The article presents an integrative methodological model for modern Islamic theology, designated by the author’s term “Meta-Kalam”. This model is conceptualized as a “second-order” reflection aimed at overcoming the epistemological gap between classical rational theology (‘ilm al-kalām), which performs a normative-protective function with respect to religious doctrine (‘aqīda), and modern academic theology, which treats religious phenomena as an object of critical analysis. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study comprises, on the one hand, classical Islamic sources, and on the other hand, the works of contemporary Russian and Western scholars in the fields of theology and Islamic studies. The methodology of the work is integrative in nature: it synthesizes traditional Islamic hermeneutical and logico-rational methods with the methods of modern humanities. The paper substantiates a three-level methodological architecture of “Meta-Kalam”: at the level of theoretical theology (5.11.1), a hierarchical system is proposed that combines the stratification of traditional Islamic methods, the hermeneutical spiral of modern humanities, and the radial model of integrating adjacent sciences while preserving the dogmatic core. In historical theology (5.11.2), a synthesis of immanent and critical approaches is demonstrated through the convergent model. For practical theology (5.11.3), a hierarchical model of normative-social action is proposed, ensuring the transition from theological axiomatics to social diagnosis and project implementation. As a separate methodological aspect, the article examines the question of the author’s deliberate introduction of a number of neologisms, which are interpreted not as claiming the status of theological definitions, but as working analytical constructs serving the tasks of integrating the traditional heritage and modern science. The conclusion is drawn that “Meta-Kalam” serves as a foundation for the formation of an authentic and scientifically sound Russian school of Islamic theology.

Keywords: Islamic theology, methodology, Meta-Kalam, integrative approach, Russian umma, theoretical theology, historical theology, practical theology.

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Sedankina T.E. The “Meta-Kalam” Concept as an Integrative Methodology of Modern Islamic Theology: Theoretical, Historical, and Practical Aspects. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 5–23. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp047

This article examines the evolution of Serbian funeral tradition in the seventeenth century on the basis of manuscript and early printed sources. The study aims to reconstruct the state of the Serbian funeral rite on the eve of the eighteenth-century Russification and to identify the principal directions of its development. A comparative analysis of manuscripts from the collections of the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Hilandar Monastery, the Russian National Library, the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other sources was undertaken. The analysis demonstrates that the Serbian ecclesiastical milieu continued to preserve theological conceptions of burial inherited from the ancient Byzantine tradition, understanding burial as a conciliar liturgical act linked to Baptism and the Paschal mystery. At the same time, the seventeenth century already reveals processes that would later transform the tradition. These processes included the adaptation of existing liturgical rites to new historical conditions, the weakening of their conciliar and baptismal dimensions, the emergence of new specialised rites, and the gradual introduction of texts from a different liturgical tradition, including versions similar to Metropolitan Peter Mohyla’s Trebnik. Particular attention is paid to the manuscripts from the R. Gruić’s Collection, which make it possible to refine our understanding of several aspects of the development of the Serbian funeral tradition in the seventeenth century, identify previously unnoticed versions of funeral rites, and trace the coexistence of ancient liturgical elements with new textual developments. The findings allow the seventeenth century to be understood as a transitional period, in which the ancient liturgical heritage was still preserved while already coexisting with new textual developments that prepared the way for subsequent changes in Serbian liturgical practice.

Keywords: burial tradition, burial rite, Serbian Orthodox Church, baptismal theology of burial, Trebnik, Serbian manuscripts, Russification of worship, Metropolitan Petar Mogila, Serbia.

