Method and purpose in their mutual relation. Response to the critical review: Markidonov A. V. “I, as a reader, am confused...”. Proceedings of the department of theology of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy, 2020, No. 3 (7), pp. 134-139

“I, as a reader, am confused and risk losing the presumption of trust in the author of the article” - these words serve as a semantic frame of A. V. Markidonov's critical review of our article “Ecclesiology Today: Two Models of Church Organization and Their Historical Preconditions”, where it is pointed out that the problem is exclusively methodological, and on this issue the author and his critic find perfect agreement. However, given the same initial premises - in this, as well as in many other things - the author and the critic come to different, sometimes even opposite, conclusions. Awareness of a deep methodological problem - the interpretation of the method of theological science, its place and significance in the work of a church scientist, its character, peculiarities of its application, etc. - as well as the critical review of A. V. Markidonov (whose position on the whole we believe to be erroneous) prompted the author to address this problem, paying special attention to it in the framework of the answer and considering it in some theoretical aspects.