Missionary and scientist: ryazan period of аnti-schismatic activity of P.S. Smirnova (1888-1894)

Since the second half of the XIX century the scientific study of the Old Belief had become the part of higher spiritual school. The main responsibility of this scientific direction had turned to the preparation of special anti-schismatic missionaries. However, for the achievement of the objective, it was necessary to form the staff of highly qualified teachers and scientists, who would be able to develop the foundations of anti-schismatic scientific knowledge. In fact, it turned out that the theoretical part of the new branch of knowledge was completely dependent on the existed practical missionary experience. According to these facts, we can suppose: the scientific understanding of the phenomenon of church schism in the Russian historical and church tradition initially took place among current missionaries. Accordingly, the studies of “schismatics” - teachers of the departments on the history and denunciation of the Russian schism of the Russian theological academies - have made it possible to understand how and why the academic corporation of schismatics was filled up with members of the missionary community. By analyzing the scientific heritage of one of the eminent church historians, Doctor of Theology - Peter Semenovich Smirnov (1861 - after 1917) we can answer these questions. This article presents the scientific biography of P.S. Smirnov in the initial period of his anti-schismatic activities in the Ryazan diocese (1888-1894). The significance of his study determined that at that time P.S. Smirnov had been staying the practice missionary, manifested himself as the scientist who sought for the overcome of the legacy of the Orthodox Church's dismissive attitude to the Old Belief. Using the methods of scientific biography and intellectual history, the combination of which makes it possible to show the development of scientific ideas of the church historian of the last third of the XIX century, taking into account the dynamically developing social context, the author had come to the following conclusion. Education of P.S. Smirnov, obtained in the framework of the national theological school, should had made him a missionary. According to national theological school methods, he might use the methods of struggle against Old Belief accepted in science, but in the end, we see a completely different situation - a scientist “woke up” in him. According to author, the factors that contributed to the transformation of P.S. Smirnov from the exposer of the Old Believers in one of the thoughtful and interesting researchers became the experience in regional missionary reports obtained in Ryazan and his dissatisfaction as a teacher with the conditions of the teaching and methodological base in theological seminaries of the Russian Empire. He tried to correct the existed situation by publishing articles in the church periodicals and preparing a fundamentally new textbook on the nature and content. However, the research activities of P.S. Smirnov did not produse a scientific resonance and did not lead to serious changes in missionary practice; therefore, he continued the further development of scholarly studies in the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg.

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