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Mikhaylovskaya N.L. The Evolution of the Funeral Tradition and its Theology in the Serbian Orthodox Church in the 17th Century. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 24–45. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp048

This article, based on an analysis of the writings of Mar Babai the Great (The Book of the Union with the Tractatus Vaticanus), proposes a new terminological interpretation of the East-Syriac concept qnōmā. The author systematically argues that qnōmā is not equivalent to the Greek hypostasis, but should rather be understood as the “existence” (actus essendi) of a particular nature (kyānā). This redefinition, it is contended, effectively eliminates the centuries-old conceptual confusions that have historically arisen between the Syriac and Byzantine Christological traditions. The study further posits a functional identification of Babai‘s qnōmā with the “enhypostatized nature” (physis enhypostatos) found in the theology of Maximus the Confessor. This parallelism is examined systematically here for the first time in connection with the ascetic-mystical dimension of Babai’s doctrine: the human qnōmā of Christ serves as the ontological paradigm for the monastic striving toward deification (theosis). In addition, the paper elucidates the anthropological dimension of qnōmā through an analysis of Babai‘s polemic against Origenism. Within his framework, the unity of soul and body in the human qnōmā constitutes the ontological basis for comprehending the fullness of the humanity assumed by Christ—including its natural will, natural energy (energeia), and natural development from conception to death. Consequently, the author concludes that Babai’s terminological system is internally coherent and soterologically motivated. It effectively resolves the principal theological contradictions traditionally attributed to the “Nestorianism” of the Church of the East, thereby opening up new prospects for theological dialogue with Byzantine Orthodoxy.

Keywords: qnōmā, Mar Babai the Great, Church of the East, Christology, hypostasis, parsopa, ascetic mysticism, Syriac theology, theology.

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Alkhas A.S. The Theological Use of the Term “qnōmā” in the East Syrian Tradition, Based on the Writings of Mar Babai the Great. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 46–61. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp049

This article presents a publication of materials from the archive of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos relating to the life of the English ecclesiastical and diplomatic figure David Balfour (1903–1989). The greater part of the materials consists of Balfour’s letters to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery and dates to the 1930s, when Balfour had just converted to Orthodoxy and subsequently lived and served in Greece. The published archival materials reflect the many facets of Balfour’s personality, his interests, plans, and the complex vicissitudes of his fate, including his relinquishment of holy orders and the start of his diplomatic career. In comparison with Balfour’s widely known correspondence with his spiritual father, Schemarchimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), which primarily reveals Balfour’s inner world, his letters to the future Archbishop of Brussels and Belgium Basil (Krivoshein), included in the article, contain much information about his external life in the 1930s–1940s. Besides everyday details, Balfour’s letters contain information about the Orthodox community in Jerusalem, his contacts with representatives of the Russian emigration, and academic and ecclesiastical circles in Greece. The greater part of the cited archival documents is published for the first time. The introductory article provides an outline of Balfour’s life in the 1930s, drawing attention to those biographical details that usually remain in the shadows in studies devoted to Balfour, but are clarified thanks to the materials from the archive of the Panteleimon Monastery. In particular, this concerns Balfour’s attitude toward the development of English Orthodoxy in the 1930s.

Keywords: David Balfour, Vasily Krivoshein, Sophrony Sakharov, Lazarus Moore, Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, English Orthodoxy, theology, Christianity.

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Tihonov A.A. Materials for the Biography of David Balfour from the Archives of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 62–95. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp050

The encounter between Christianity and African indigenous cultures, spanning more than five centuries from the earliest Portuguese missions on the Kongo coast to the mass conversions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has produced one of the most consequential processes of religious and cultural change in world history. This article traces that encounter across its principal regional theatres Kongo and Angola, the Niger Delta and Igboland, Yorubaland, Buganda, the Cape and Natal, and Ethiopia and analyses the strategies of cultural displacement, resistance, and negotiation that accompanied it. It argues, following Eze’s (2022) doctoral dissertation on African communalism as a paradigm for interreligious dialogue, that the durability and creativity of African Christianity are best explained not by the success of missionary transplantation but by the resilience of African communal ontology, which absorbed, translated, and Africanised a foreign religion into something recognisably its own. The article surveys the rise of African independent and Zionist churches, the emergence of academic African theology from the 1950s onward, and the practical and theological lessons this history holds for contextual theology and interreligious dialogue in contemporary Africa.

