Higher religious and philosophical school

The institute was created to prepare people who have completed the school of thought and faith, who have the tools of analysis, who are knowledgeable in the history of ideas and who are interested in their spiritual development ^[12] . The mission of the SPSF is confirmed by graduates ^{[13] [14] [15]} . The Institute implements two approaches: the state standard of education and its own training and specialization programs ^{[16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]} .

At the Institute, bachelors were trained in three areas at the faculties of art, philosophy, and religious studies ^[22] .

Religious Studies

They taught the history of Eastern and Western Christianity , comparative theology and liturgics , patrology , the content of the Old and New Testaments , Christian anthropology, the history of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state . Courses on the history of world religions (including the study of Islam , Judaism , the eastern religious and philosophical teachings of the non-Christian East and Southeast Asia) and religious literature were taught.

Philosophy

The teaching of philosophy is based on the study of classical philosophical texts. The study used the hermeneutic approach ( hermeneutics ). In interpreting the texts enough time was devoted to phenomenological problems ( phenomenology ), the idea of ​​the continuity of philosophical ideas in the course of history was emphasized.

History of Art (Art History)

The problems of Christian art were studied in the following areas: early Christian art , the art of the Christian East, Byzantine art , the art of the Middle Ages , the art of Ancient Russia , religious art of the 20th century. Under the program of the General Theory and History of Art, students were offered courses in the history of art and architecture , general disciplines in art history.

Distance Learning

The VFSF Institute used distance learning programs ^[23] in the VFSF Distance Learning Center in training.

The Institute was taught by domestic ^[24] secular and church experts, foreign scientists ^[25] .

VRFSh carried out translation, publishing and expert activities. The ARFS has organized various scientific conferences, symposia, round tables and seminars ^{[26] [27] [28] [29] [30]} . The structural research unit of the UFFS was the St. Petersburg Education Center “Religion and Science” ( (Eng.) St. Petersburg Education Center for Religion and Science (SPECRS)) ^[31] . The activities of the Religion and Science Center were awarded with awards and grants from Russian (Russian Foundation for Basic Research) ^[32] and foreign foundations, such as the Metanexus Institute (USA) ^{[7] [33]} , Templeton Foundation (USA) ^[34] , Faraday Institute (Great Britain) ^{[35] [36]} , Interdisciplinary University in Paris (France) ^[37] . VRFSH participated in the preparation and conduct of the events of the Russian Dynasty Foundation “Days of Science” in St. Petersburg in 2007 and 2008 ^[38] . Starting from the 2000 conference “Science and Faith. The problem of man in science and theology ”VRFSh publishes a series of“ Science and Faith ”in Russian and English ^[39] .

The most significant scientific projects and programs of the VRFSh

• “Russian-language translations of philosophical classics of the 20th century” ^{[40] [41] [42] [43]}
• "Phenomenology and Aristotle" ^{[44] [45] [46]}
• “Interregional studies in the context of interethnic and interfaith relations in the Northwestern Federal District” ^{[47] [48]}
• “Science and Faith” ^{[29] [30] [39]}
• "Vision of Beauty" ^[49]
• The Slavic Bible ^[50]

The publishing house "Higher Religious-Philosophical School" has been operating since the foundation of the Institute. The first edition of the Proceedings of the VRFSh was officially registered ^[51] , and to date, in addition to the Trudy and collections of materials of international conferences, 36 editions in Russian and foreign languages ​​have been published at the VRFSh publishing house. Among them: “The Schematic History of Christianity” ^[52] , “Church History Book”, “Atonement”, “Orthodox Theology and Charity”, “Higher Education in the Context of Russian Culture of the 21st Century: a Christian Perspective”, works by authors such as Clement Alexandria, Anselm of Canterbury ^[53] , Alexander Schmemann, John Meindorf, translations into Russian of the classical works of M. Heidegger ^{[40] [43]} , E. Levinas ^{[41] [42]} , F. Brentano ^[45] , monographs on philosophy , religious studies, art studies, collections of materials international x conferences ^[54] . It is possible to read some texts published by the VRFS on-line (the monograph by A. G. Chernyakov “Ontology of Time” ^[55] , published by the VRFS, is available on the Internet resource of the VRFS ^[56] ). Separate editions of the SPSF have been translated into other languages ​​and published by Springer, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Holland) ^[57] , The Edwin Mellen Press (USA), ^[58] , Oxford University Press (England). Since 2010, the SPSF has been collaborating with the American publishing house and the Global Scholarly Publications (USA) scientific forum ^[59] .

