Russian School Textbooks on Religion: Theological Learning, Ideological Confrontation, or Religious Education

Abstract

In the autumn of 2002, signs of an important disagreement began to appear in the Russian media. They arose in the form of pro and con newspaper articles published in the wake of the Ministry of Education's decision to include Alla Borodina's The Bases of Orthodox Culture in its catalog of textbooks officially approved for classroom use in public elementary and middle schools.1 The exchanges focused first on the merits of the book and its author's partisan credentials and on the official decision to list it as acceptable. Quickly, however, the debate came to include controversy over the wisdom of teaching religion classes of any sort in Russian public education. The regularly featured and sharply worded opinions put forth in widely read and widely viewed media outlets, followed seven years later by the federal government's decisive intervention into the dispute, paint a clear picture depicting the range of conflicting convictions regarding religious education in Russia. Most important, they attest to a need to review what Borodina had actually written and how her friends and detractors had responded. Finally, the controversy stirred up an older public discussion and one that was certainly not peculiar to Russia. What did religion or even God have to do with modern public life? Questions of this kind soon became woven into the textbook story as it unfolded in Moscow.