Keywords: Christianity, African culture, mission history, inculturation, contextual theology, African independent churches, African communalism.

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Eze K.E. Christianity’s Encounter with African Culture: Mission History, Cultural Negotiation, and Contextual Theology. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 96–115. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp051

The study aims to demonstrate the missionary activity of Russian Orthodox Church representatives among non-Orthodox believers with the aim of converting them to Orthodoxy, using the example of the Kasimov Khanate, a Muslim domain that existed in the heart of the Russian state from the mid-15th century until 1681. The hypothesis of the study is that the Christianization of the Kasimov Tatars was carried out predominantly by non-violent means and that its pace was determined by the political interests of the state. Methods: review of scholarly literature and other sources, analysis of historical documents and legislative acts, historical-genetic and comparative methods, and interpretation of the collected information. Results: the findings indicate that the Christianization of the Khanate’s Tatar population proceeded predominantly by non-violent means: its principal instruments were land and monetary grants to the newly baptized, the equation of the baptized nobility with the Russian service class, and dynastic marriages. The turning points were the baptism of khans Sain-Bulat (Simeon Bekbulatovich) in 1573 and Seyid-Burhan (Vasily Arslanovich) in 1653, as well as the preaching of Archbishop Misail of Ryazan. Missionary work achieved certain success during the period under review, but its further development was halted due to opposition from the Muslim clergy and the Tatar population, the missionaries’ ignorance of the Tatar language, the subsequent recognition of Muslims’ freedom of religion, and the legalization of Islam. Conclusion: the hypothesis was confirmed in its main provisions; despite the prolonged and not always consistent process of Christianization of the Kasimov Khanate’s Tatar population, the Khanate serves as an example of the coexistence of different peoples and religions within a single state.

Keywords: Orthodoxy, church, missionary activity, Tatars, missionary work, Qasim Khanate, Christianity, Islam, baptism.

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Seferyants A.V. Christian Missionary Work Among the Non-Orthodox Population of the Ryazan Region: From the History of the Kasimov Khanate. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 116–133. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp052

This article examines the discursive sources and orientational structures of post-Soviet, church-adjacent eschatology, drawing on material from the mass-circulation Cuban newspaper Heal Through Faith (1997–2004). Employing the concept of the "spiritual vacuum" — a notion popular in critical scholarship — the author argues that the Soviet citizens who joined the church in the 1990s brought with them a pre-existing set of cognitive and linguistic stereotypes rooted in the late Soviet era. The study identifies three primary sources of eschatological ideas within the press under analysis: canonical New Testament texts, prophecies of a quasi-patristic nature, and the "orientational structures" of late Soviet urban culture. The article analyzes the functioning of the language of the "Soviet incredible" (parapsychology, bioenergy, popular scientism, and the concept of the body's "reserve capabilities") alongside traditional legends concerning "dangerous objects" and "foreign saboteurs." It demonstrates that post-Soviet vernacular apocalypticism is not merely an archaic mythological relic but rather a specific transposition of late-socialist authoritative discourse and "healthy lifestyle" (ZOZh) practices into the language of Orthodox doctrine.

Keywords: church-adjacent culture, vernacular religiosity, Orthodox eschatology, Heal Through Faith, late Soviet culture, conspiracy theories, spiritual vacuum, theology, religion in the USSR.

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Sapogov I.A. The Rationalist Eschatology of the Newspaper "Heal Through Faith". Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 134–152. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp053

This article examines the mechanisms of youth evangelization within a parish and the role of the parish rector in these processes. The empirical case is the parish of the Church of Saint Antipas of Pergamum in Kolymazhny Dvor in Moscow, one of the capital’s most prominent parishes with a strong youth presence, known for its well-developed media infrastructure, church-based coffee shop, and range of branded merchandise. The study addresses the following research question: what methods and approaches does the parish rector use in working with youth communities, and what attracts young parishioners to the community and what encourages them to remain in it? The empirical material consists of twelve semi-structured interviews conducted in the spring of 2025 and participant observation within the parish. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that young parishioners are drawn to the community not by the rector’s personal charisma, but by a low barrier to entry, the church’s reputation as a place where “people are not reprimanded,” and the accessibility of parish life through social media. What encourages them to remain in the parish, however, is an infrastructure that supports the process of becoming churched (churching)—including the refectory and coffee shop, choir, educational courses, and open group chats—as well as branded imagery and merchandise that serve as a symbolic bond within the parish community. Informants describe the rector’s role primarily in administrative terms: he gives his blessing to projects that are implemented by other members of the clergy.

