Student Philosophical Society of Kazan Theological Academy at the End of the XIX Early X X Centuries

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the institutional analysis of the student philosophical society activity at the Kazan Theological Academy in the late XIX - early XX centuries. The study notes that the development of philosophy in a theological educational institution in itself is a contradiction since philosophy involves a critical attitude towards religion. But it was precisely at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries that interest in philosophy at Russian theological schools increased. At the same time, a philosophical circle society for students appeared only in the Kazan Theological Academy. Within the framework of our work, we use a constructionist and neoinstitutional approaches, which assume that institutions are formal and informal “rules of the game”, norms of interaction within certain social interactions. As a result, it is concluded that the activities of the student society were determined both by its charter and by those special goals set by the theological education in Russia at that time. We have determined that one of the main goals was to teach the methods of philosophical criticism of future Orthodox theologians. It is also revealed that the topics that were discussed at meetings of the philosophical society were determined by the public resonance that they had. The topics related to modern literature and religious doctrine of Leo Tolstoy were presented as the main problems for the reports. This agenda also largely depended on the research topics of the leaders of the student philosophical society who were the professors of the Kazan Theological Academy.