Abstract

The article contains first complete and systematic analysis of the studies devoted to dogmatics and liturgy, the history and the modern state of Catholicism published by Kyiv Theological Academy professors and pupils in the journal “Trudy Kievskoi dukhovnoi akademii” starting from the 1860s to the beginning of 1900s. This paper considers the main problems, themes, ideas which became the subject of interest of the Kyiv thinkers in studying this Christian denomination as well as highlights the specificity of the approach of the authors to certain aspects of the issue raised in the articles. The main directions of research on Catholicism are singled out, and an attempt is made to give a characteristic to each of these directions: 1) researches of dogmatic and canonical principles of the Catholic Church ; 2) history of Catholicism – history of cathedrals, papacy, missionary and educational activity of monastic orders in Western European and Ukrainian territories and at the same time the history of certain prominent personalities of Catholicism ; 3) review and assessment of the religious life of Western Europe in the middle of the 19th – early 20th centuries through the prism of important events within the Catholic Church. Consideration of the journal publications allows author to conclude that they present a rather fruitful experience of comprehending one of the most influential religious traditions of the Western Catholicism.