ETHNOCULTURAL PREREQUISITES FOR THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPIRITUAL EDUCATION IN VOLYN IN THE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

Abstract

Introduction. The development of spiritual education in the historical context has an expressed ethno-cultural basis, as well as prerequisites for formation and development. The Russian Orthodox Church of the 19th century on Ukrainian lands was a powerful mouthpiece of the monarchical system and the solid integration of the Volyn peasantry; in fact, the spiritual education of the Volyn region was mainly Russian Orthodox. The hierarchy of spiritual educational institutions of Volyn region in the 19th – early 20th centuries was represented by churchparochial schools, theological schools and seminaries. The direct dependence between religion and ethnicity in a certain way determined the peculiarities of the content and methods of spiritual education, as well as the presence of an institutional or non-institutional level of spiritual education in Volyn region. Purpose is to substantiate the content of ethno-cultural prerequisites and factors that determined the formation and development of spiritual education in Volyn region in the 19th – early 20th centuries. Methods: analysis of historical archival documents; generalization of quantitative indicators of the development of spiritual educational institutions in Volyn region in the 19th – early 20th centuries; comparison of quantitative and qualitative indicators of the development of spiritual education of various ethno-confessional groups in Volyn region in the researched period. Results. The educational level of representatives of various ethno-national communities, their affiliation to religious denominations, and the method of resettlement on the territory of Volyn as factors in the formation and development of spiritual education in the region are analyzed. It was found that the Russian Orthodox Church during the 19th century sought to transform Czech churches into German ones and schools into Orthodox ones, and at the beginning of the 20th century, Jewish spiritual educational institutions partially came under the care of the Ministry of Public Education. The main levels of spiritual education in Volyn region during the research period were determined: for the urban population – primary and secondary levels of spiritual education, for the majority of the rural population – lower (parochial schools, schools of literacy and spiritual education by brotherhoods and societies of leading religious denominations). Originality consists in the introduction into scientific circulation of unknown and little-known historical sources, first of all, archival documents on the formation and development of spiritual education in Volyn region. Conclusion. The study of the ethno-cultural prerequisites and factors of the development of spiritual education in Volyn region in the 19th – early 20th centuries made it possible to establish that throughout the studied period, interconfessional relations in Volyn region were quite complex, and this mainly related to the confrontation between the dominant Russian Orthodoxy and the traditionally strong influence of Roman – Catholic church. In this connection, the influence of the Russian “theory of official nationality” on the formation and development of spiritual education in Volyn region has been proven. It was established that the specified theory was embodied in the region into the dominance of Orthodox schooling over Catholic, Lutheran, and Jewish schools.