Krikščionybė ir Bažnyčia integruotos – visuotinės ir Lietuvos – istorijos vadovėliuose
Christianity and the church as reflected in school textbooks on integrated universal and lithuanian history

Summary/Abstract: past. On the other hand, the crisis of the traditional society which is largely caused by the devaluation of the revealed or eternal values makes it obvious that Christianity as the source of these values, and the Church as their bearer, have to be rehabilitated and brought back into history books and textbooks. It is therefore important to analyse textbooks of history from their point of view on Christianity and the Church, the more so because the topic has not been studied. The contrast between the relevance and the neglect of the problem is very obvious, but it has not yet received any scientific analysis. We are dealing with this problem here on the basis of the newest school textbooks by Lithuanian authors (1998–2003) on integrated universal and Lithuanian history for forms 7–10. The main points of our analysis are as follows: a) the amount of direct attention to Christianity and the Church, b) the phenomena and the features discussed and the way they are shown, c) the main drawbacks of their treatment, d) the relationship of the other historical aspects shown in the textbooks with Christianity and the Church (or the absence of this relationship), e) the main features of treating Christianity and the Church. The textbook „Ancient History” for form 7 does not include any chapters on Christianity or the Church. But we can find smaller paragraphs entitled „Jewish faith. The Bible” and „Beginning of Christianity”. The textbook for form 8 discusses the 6th–18th centuries, and two chapters out of fourteen are directly devoted to Christianity and the Church, namely „Clergy and the Christian Church” and „Reformation”. The textbook for the 9th form which analyses the end of the 18th century – the beginning of the 20th century, does not devote a single chapter to Christianity or the Church among the ten chapters and 48 paragraphs it includes. The same happens in the textbook for the 10th form which is about the 20th century. The 7th form textbook on Ancient history discusses the Scripture in the paragraphs about Jewish faith and the Bible, but the New Testament is described in one short passage only. There is a short description about the way of the Bible to Lithuania: why it came so late and how it reached this country. The paragraph „Beginning of Christianity” gives a short but clear explanation of Jesus Christ and his teaching, tells about the spreading of Christianity, its persecutions and its final recognition. Nevertheless, some mistakes and errors are present here, as well as things that are out–of–date. The chapter „Clergy and the Christian Church” in the 8th form textbook tells about the split of the Church in 1054, about the problems and Cluny’s reform, about the heresies, monasticism and the Crusades. The description is exclusively secular; it does not in any way show the inner development of the Church. Errors are present here, too.

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