The Study of Church History at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade

Abstract

The study of Church History at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade, during the 20th century, was performed within two courses - the History of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the History of Christian Church. For a certain period of time, besides these two major Church History courses, there also existed the following courses - Cultural History of Byzantium, the History of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the History of Western Christianity. These courses were taught not only by Serbian, but also by Russian professors who emigrated from Soviet Russia. This paper gives the basic outline of the scientific legacy of the Church History Professors at the aforementioned Faculty. The Russian professors had left the most profound mark in the field of the study of the history of the Church in Byzantium, and the history of the Monophysite and Nestorian Communities. Their scientific legacy was important for the Serbian environment as a foundation for further study of the above-mentioned themes. The scientific legacy of the Serbian professors was mostly related to the study of the Serbian ecclesiastical past. A fewer number of their scientific papers concerned the themes of the history of Western Christianity. The aim of this paper is to represent the main research directions in Church History at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade during the 20th century. The individual work of each professor has been examined as a part of a whole which represents a unified scientific legacy.