BelSU professor heads section at All-Russian Forum of young theologians

Among special guests the 3rd All-Russian Forum of Young Theologians recognized Galina Teplykh, the executive director the Scientific and Educational Theological Association (NOTA); Kirill, Bishop of Sergiyev Posad and Dmitrov; vicar of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, chairman of the Synodal Department for work with youth Seraphim; deputy head of the department for supporting the Decade of Science and Technology of the Department of State Policy in Scientific and Technological Development of Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science Sofia Sosnitskaya.

The forum was held at the NOTA universities and theological schools in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Omsk, Saratov, Krasnodar, Ulan-Ude, Makhachkala, Kursk, Belgorod, Orel and Tula.

Belgorod State University was represented by Doctor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Philosophy and Theology, Professor Tamara Lipich. At this year’s event, Professor Lipich also headed the work of the forum’s section dedicated to Relations between state and confessions as a sphere of a theologian’s professional activities. Students of Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD degrees as well as young researchers from the Department of Philosophy and Theology of the BelSU Institute of Social Sciences and Mass Communications actively participated in 12 sections at all sites of the youth Forum. They discussed issues of religious education, family preserving, historical memory, interaction between the state and religious organisations, and the networked world and its influence on the religious life.

Among reports that sparked an active discussion were the ones presented by a third-year postgraduate student of the Department of Philosophy and Theology Ilya Rud who chose to speak on The Influence of Artificial Intelligence on the Modern World’s Religious Sphere; a postgraduate student Nikita Reznik who reported his research on Attitude to Pacifism in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition, Tatyana Rudavina – on Preservation of tradition of orthodox family and historical memory in the Context of Globalization, and Nadezhda Cherepanina’s presentation on Introducing Student youth to traditional family values.

The event became a forum for scientific dialogue between representatives of different religious movements and traditions, and provided a great opportunity to develop skills in holding and participating in scientific discussions on theology.

The speakers’ reports will be published as a collection of forum’s writings Theology and Education 2024.