Pedagogy and religion in Sergei Hessen

The inspiration for this article was a monograph entitled Sergiusz Hessen – pedagog odpowiedzialny (Sergei Hessen – the Responsible Pedagogue) by the contemporary philosopher of education Andrea Folkierska. In the abovementioned work the religious thread of pedagogical thought in the work of the polonised Russian, who like no other writer gave a specific trait to 20th-century philosophical pedagogy in Poland, was omitted in complete silence. The article comprises five points. Firstly, the author attempts to define the causes which have led to the contemporary renaissance in Hessen’s thought to the depreciation of the religious references contained in his texts. In the next point he indicates the locus philosophicus, in which Hessen’s concept of the „dialectic relationship” between moral upbringing and religion. After this, in the third point the author postulates the replacement of unclean dialectic, i.e. the two-factored dialectic almost unanimously accepted in the most recent interpretations as the paradigm of the famous Russian’s philosophy of upbringing with the aporetic (Gr. aporia – difficulty). On this backdrop, the fourth point contains consideration of Hessen’s definition of pedagogy as „applied philosophy”. Finally, the author considers the influence of religion on the process of morally becoming human presented by Hessen, particularly with reference to the Christian understanding of God as the supreme (saving) Good, and full of Love