In the middle of March 1918, they moved to Cuddesdon College buildings (credit: Mark Chapman: email letter to the author October 3, 2018: source Cuddesdon College Archives, C2/2.). Most of them resided in Cuddesdon (29): at first in the vicarage and in the Bishop’s House (correspondence from Mark Chapman to the author March 19, 2013). The main group, numbering over 50, arrived in early 1918. If this more inclusive side of Popović’s reflections on Western Christians is taken into consideration by a non-Orthodox (“Western”) Christian and is spiritually understood as a promising “contact-point”, then Popović’s uncompromising dogmatic-canonical strictures with regard to Western Christian denominations might not present a sufficient reason for the premature departure of some from his spiritual, theological and philosophical legacy. This understanding is revealed in the web of positive references to British Christian minds. Alongside, this chapter endeavors to demonstrate that next to a negative view of Western Christianity, Popović embraced a more positive understanding. This chapter explores arguments for and against this result. It was the only thesis among those written by Serbians in Oxford during WWI not to receive the degree from the University’s Examiners.
His thesis was entitled “The Religion of Dostoevsky”. In Oxford he was accepted to read for a B.Litt. He is regarded as one of the more influential Orthodox theologians in the twentieth century. Among the first to arrive, in 1916, was Fr Justin Popović. This gesture of the British authorities, in unison with the highest representatives of the Church of England, cannot be overestimated due to significant implications for the historical-social relations of the two Churches and nations. In this way the Serbian Church’s seminarian system of formation of theologians was preserved, including its clerical teachers and pupils.
During the Great War the Faculty of Theology in Oxford received a group of about 55 theological refugees from a wounded Serbia.
0 kommentar(er)
