“… Imprimi sicut nationi russicae decori & utilitati foret …”: The role of German Pietists’ educational activities in the early eighteenth-century Russia and their contribution to the formation of Russian professional terminology
The movement of Pietism, which emerged in Germany in the progressive Protestant milieu in the late 17th century, called for a reform of the Reformation. In order to make the idea of “true Christianity” and “true piety” accessible and understandable to every ordinary believer, it set as i...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for the Serbian Language, Belgrade
2023-01-01
|
| Series: | Južnoslovenski Filolog |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-185X/2023/0350-185X2302029M.pdf |
| Summary: | The movement of Pietism, which emerged in Germany in the progressive
Protestant milieu in the late 17th century, called for a reform of the
Reformation. In order to make the idea of “true Christianity” and “true
piety” accessible and understandable to every ordinary believer, it set as
its primary goal the universal enlightenment of the nations necessary for
every Christian to read and understand the full text of the Holy Scriptures.
The realization of this goal included the translation of the full text of
the Bible into the national languages and its distribution in the form of
printed editions. The quote in the title of this article is from the preface
to the very first grammar of the Russian language (LUDOLF 1696, see [3
(A)]), showing that the “printing” of “good books” in Russian was not only
envisioned by the Pietists, but should, in their opinion, serve “for the
beauty and benefit of the Russian nation”. In addition to the creation of
the first grammars of the Russian language, which had not existed until
then, the enlightenment activities of the Pietists in Russia encompassed the
production of translations of Western European literature into Russian from
various fields of knowledge - pedagogy, history, theology, etc., which led
to the creation of a new vocabulary in Russian, including the field of
naming professions and specialized terminology. In the proposed article
these processes are shown, on the one hand, on the example of a brief
analysis of the first grammars of the Russian language, created by German
Pietists; on the other hand, on the example of translation of the statutes
of Lutheran churches and schools in Russia, the formation of a special
Russian ecclesiastical terminology in the field of religious life of
Lutherans is considered. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0350-185X 2406-0763 |