Formation of Romanian Dogmatic Theology in the 19th Century

The article describes the process of formation of Romanian dogmatics in the 19th century in a general way. During this period, the formation of the system of theological education was going on by establishing seminaries, institutes, and then theological faculties in Chernivtsi and Bucharest Universities. Dogmatics was a compulsory subject in these educational institutions, and classes, as a rule, usually took one year. However, no bright thinkers who could be called independent theologians had yet appeared among the teachers of dogmatics during this period. As a rule, they had several subjects to teach on the schedule and did not have an opportunity to focus on developing dogmatic issues in depth and compiling high-quality theological literature. While delivering lectures, the teaching aids they had were mainly Romanian translations of Russian textbooks on dogmatics. In the second half of the 19th century, the first national manuals on this discipline began to appear, compiled by such authors as Metropolitan Silvester (Morari- Andrievich), Priest Alexiu Comoroshan, Archpriest Stefan Calinescu, Archpriest Calistrat Coca, Archpriest Gregory Pletosu. The analysis of these textbooks shows that they were based primarily on Russian theological literature and partly on Catholic textbooks on dogmatics. Despite all the difficulties, in the 19th century there was a maturation process of Romanian dogmatic theology, which bore abundant fruits in the following century.