СВЕТИ ЈУСТИН ПОПОВИЋ О ПАПСТВУ
ST JUSTIN POPOVIĆ ON PAPACY

Author(s): Vladimir Cvetković
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Theology and Religion, Comparative Studies of Religion, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: Justin Popović; papacy; ecumenism; papal infallibility; universal jurisdiction
Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to analyse St Justin Popović’s critique of papacy, which is one of the most recurrent themes in his entire opus. I will first examine St Justin’s early critique of the papacy from his Oxford B.Litt thesis on Dostoyevsky and articles published in the journal Christian Life, arguing that his harsh criticism of the Pope might be seen as a reaction to Vatican’s Ostpolitik. The focus is then shifted to the period of the 1930s and 1940s, in which in my view St Justin follows his mentor Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, in his attempt to distinguish between papacy and Catholicism, describing the former as a sort of ecclesial imperialism. Finally, his letters to the Holy Synod about ecumenical meetings between the Roman Catholic and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Yugoslavia from 1970s will be under scrutiny as well. I argue that the main obstacles to Christian unity for St Justin are the papal claim to universal jurisdiction and infallibility.

• Details
• Contents