“Historical doctrine of the church fathers” by archbishop Filaret (Gumilevskiy) and the beginning of Russian patrology

Personality and works of Archbishop Filaret (Gumilevskiy) are of great importance for the history of academic theology. The main of his works - “Historical Doctrine of the Church Fathers” - marked the beginning of Patrology as a science in the Orthodox Church. Since its writing, the domestic and world patrological science has gone far ahead, but the principles that were laid down by the father of Russian Patrology in understanding its subject area and methodology, are now of important interest for the analysis of its development. His accentuation of the hypostatic nature of patrological science, the idea of patristic writing as a continuous process, not limited to any historical period, became the basic principles of Orthodox patristic thought. The article presents this work of Archbishop Filaret to a modern audience, generally describing the peculiarities of his scientific approach, style, language, etc.