Faculty of Theology, University of Belgrade

Creation

The idea of ​​creating a higher spiritual educational institution of the Serbian Orthodox Church dates back to the 1860s ^[1] .

In 1892, a proposal was made to convert the Moscow Theological Seminary into the faculty of the High School in Belgrade. In 1899, a commission for the transformation of the Belgrade High School and a special church delegation reached an agreement on the opening of a future university and theological faculty. After that, the Serbian Church carried out a reform of secondary religious schools, so that their graduates could continue their education at the theological faculty.

Adopted in 1905, the Law on the University of Belgrade provided for the organization of a theological faculty in its composition, but due to the lack of teachers and economic difficulties associated with Serbia’s participation in the Balkan and then the First World Wars , it opened only in the autumn of 1920. The first meeting of the academic council of the faculty was held on September 6, 1920. The dean of the faculty was elected at the meeting - archpriest Stefan Dimitrievich, professor of history of the TWC. The teaching began on December 15 of the same year ^[1] .

Activities in the 1920s – 1930s

The first basis of scientific work was the library of the faculty, which began work immediately after the foundation of the faculty itself. The first book replenished the fund on December 12, 1920, when there were already 3075 publications in its fund. At the beginning of its activities, the library relied heavily on voluntary donations. Thus, she received 830 files with books and magazines from the Foundation of the Serbian Church, and a set of magazines Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift from the Catholic Bishop Bern Herzog. Known and the gift of Mrs. Hankins, who donated to the library $ 1,000 and £ 200. The library was greatly assisted by income from reparations after the First World War, as well as books acquired by the first dean, Archpriest Stevan Dimitrievich in Moscow in 1923. In 1930, the library numbered 9,700 titles with 20,000 files. By the time of the Second World War, the number of copies in the collections had increased to 13,000. Since 1926, the publishing activity of the faculty began, when the publication of the theological journal Theological Journal began, which is regularly published today.

In the period between the two world wars, the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Belgrade was one of the important centers for receiving higher theological education by immigrants from the former Russian Empire . In the interwar period, over 200 Russian émigrés studied at this faculty, of which 69 managed to graduate. In the 1920s, they sometimes constituted more than half of the total number of students. In the 1930s, the number of Russian students decreased, partly due to the opening of the St. Sergius Institute in Paris and the Orthodox Theological Faculty of the University of Warsaw ^[2] .

In the first years of its existence, the faculty repeatedly changed its place of stay. Finally, through the efforts of Patriarch Gabriel , a place was obtained for the construction of the House of Students according to the project of prof. P. Anagnostia, which was realized in 1940 ^[1] .

On April 6, 1941, during the bombing of Belgrade, the house of students and the library of the theological faculty were destroyed. The educational process was suspended. After the war, the faculty resumed work.

Withdrawal from university

In 1946, attempts began to withdraw the Faculty of Theology from the University of Belgrade, which the Serbian Orthodox Church tried to oppose in every way ^[1] .

However, on February 15, 1952, the Government of the People’s Republic of Serbia, at the suggestion of the Minister-Chairman of the Education, Science and Culture Council, M. Mitrovich, decided to abolish the Theological Faculty as a public educational institution, and the next day the University Council formed a commission for the liquidation of the Faculty. Although the SPC made efforts to ensure that the faculty remained in the university, but these efforts were not crowned with success ^[1] . The decision was enforced on June 30 of the same year. The faculty became an independent institution of higher education of the Serbian Orthodox Church and was called the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

All worries about material support were laid on the Church. But the difficult financial situation of the theological faculty did not affect the number of people willing to study: in the 1952/53 academic year, 240 students were enrolled in the faculty, of whom 129 were newly enrolled. In the 1997/1998 academic year, 432 students studied at the faculty, of whom 84 were students and 187 freshmen ^[1] .

Since September 1995, the Belgrade Theological Faculty occupies a new building on ul. Mia Kovacevic, 11b. Here are the church in the name of the Apostle John the Theologian and St. Savva of Serbia, a boarding school and a bookstore. Within the framework of the faculty there are a chess club, a faculty choir and a computer science center ^[1] .

Return to university

On January 9, 2004, at the suggestion of all traditional churches and religious communities in Serbia and with the support of 22 faculties of the University of Belgrade, the Government of Serbia decided to abolish the decision of the Government of the People’s Republic of Serbia No. 62 of February 15, 1952, according to which the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church was abolished as a public institution and removed from the University in Belgrade. In connection with the proclamation of this decision invalid, the legal consequences that had been in effect for more than fifty years were annulled, and the Orthodox Theological Faculty of the University in Belgrade again took its place under the auspices of Belgrade University.

• Official site (Serb.)
• Orthodox Theological Faculty, University of Belgrade