Educational religious literature for schools and its study as part of teacher training at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the humanities

Abstract

The political, economic, social, and spiritual changes taking place in Russia at the turn of the 20th and 21th centuries contributed to the revival of religious education. The introduction of the study of religious culture in the country's educational institutions has necessitated the training of appropriate teaching staff. The opening of the educational program for distance learning "Religious culture, ethics, enlightenment and volunteering at school" within the framework of the bachelor's program on 44.03.01 "Pedagogical education" at St. Tikhon Orthodox University for the humanities has become one of the ways to solve the identified problem.The article is devoted to the consideration of the basics of designing the author's training course, which, as part of the training of teachers according to the above program, helps to fully prepare teachers of religious (Orthodox) culture and dogma.Based on civilizational, comparative, axiological, historical approaches, as well as the categorical component of the paradigm approach, lexical and contextual analysis, the author of the article defines a new definition of "School religious and educational literature", characterizes the periods of development of this literature, pointing to the role and its significance in the cause of public education, shows the continuity of religious culture from Byzantium and its influence on the formation and development of educational and religious literature in Russia. In addition, he singles out the main types of educational literature on religion, and also points out the requirements for the content and design of a textbook on the Law of God, formulated by pre-revolutionary Methodist teachers of the law.Further, the author gives the rationale for the introduction of the course "School Religious and Educational Literature", developed for students of correspondence courses studying under the program "Religious Culture, Ethics, Educational and Volunteer Activities at School" and its methodological description.