on the History of Russian Theological Science,” in which important documents on the history of theological education and theological science in Russia will be published. In addition, we plan to publish studies on current topics concerning various aspects of the existence of Russian academic science in a broad sense and, in a narrower sense, works on the history of theological ideas and biographies of outstanding scientists of the pre-revolutionary and first decades of the post-revolutionary period. The archives of our country have preserved an impressive volume of materials on the stated topics, the introduction of which into scientific circulation will allow us to more clearly imagine the fate and significance of scientists, the history of theological science and the dynamics of the development of theological education in the 19th – early 20th centuries. We present to your attention the first volume of the series, which publishes lectures on liturgics by the outstanding Russian liturgist Alexei Afanasyevich Dmitrievsky, read by a young aspiring private lecturer to students of the Kazan Theological Academy in 1882–1884. The lectures were compiled on the basis of a diverse range of sources: from various printed manuals to handwritten data gleaned by the scientist as a result of personal acquaintance with the manuscripts of Moscow libraries and the library of the Kazan Theological Academy, which received an extensive collection of manuscripts from the Solovetsky Monastery. In other words, the proposed A.A. Dmitrievsky's lecture material kept pace with the times and reflected the state of development of liturgics at the end of the 19th century. In the 19th and especially in the 20th centuries. liturgics experienced rapid development: they were found and published - including by A.A. Dmitrievsky - new important sources for reconstructing the history of Byzantine and Russian worship; many concepts of the “old” time were revised, refuted, or, conversely, found an evidence base in new material. In this regard, in scientific terms, some theoretical constructions of the Russian Gohar are outdated or have not been confirmed, while others, on the contrary, have been accepted and brilliantly developed by modern Russian and Western liturgists. When publishing the lectures, we did not comment on all these cases, because this would have required both significant time and a significant increase in the volume of the publication. When creating the lectures published in this edition, A.A. Dmitrievsky did not plan to publish them, at least in the form in which we now publish them. Nevertheless, we considered it useful to publish these lecture courses as an example of the educational and lecture material that was offered by pre-revolutionary professors to students of higher theological educational institutions. The publication opens with an introductory section in which the reader can get acquainted with the biography of Alexei Afanasyevich, the scientist’s teaching activities at the Kazan Theological Academy and a brief description of the published sources. Lecture courses by A.A. Dmitrievsky, for convenience, are divided into three sections: lectures on the history of worship in the Russian Church, given in 1882/1883 academic year. G.; lectures on the same subject, given in the 1883/1884 academic year. G.; lectures on the history of liturgical books. In the appendices of each section, auxiliary materials are published, also belonging to Alexey Afanasyevich. Among the unpublished works of Alexei Afanasyevich there are a number of important studies and lecture courses, which we also intend to prepare for publication over time. in subsequent volumes of the series the second (Kiev) and third (Leningrad) parts of lectures on liturgics by A.A. will be published. Dmitrievsky. The publication of such projects is impossible without the active participation of people of good will. I would like to express special gratitude to Metropolitan Kirill of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye for the constant moral and material support of our academic studies. Without this support, this publication simply would not have taken place. There are not enough words to adequately thank the director of the manuscripts department of the Russian National Library A.I. Alekseev and the staff of the reading room - for systematically providing the opportunity to work with the A.A. Foundation. Dmitrievsky and advice on organizing the process. I would especially like to thank the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary, Associate Professor Archpriest Pyotr Mangilev for his constant participation in the fate of the publication, valuable advice and simply a warm human attitude. This publication would not have been possible without the help and assistance at various stages of work from Abbot Nicholas (Paullyk; Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius), Priest Alexy Rusin, N.N. Lopukhova, Hieromonk Arkady (Loginov), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences I.P. Medvedev, prof. YES. Redina, prof. V.V. Burega, Priest Ioann Nikulin, Archpriest Sergius Alekseev, S.Yu. Stepanova, K.A. Vakha, I.A. Letova and many others. We express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all of them. S.Yu. Akishin, diak. Antony Shchepyotkin