Teaching symbolics in Greece in the 19th - early 20th centuries

The article describes the tradition of teaching such a subject as symbolics in Greece in the 19th - early 20th centuries. Considered are the works of the main teachers of symbolics - archbishop Alexander (Lykourgos), Anastas Diomed Kyriakos, John Mesoloras and Christos Androutsos. First of all, their opinions on the symbolic texts of Orthodoxy and their authority for the Church are studied. Then the content of symbolic textbooks published by Greek teachers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are outlined. A comparison of these works with Russian pre-revolutionary textbooks on accusatory theology is also carried out. The conclusion can be made that there were no fundamental contradictions between the Greek teachers of symbolics and the Russian theologians of that time in the presentation of the Orthodox doctrine and assessment of other Christian denominations. At the same time, Greek theology accepted the canon as Orthodox symbolic books, the cannon being vastly different from the one taken hold in the Russian Church. There were disagreements in the assessment of symbolic books and their authority among the Greek theologians themselves too. This situation paved the way to further discussions that took place on this topic in the Orthodox world in the 20th century.