ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the Orthodox scholars who developed the academic study of church/canon law in modern Russia. The story begins in 1863 with the decision to establish departments of church law in the law faculties of Russian universities. The university-based pioneers were joined by peers in Orthodox theological academies, where parallel degree-granting departments of church/canon law were established in 1884. The chapter offers an overview of the family background, education, and career paths of the modern canonists as an identifiable, albeit diverse, professional group. Five of the most productive canonists are presented in greater detail with a focus on the intellectual and institutional challenges facing Orthodox church/canon law in the modern age. The five are Mikhail Gorchakov (1838–1910), Aleksei Pavlov (1832–98), Nikolai Suvorov (1848–1909), Ilya Berdnikov (1839–1915), and Nikolai Zaozerskii (1851–1919). The chapter concludes with an account of the crucial role played by professional canonists in the Pre-Conciliar Commission of 1906, an assembly convened to address the future of Russia’s Orthodox Church following the political and constitutional changes precipitated by the Revolution of 1905.
