Metropolitan Alexander’s Article on the Preaching Legacy of Archbishop Sophonias (Sokolsky) Published in the Academic Journal of the Kaluga Theological Seminary

September 24, 2026. Kaluga. An article by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan on the sermons of St. Sophonias (Sokolsky), the first hierarch of Turkestan, has been published in the academic journal of the Kaluga Theological Seminary, Theological and Historical Collection (2026, No. 2 (41)).

The study examines the complete body of Archbishop Sophonias’s published sermons – 49 sermons and addresses delivered between 1837 and 1876. Until now, these texts have been studied only selectively. The article also draws on evidence concerning the saint’s earlier preaching, including a report in Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti on a sermon he delivered in Arkhangelsk in 1832.

The article analyzes the sermons of St. Sophonias using a two-level classification. The first relates the subjects of his sermons to the different periods of his ministry.

During his academic period in the 1830s and 1840s, his sermons were primarily devoted to the instruction of students at theological schools. During his ministry in Kherson in the 1860s, he addressed the zemstvo and judicial reforms, the opening of educational institutions, and events in the Imperial family. During his Turkestan period in the 1870s, his preaching acquired a distinctly missionary dimension.

The second level of analysis identifies the central theological themes of his preaching. These include the inner transformation of the human person; the contrast between the “sons of light” and the “sons of this age”; the understanding of the righteous as the unseen support of the world; the Gospel understanding of wealth and almsgiving; and the theological justification of monarchical authority. In his Turkestan sermons, these themes are joined by the question of Orthodoxy’s responsibility for the spiritual enlightenment of the peoples of the region.

The article is entitled “Thematic and Semantic Features of the Sermons of His Eminence Sophonias (Sokolsky), First Archbishop of Turkestan (1800–1877).”

Theological and Historical Collection is included in the official list of peer-reviewed academic journals in which the principal research findings of dissertations for the degrees of Candidate of Sciences and Doctor of Sciences are required to be published.