The relationship between Orthodox Christianity and compulsory education in Russia

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleВзаимооттношения православия и общеобразовательной школы в России
3. Language term Russian
4. lemma author Asliturk, Miriam
5. lemma category Ecumenism and dialogue > Education - Key thinkers - Scientific theories and disciplines > Religious studies - Mutual dependence - Ecumenism and dialogue > Westernism and anti-westernism - Education, Science and Orthodoxy - Various approaches to the problem of correlation between science and theology
6. Publication date 2007
7. lemma work Бобров, В.В. [Author]. Взаимооттношения православия и общеобразовательной школы в России
8. lemma manifestations Интеграция образования
9. Keywords Secular education - Religious education - Scientific method
10. Url Click Here
11. Citations
    1. <div class="tab active"> <p>Бобров В. В. (2007). Взаимоотношение православия и общеобразовательной школы России. <em>Интеграция образования</em>. Retrieved from: <a href="http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vzaimootnoshenie-pravoslaviya-i-obscheobrazovatelnoy-shkoly-rossii">http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/vzaimootnoshenie-pravoslaviya-i-obscheobrazovatelnoy-shkoly-rossii</a> <br /><br /></p> </div>
12. Lemma body

    1. School education is secular in Russia. However, the author argues that schools cannot ignore spirituality as an important part of education for children. According to Bobrov, education without religious cultural heritage creates the risk of underdevelopment of personality. Therefore schools should think about a synthesis of religious tradition and secular education.

       According to the author, religious education studies creation in its totality. It does not divide it into fragments as science does. The method of acquisition of knowledge in spirituality is the mixture of intuition, religiosity, and logic. With this method the individual reaches unity with the whole world. Nowadays science abandons the pure rational method of finding the truth and uses intuition and inspiration that can only function when spirituality has place in scientific research. Many contemporary scientists, Pavlov I.P. (1849-1936), Florensky P.A. (1882-1937), Vernadsky V.I. (1863-1945), Einstein A. (1879-1955), Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) were aware of the traces of divine wholeness and of the absolute in nature. Therefore there cannot be a conflict between the rational secular and religious education.

       Bobrov states that the Russian Orthodox tradition comprises three major aspects. Firstly, it is characterized by the essentialist approach in epistemology, methodology of collectivism and uniqueness (Lomonosov M.V. (1711-1765), Mendeleev D.I. (1834-1907), Ukhtomsky A.A.(1875-1942)).

       Secondly, it sees nature and reality ontologically – as whole and unique at the same time. Nature here is understood as something constantly changing. Nature is not a fact but a project. According to this view, the universe has always been “pregnant” with the desire to restore its unity and wholeness. And this, according to the author, can be realized in the human soul. Many Russian scientists and scholars reached this understanding through intuition, and the author lists a great number of them from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries.

       Thirdly, the notion of nature in Russian Orthodox tradition is build on the concept of antinomy (incompatibility of two laws). This type of logic was used by such scientists as Lobachevsky N.I. (1792-1856) in geometry, Vasiliev N. A. (1880-1940) in his “imagined” logics, Pavlov I.P. (1849-1936) in psychology. Bobrov concludes by claiming that these aspects of Orthodox Christianity demonstrate that the historical traditional Orthodox Christian view of creation, reality, and the universe does not contradict the contemporary (European) perspective on science.