Psychology of Religion in the Infosphere of the Russian Theological Academies of the XIX – beginning XX centuries. (on the example of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy)

The paper treats the infosphere of the spiritual educational institutions of Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX — early XX centuries in the field of psychology of religion. Special attention is paid to the psychology of religion at the St. Petersburg theological academy. The article presents the history of the formation and development of the psychology of religion among the St. Petersburg clergy, traces its path from experience psychology to experimental psychology, highlights the specific characteristics of the St. Petersburg theological academy psychology of religion school. It is demonstrated that the psychology of religion in prerevolutionary Russian spiritual educational centers, although developed within the Orthodox theological tradition, was located within the world information field of the period, and was significantly influenced by advanced philosophical and scientific theories of that time, and in some particular issues was even ahead the Western tradition of the psychology of religion. Special attention is paid to the interpretation of the theories of A.A. Fischer, the founder of experience psychology in Russia, I.A. Chistovich and his course of “Experience Psychology”, V.N. Karpov’s approach to psychology of religion as the foundation of ethics, V.S. Serebrennikov and the shift from experience psychology to experimental psychology, mostly inspired by W. Wundt’s ideas. The paper demonstrates that a more natural-scientific and, to a lesser extent, humanitarian approach to the psychology of religion was formed among the St. Petersburg clergy than in other theological academies of Russia, which corresponded to the status of St. Petersburg as a world center for the research of physiology and psycho-neurology of that time.

Source: Olga K. Mikhelson,Nikolai S. Poliakov (2022). Psychology of Religion in the Infosphere of the Russian Theological Academies of the XIX – beginning XX centuries. (on the example of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy). Bylye Gody. 17(4): 1654-1665

Source web-site: https://bg.cherkasgu.press/journals_n/1669898776.pdf