Keyword: «confessional pedagogy»

The end of the twentieth century was marked in Russia by a rapid breakdown in the socio-cultural paradigm. Giving common ideology and official atheism up led the religious organizations of our state to the long-awaited freedom of activity, and citizens to real freedom of conscience. A natural consequence of this was the recognition of religious confessional education by Russian pedagogical science not only as a historical phenomenon, but also as an objective modern phenomenon. Thus, the long-term tendency to separate the secular component from the once unified structure of pedagogical science was replaced by a desire for interaction and mutual enrichment with religious confessional pedagogy. At the same time, it is necessary to admit the fact that there is great difference between the empirical reality existing in the sphere of education (the existence of confessional Sunday schools network, general and higher educational institutions, etc.) and its theoretical interpretation by pedagogical science. The religious pedagogy, called to cover the lacuna formed in the subject field of pedagogy, is just emerging as a structural unit of pedagogical science. Hence, the purpose of this article is to justify the need to develop on the basis of cultural and anthropological methodological approaches a confessional methodological approach in pedagogy that reflects the general and special features of educational systems and processes developed by traditional domestic faiths. The methodological base of the research was made up of both general scientific methodological approaches (systemic, comparative, paradigmatic, historical, ontological) and specific scientific methodological approaches: a culture studying approach that made it possible to correlate common, individual and special cultural phenomena, including religion and education; axiological approach, the use of which allowed us to consider value orientations as the most important elements of personality, orienting it in the world of material and spiritual culture and providing its motivation for behavior and activity. The definition of the concept "confessional methodological approach" is proposed. Character, key ideas, content and properties of confessional education allowed to determine the fundamental principles of the confessional methodological approach in pedagogy: the principle of strict following the confessional creed and affirmation in it of all subjects of the educational process; the principle of following confessional anthropology; the principle of cultural appropriateness; the principle of equal action of all social institutions participating in the confessional educational process; the principle of respect for freedom; the principle of upbringing priority over learning in a holistic, confessional educational process; the principle of harmonious interaction of rational and emotional bases. Development of the confessional methodological approach in pedagogy will allow to define more accurately the subject of a new structural unit of pedagogical science – confessional pedagogy. Along with this, it becomes possible to form objective criteria for determining secular / confessional principles of the educational process character, which is relevant in the context of the prospect of expanding the course "The Basics of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics" in secondary schools from the first to the ninth grades. This will be an effective tool for state monitoring and regulation of the education.