Education in English Universities (Based on Works of Thomas Whitehead) and Anglican- Orthodox Contacts (2nd Third of 19th Century): Common Grounds

Issues related to education in the universities of Great Britain and Russia in the second third of the 19th century are discussed in the article. Materials from the book “College Life. Letters to an Under- Graduate” by Thomas Whytehead (1815–1843), a British missionary and graduate of St. John’s College (Cambridge), are used in order to analyze the problems of the UK university education and to present the measures proposed by the author of the book to overcome those problems, including observance of the original university charters, deviations from which were caused by the advent of the Enlightenment era. It is shown that similar problems also occurred in the Russian educational system. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox clergy put a lot of effort in solving them, carefully monitoring educational processes in UK universities. Trends of secularization of society, common to both countries but unable to influence the entire system of university education, were the subject of discussion for Orthodox and Anglican theologians within Anglican- Orthodox contacts that intensified in the 1840s‑1860s.