Jewish Theology
Source: https://english.spbu.ru/admission/programms/undergraduate/jewish-theology Parent: https://english.spbu.ru/admission/programms/undergraduate
48.03.01 In English and Russian
Level of education Bachelor
Type of instruction Full-time
Duration 4 years
With the additional qualifications ‘Teacher of Additional Education’ / ‘Teacher of the Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Social Ethics’
Programme description
The undergraduate programme 'Jewish Theology' aims to study the intellectual and spiritual component of Jewish civilisation in its historical development.
Graduates will not only have a holistic understanding of the development of Jewish theology, but will also be able to conduct an independent philosophical and socio-cultural analysis of events, processes and phenomena, and to interpret theological concepts within the Jewish tradition.
Main courses
- Issues of the early rabbinic Judaism
- Introduction to the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible
- Introduction to the textual criticism of the Nevi’im
- Geopolitical history of the country of Israel
- Heterodox Currents in Judaism History (and theological and religious thought) of Ancient Israel and Judah
- History of Jews in Russia
- Judaism and Hellenism
- Jewish theology in the Middle Ages (in English)
- Cultural traditions of Israel
- Directions and foundations of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid’s disciples
- The pedagogy of teaching Torah
- Turning points in the history of the people of Israel from their origins to the present day
- Religious movements in modern Judaism
- A theological analysis of the Book of Genesis
Our advantages
The programme focuses on the following research areas:
- Fundamental problems of Orthodox theology from a confessional and comparative perspective, and its relationship with other Abrahamic cultures
- Contemporary peculiarities of state-confessional relations
Teaching staff
- Dmitrii Shmonin, Doctor of Science (Philosophy), Professor, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Issues of Theology, Chairman of the Expert Council of the Higher Assessment Committee under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for Theology, and a member of the Committee for the Development of Theological, Religious, and Spiritual-Moral Education of the Council for Coordination with Religious Organisations under the President of the Russian Federation. He is the author of over 140 papers on the history of philosophical and theological thought and the philosophy and theology of education
- Igor Tantlevskii, Doctor of Science (Philosophy), Professor, Director of the International Centre for Biblical and Jewish Studies at St Petersburg University, in partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Co-Chair of the Academic Board of the International Association for Jewish Studies and Culture; Expert of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Member of the Expert Council of the Higher Assessment Committee under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation for Theology; Member of the Expert Scientific Council on Education under the Chief Rabbi of Russia; Chief co-editor (from the Russian side) of the international peer-reviewed journals Judaica Petropolitana and The Jewish Speech; Member of the editorial boards and councils of the international peer-reviewed journals Issues of Theology, ὉΜΙΛΗΤΙΚΉ. Ideology and Society, and the International Journal of Philosophy; Recipient of Scopus Awards Russia 2018: For contribution to science in the field of Arts & Humanities. He is the author of 24 monographs and annotated translations of classical texts from Classical Hebrew and Aramaic, accompanied by scholarly research, as well as over 200 articles and chapters in multi-authored monographs and textbooks in both Russian and English. His research focuses on the history and ideology of the Qumran community; the history and worldview of Israel and Judaea during the First and Second Temple periods; biblical studies; translation and analysis of the books of the biblical prophets and Jewish pseudepigrapha; the history of ancient philosophy; Spinoza’s philosophy; and the history of theology