A joint informational and analytical report, “The Role of Interreligious Dialogue in the Development of Higher Religious Education”, by the Bolgarian Islamic Academy and Kazan Orthodox Theological Seminary was published. The report is a significant study that highlights the importance of interreligious dialogue in higher religious education. The presented book is an updated and supplemented version of the previous edition, which examined the role of interreligious dialogue in the development of higher Islamic education.
The authors of the informational and analytical report are: Head of the Philosophy Department at the Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, PhD in Philosophy Sergey Melnik; Vice Rector for Research and Theological Work Archpriest Sergiy Shkuro; Head of the Department, Associate Professor, and PhD in History Vladimir Rogatin. The report was edited by Vice President of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan Ainur Timerkhanov and Executive Director of the Fund for Strategic Dialogue and Partnership with the Islamic World, Head of the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue at the Bolgarian Islamic Academy, Doctor of Political Sciences Elmira Sadykova.
The report highlights the experience of the Republic of Tatarstan in the development of interreligious dialogue in higher Islamic and Orthodox education. It emphasizes the need to preserve traditional spiritual values, and highlights practical aspects of implementing the strategy of strengthening and developing interreligious dialogue through a set of measures in the educational process on religious issues.
The content of the report includes methodological approaches to the improvement of higher education curricula on interreligious dialogue and practical recommendations for the improvement of higher education curricula.
According to the report, the history of Islamic religious education in Muslim regions of Russia is connected with the history of the spread of Islam. The first stage in the formation and development of Islamic theology was the dissemination of the doctrine and practice of Islam among newly converted peoples. The second stage is connected with the formation and development of Islam in the Russian Empire. In the period up to the 1917 Russian Revolution, Islamic education was provided at maktabs (elementary schools at mosques) and madrasahs. Graduates of madrasahs were highly educated in theology, and fluent in literary Arabic. Islamic education was presented by two schools – traditional and Jadid. After the October Revolution, the Bolshevik authorities began to destroy mosques, close maktabs and madrasahs and persecute muftis, imams and teachers.
However, the final decline of the Islamic education system occurred in the 1920s, following the Romanization of the script of the Muslim peoples of the USSR.
Stages in the Development of Islamic Education in Contemporary Russia
In the 1990s, the number of Islamic educational institutions increased sharply. In the first half of the 1990s, a considerable number of Muslim educational institutions emerged in the republic, supported by funds from international Muslim charitable organizations.
By the end of the 1990s, all Muslim educational institutions had come under the jurisdiction of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan. The state needed to regulate the out-of-control growth in the number of educational institutions, which were not doing too well in training qualified personnel.
The Beginning of a New Millennium
In 2003, on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a concept for the development of Islamic education was drawn up. It included the organization of Islamic universities in Moscow, Kazan, Ufa, Makhachkala and Grozny. The purpose of their creation was not only to train specialists, but also to unite the activities of lower-ranking Islamic educational institutions organizationally and methodologically. A fund to support Islamic culture, science and education was established, and a Comprehensive Program to train specialists with in-depth knowledge of history and culture of Islam was adopted under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Education.
Today in Tatarstan there is a three-tiered system of Muslim religious education, including madrasahs, higher Muslim religious educational institutions (Kazan Islamic University and the Russian Islamic Institute) and the highest stage – the Bolgarian Islamic Academy. All secondary vocational Muslim educational institutions in Tatarstan operate under licenses obtained from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan. Higher professional Muslim religious education is represented by the Russian Islamic Institute.
Currently there are 31 institutions of higher education, four of which train religious specialists: the Bolgarian Islamic Academy, the Russian Islamic Institute, Kazan Islamic University and Kazan Orthodox Theological Seminary.
The Bolgarian Islamic Academy
The Academy’s development strategy for 2023-2027 highlights the priorities of the Academy’s development, which are determined by the needs of the state in strengthening civil unity, cultural and civilizational and interreligious dialogue, harmonization of interreligious relations on the basis of revival and development of traditional religious and spiritual values and intellectual traditions of Russian Islam through the creation of a complete system of Islamic religious education and enlightenment in the Russian federation.
Islamic educational institutions are intended to serve as a platform for cooperation in the field of theology, science and education of specialists from Russia and other countries to develop scientific approaches and experience exchange, which confirms the return of Kazan to the status of a full-fledged centre for Islamic studies of all-Russian and global significance.
Kazan Seminary
Photo: tatmitropolia.ru
The Kazan Seminary as an ecclesiastical and educational institution was established in 1723.
In 1814-1818 a reform of ecclesiastical education was introduced. According to this reform, spiritual educational institutions were divided into classes: 1) academies; 2) seminaries; 3) district colleges; 4) parochial colleges.
The ecclesiastical academy, after its reforms in 1842, became a centre of scientific activity in various fields from theology, philosophy, church history and philology to linguistics. It was a major orientalist, educational, translation, missionary and scientific centre of pre-revolutionary Russia. It was at the Academy that G.S. Sablukov made the first translation of the Quran from Arabic into Russian. Kazan’s islamologists, arabists and Tatar scholars were equally proficient in both Arabic and Tatar.
At the present stage, education at Kazan Theological Seminary is carried out in three departments: Pastoral and Theological Seminary, Regency Seminary and Additional Education Department. Graduates are future clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church.
It is noteworthy that in 2014 Kazan (Volga Region) federal University signed an agreement on mutual cooperation between Kazan Theological Seminary, the Russian Islamic Institute, the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Kazan federal University.
In 2016, on the initiative of Metropolitan Feofan (Ashurkov) of Kazan and Tatarstan, a department of Islamic Studies was established at the seminary.
And in 2019, a cooperation agreement between the Bolgarian Islamic Academy and Kazan Orthodox Theological Seminary was signed at the Kazan Diocesan Office.
In addition to it, in 2021 a master’s program “Orthodox Theology: Confessional Islamic Studies” was established at Kazan Theological Seminary with the blessings of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The creation of a Masters in Islamic Studies at Kazan Seminary was inspired by the extensive historical experience of the pre-revolutionary Islamic studies heritage of Kazan Theological Academy and the current achievements in the field of Islamic studies.
The modern system of religious education in Russia aims to train qualified specialists with a high level of education, culture and civic commitment in a multi-confessional and multinational state.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"