Bažnyčios istorija Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto Teologijos-filosofijos fakulteto profesorių Antano Aleknos ir Jono Totoraičio apibendrinamojo pobūdžio darbuose

Abstract

Both pioneers of Lithuanian academic historiography – priest Antanas Alekna (1872–1930) and Marianite monk Jonas Totoraitis (1872–1941) mark their 140th birth anniversaries in 2012. J. Totoraitis defended the first thesis on Lithuanian historical theme (about King Mindaugas) in 1904 at Catholic University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Since the 1923 fall semester he gave universal history and historical methodology courses at University of Lithuania. Some of Totoraitis works, like “The Church history in Lithuania” are lost and still unpublished. A. Alekna acquired the licensee of Theology degree in 1897 at St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy. He had never been trained as a historian and began to study history in an amateur way. The author of this article has set a task to analyze the problems of the Church history in textbooks of A. Alekna and J. Totoraitis and also to compare their interpretation. The article analyzes such topics as the Christian Civilization, the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Reformation referred in textbooks which had been published in 1920–1939. These topics are chosen as the most popular and controversial in public, as well as in historical and academic discourse.