On December 2, 2024, the Department of Ancient Languages of St. Petersburg Theological Academy held a scientific and theological conference «Translations and Studies of Christian Sources» timed to coincide with the Memorial Day of St. Philaret of Moscow, Rector of St. Petersburg Theological Academy (1812-1819). Work on translations of the works of the holy fathers and ancient church writers has been and remains one of the main aspects of the activities of higher church educational institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Academy on the Neva River has been actively involved in translation activities throughout the 19th century and is restoring this tradition today.
The first report «Translation activity in St. Petersburg Theological Academy in the pre-revolutionary period: conclusions and prospects» was delivered by the senior lecturer of St. Petersburg Theological Academy Hieromonk Bartholomew (Magnitsky). Fr. Bartholomew spoke about the publication of translations in the pre-revolutionary journal «Christian Reading». The translation activity of that time can be divided into two periods: at first translations were done fragmentarily, and from the XIX century they became more complete, in particular, the idea of translating the works of St. John Chrysostom was chosen.
The report «Antique literary heritage in the era of Christianity of the IV and V centuries» presented by Professor of SPbDA Doctor of Historical Sciences A. B. Egorov.
After that the report «Russian translations of the works of St. Gregory the Great: history, problems, prospects» was read, which was prepared by the assistant of the chairs of theology and philology Moscow Theological Academy, lecturer at the Department of Systematic Theology and Patrology of the Orthodox Svyato-Tikhonovsky Humanitarian University, Master of Theology Hierodeacon Gregory (Trofimov). Fr. Gregory noted that pre-revolutionary translations often have the character of paraphrase, while modern scholarly translations, although striving for textual punctuality, do not always maintain a clear strategy in terms of conveying theological terminology. On this basis, the speaker concluded that the urgent task is not only to translate and comment on the Holy Fathers, but also to create dictionaries and manuals on the vocabulary of this or that author.
In the distance format, a senior lecturer of the Department of Ancient Languages and Ancient Christian Scriptures of the Theological Faculty of PSTSU, as well as the Department of Philology of the Moscow Theological Academy, candidate of philological sciences R.S. Soloviev, PhD in philology, delivered a report «The ascent from Greek grammar to the translation of the Holy Fathers: the experience of the translation of the Holy Fathers: the experience of the translation of the Holy Fathers. R.S. Soloviev spoke about the problems of isolation of the translator and shared his experience of translating the St. Andrew's Seminar of the Moscow Theological Academy.
The Vicar of Andreevsky Stavropigial Monastery, Head of the Postgraduate School of the MDA, Professor of the Department of Theology of the MDA Higumen Dionysius (Shlyonov) presented a report «Sacred Theological Exegesis in Theory and Practice». Fr. Dionysius said that exegesis of Holy Scripture is extremely important because it is not just a narrowly taken interpretation. Exegesis can be a kind of lessons in sacramental theology, ascetics, repentance and more.
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The report «What do we know about New Testament Syriac exegesis? » was presented by Priest Alexander Zinovkin, Head of the Department of Ancient Languages of St. Petersburg State DDA, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Candidate of Theology. He spoke about the fact that the contribution of Syriacs to Christian literature is not yet fully realized, because many manuscripts are either not published at all, or published but not studied.
Report «To the issue of formation of criteria for the translation of liturgical texts into Church-Russian in the context of the development of translation activities of the XVII-XXI centuries» was presented by the author. Chairman of the Publishing Council of the St. Petersburg Diocese, candidate of theology, Hegumen Siluan (Tumanov). He spoke about the problems accompanying the formation of criteria for translating texts of Holy Scripture, and raised a number of related issues, one of which is the problem of choosing artistic or literal styles of translating texts.
Docent of the Department of Biblical Studies of SPbDA, candidate of theology, priest Alexei Sergeyev read the report «Features of Blessed Augustine's commentary on the letters of the Apostle Paul»
The report «Modern Greek Fathers and Theologians on Family Values» was delivered by Archpriest Vladimir Goncharenko, Candidate of Theology, SPbDA.
At the end, Priest Alexander Zinovkin thanked the audience for their participation in the scientific event and invited them to an open lecture by Hegumen Dionisy (Shlyonov).
Press-service of SPbDA/Patriarchy.ru