The international activity of the UFFS included joint projects, publishing programs, educational exchanges, lecture courses, membership in international organizations ^{[60] [61] [24] [35] [61] [61] [62]} .

The Institute oversaw the creative humanitarian work of schoolchildren within the framework of the Interschool Society for the Humanities Research (MOGI) ^[63] .

The social and social activities of the All-Union Socialist Revolutionary School ^[64] are in line with the document BASES OF SOCIAL CONCEPT of the Russian Orthodox Church ^[65] . Among the most important in this regard were such work of the SRFS as:

• participation in public examination, organization of press conferences ^[66]
• public hearings ^[67] ;
• volunteer work helping the homeless, charity ^[68] ;
• youth competitions and festivals ^[69] ;
• advisory work on issues of interfaith relations, ethnic issues, religion and society for organizations such as the Public Chamber under the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North-West Federal District ^[70] , departments of the St. Petersburg Diocese ^[71] , divisions of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra ^{[72 ]} .

• Hearing yourself in this noisy world // Bulletin of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (official press of the Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Monastery), No. 5-6, pp. 12-13, 2012 [2]
• From Buddhism to Orthodoxy // Interview with N. A. Pechersk journalist Eva Vasilevskaya for the St. Petersburg newspaper Smena, No. 245, October 23, 1990.
• State and church: who is between them? // Article on the All-Union School of Artists of Illarion Troitsky, weekly newspaper Trud, No. 140 (22643), August 9-15, 1996. [3]
• A full diploma of a private university. // An article about the All-Russian Federal School of Economics Valentin Vasiliev, the newspaper "Evening Petersburg", August 12, 1996.
• Humanitarian Institute as a Mirror of Russian Democracy // Interview with N. A. Pecherskaya, columnist Anton Gubankov, for the St. Petersburg newspaper Nevskoye Vremya, February 19, 1992.
• A man in search of meaning // Weekly journal "Rush Hour", No. 35 (132), August 31, 1992.
• Who should pay for the education of the country's elite? // Article about the VRFSH by Galina Leontyeva, Smena newspaper, No. 173 (21462), August 8, 1996, [4]
• Pecherskaya, N. A. New tasks of learning in the context of integration processes in science and religion // Materials of the international conference “Russia and the Internationalization of Higher Education”, Moscow State University, November 23-24, 2005, Moscow: Publishing House “TAYS”, S 246-249.
• Natalia Pecherskaya. Reflections on Some Challenges of the Revival of Theological Studies and Religious Studies in the Universities of the Russian Federation // GSP Publisher: Department of Educational Studies, Oxford University, Oxford, UK, International Journal of Decision Ethics, v. VII.3, 2011, pp 71-84. ISBN 1-59267-042-3 , ISSN 1557-9417
• Higher education in the context of Russian culture of the XXI century: a Christian perspective // Compiled by N. A. Pecherskaya. Ed. - B. Ostanina. St. Petersburg: VRFSH, 2000. 277., ISBN 5-900291-17-0
• Pecherskaya, N. A. The significance of the cultural, historical and philosophical heritage of Russia in the formation of the national form of religious enlightenment and the new tasks of education // Materials of the conference “Theoretical Heritage of Kazan Scientific, Philosophical, Theological Thought in the European and Russian Dimensions”, Tatarstan Academy of Sciences Kazan: 2012, ss. 9-22. ISBN 978-5-7829-0372-5

• Official website of the Russian Federal Penitentiary School, Russian version
• (eng.) Official website of the UFFS, English version (inaccessible link)
• VRFSh Distance Learning Center
• Textual resource VRFSH
• VRFS Blog
• VRFS Forum