Professor of Kazan Theological Academy A. F. Gusev (1845-1904) as a teacher of fundamental theology

The article studies the heritage of the fundamental theology professor at Kazan Theological Academy, Alexander Fyodorovich Gusev (1845-1904), a prominent representative of Russian apologetic science in the academic theological environment of the Synodal period. Despite a huge number of publications (more than 5000 pages), A. F. Gusev's lecture course on fundamental theology was not published. Taking this into account, an attempt is made to reconstruct the course, for which A. F. Gusev's extant reports on teaching fundamental theology, which briefly present the thematic structure of his lectures, were used along with his publications reflecting this structure. Following are the conclusions made: 1) the results obtained give grounds to speak about the high scientific and theological level of A. F. Gusev's apologetic heritage; this allows us to consider him a worthy successor to the formation and development of fundamental theology at Kazan Theological Academy; 2) A. F. Gusev's scientific, theological and teaching activities were distinguished by his desire to meet the most urgent needs of the time; 3) A. F. Gusev's activities accumulated the best achievements in fundamental theology of St. Petersburg and Kazan Theological Academies; 4) A. F. Gusev's openness to dialogue in discussing fundamental worldview issues can be considered as one of the advantages of his apologetic work; 5) summing up the results of studying A.F. Gusev's activities, it is possible to say that an independent school of fundamental theology has finally been formed at Kazan Theological Academy.