Keywords: open-type parish, Orthodox youth, rector, evangelization, missionary practices, parish community, church integration, thematic analysis, theology.

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Merkulova S.V. The Role of the Rector in the Evangelization of Youth Groups: A Case Study of the Parish of the Church of the Hieromartyr Antipas. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 153–170. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp054

The article is an analytical review of the literature on the problem of olfactory experience in the anthropology of religion. Despite the growing interest in smells in the humanities, the question of the analytical possibilities of appealing to the perception of smells in the study of religious life remains insufficiently developed. The purpose of the article is to systematize the main approaches to the study of olfactory experience. The approaches of researchers working within the framework of sensory anthropology to the study of the cultural conditioning of olfactory experience are considered. The concepts of smellscape by Douglas Porteous and embodied space by Seth Lowe are also analyzed, connecting smell with space and bodily practices. Roxana Arash's research on the sacred smellscapes of religious communities in Beirut illustrates the possibilities of using olfactory experience in the study of religion. The considered concepts and empirical case allow us to see in olfactory experience an analytical resource for the study of religious life.

Keywords: olfactoriness, olfactory experience, anthropology of religion, sensory ethnography, landscape of smells, religious space, religion, theology.

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Makhteva A.I. Olfactory Experience in the Study of Religion: A Literature Review and Analytical Potential. Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 171–185. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp055

The article analyzes the process of practical implementation of administrative supervision procedures for religious groups of Petrograd/Leningrad in the 1920s–1930s based on the archival materials from the Central State Archive of Saint Petersburg. Using the example of the Old Believers from the Gromovskoye Church Cemetery, the aspects of the religious group’s involvement in processes related to supervision are examined. The analysis focuses not only on factual information from sources but also on their social consequences and impact on the processes of knowledge production. The thesis put forward is that administrative supervision, through the creation of documents, constructed reality and a subject of supervision — a religious parish. This very “paper” parish appears in the “surveillance cases”, “closure cases” and “registration cases”, which contain information about property, membership and activities of a religious group. Within the framework of supervision this recorded in written form information became official knowledge, on the basis of which decisions regarding the fate of the parish were made — in particular, whether to preserve or close it. Supervision was an institution responsible for producing knowledge sanctioned by the state and classifying Soviet citizens, but the method of collecting information, which came mostly from the believers themselves, allowed the subjects of supervision to become active participants in the control process, which made supervision not only a vertical channel for the exercise of power, but also a space of ongoing interaction and conflict between various interests. Some religious parishes, particularly the Gromovskaya community of Old Believers, tried to play an active role in supervision practices through self-representation, appeals to legality and other means of communication with representatives of the authorities. In this way, they became the co-authors of knowledge produced about them. However, based on the materials presented in the archive it can be concluded that the representatives of the authorities retained a monopoly over knowledge production, and all attempts by believers to create a specific image of their community and defend their interests generally proved unsuccessful.

Keywords: administrative oversight, Old Belief, USSR religious policy, "paper parish," Gromovskoye Cemetery, construction of reality, archival ethnography, religious studies, theology, Christianity.

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Pankratova A.V. “Constructed Parish”: Administrative Supervision as a Space for Dialogue between Authorities and Believers (The Case of the Gromovskaya Old Believer Community in the 1920s and 1930s). Theology: Theory and Practice, 2026, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 186–209. https://doi.org/10.65324/ttp056