Discussion of Pedagogical Problems of Studying the Holy Scriptures at the Lessons of God’s Law on the Pages of the St. Petersburg Church Periodicals in the Early 20th century

The sacred history of the Old and New Testaments was a mandatory component of the Law of God and was studied at all levels of primary and secondary school education. The Ministry of Public Education and the Holy Synod in the programs of the subject “The Law of God” determined the content of teaching Sacred History, which was supposed to acquaint students with the Holy Scriptures. Authors of articles on the pages of Church periodicals in early 20th century St. Petersburg highlighted a special problem: in the process of studying, the students almost did not get acquainted with the text of the Holy Scripture, but only consistently learned the events of Sacred history. The students, like society as a whole, were not familiar with the Word of God because they did not read it. Because of this, “vague concepts about the essence of Christianity, hence the vacillation of religious thought” increased in society. This article is devoted to a description of the above problems, as well as their solutions.