On the eve of the 500th anniversary of the introduction to the academic community the concept of "Psychology" it is time to recall the classical phrase of H. Ebbinghaus, German philosopher and psychologist about that "psychology has a short history, but a long prehistory." Things, objects and phenomena find their inner meaning and content only when they are vested with the name. This task was done by the Croatian humanist, poet and writer Marko Marulic (1450-1524). Then we have a reason to consider this event as the end of prehistory and the beginning of history of psychology.

Since that time the psychology was developed in the framework of the humanitarian paradigm. Among the range of humanitarian psychologists it remains almost unknown the name of an outstanding writer and scientist N.V. Gogol (1809-1852). His views on the nature of mental phenomena developed largely under the influence of philosophers and theologians who participated in the scientific discussion on psychological problems. Our paper is devoted to this issue.

The important issue in the history of psychology XIX century is the participation of theologians in the scientific discussion on psychology. Theological academies have always been an abundance of educated people, deep thinkers and philosophers. I.V. Tsvyk notes that the Theological academies provide the quality of teaching of philosophical disciplines, including the contemporary philosophy. She writes: "Philosophical works of the professors of Theological academies of XIX century, their teaching, translation, publishing, theoretical work have contributed not only to the modernization of the Orthodox consciousness, but also to the development of Russian philosophy in general".

Philosophical views of thinkers of the theological academies were different: from absolutely religious to openly scientific. The dynamics of views in religious philosophy (or the theological and academic philosophy) took place in this area (from the extremely religious to scientific) from the beginning of the nineteenth century and to its end. The essence of the religious philosophy of the first half of the XIX century was accurately expressed by the Emperor Alexander I in the charter of the theological academies, which was approved in 1814. He wrote that the basis of the "true" philosophy is the Holy scripture and the teachings of Plato. Such a view is considered to be scholastic.

Those positions were held by the following scholars: I.M. Skvortsov, F.F. Sidonsky, Archimandrite Gavriil. Analyzing the philosophical bases formulated by mentioned thinkers, we conclude that such concept of the theological and academic philosophy is a purely religious philosophizing. Moreover, we can say that this philosophy is a closed system. These theologians didn’t consider psychology as part of the philosophy, but their works were related with the psychological issues: the functioning of the mind and the will, the development of self-awareness and knowledge of the human spirit.

In the second half of the XIX century there were changes in position of psychology in philosophical sciences. V.N. Karpov identified the philosophy of conceivable-subjective (synthetic psychology and analytical psychology) and the philosophy of conceivable-objective (natural philosophy, practical philosophy, aesthetics and philosophy of religion). P.M. Yurkevich, criticizing materialism, pointed out that psychology is the means by which philosophy can know the inner experience and justify moral activity. V.A. Snegirev characterized the psychology as a science, which is central among the humanities and which can help the philosopher to know subjective processes.

F.A. Golubinsky considered the empirical psychology as a philosophical sciences, because it highlights the most notable and properties of the human soul.  V.D. Kudryavtsev-Platonov identified the propaedeutic sciences (which carry out the introduction to philosophy) and the actual philosophical disciplines. Psychology is the propaedeutic science and its mission "to show the psychological formation of the main ideas which determine our mental, moral and aesthetic life".

The analysis showed that the development of the significance of psychology in the philosophy had been changed in ascending order: the first half of the nineteenth century is characterized by a weak interest in psychology from the spiritual and academic philosophy, since the 40-ies of the XIX century theologians changed their mind on the psychological analysis of the soul and used the achievements of psychology in theology and philosophy.