Book Notes

Book Notes. Нове књиге.

Nicholai Studies Notices, January–July 2021

Nicholai Studies Notices, January–July 2021. The First Annual St. Nicholai Lecture, March 23, 2021. The European Academy of Religion Annual Conference 2021 (Münster, August 30th — September 2nd). Lectures at the Gathering in Tuman Monastery (August 21st). A Documentary on St. Jakov (Radoje) Arsović.

How Jesus Taught His Disciples to Walk With Head Held High

In spring 2010, a student of the Orthodox Theological Faculty of Belgrade invited me to visit the well-known monasteries of his region of Valjevo: Celije, Pustinja and Lelich. I had heard of Nicholai Velimirovich before. I knew about his outstanding role in the Serbian Orthodox Church and the 20th century history of the Serbian people. But when I saw his birth place and breathed the air and the spiritual atmosphere of this amazing scenery, he became for me a much more living person. The following text is not a research paper on his homilies, but an exegetical essay. However, I am grateful to the Nicholai Studies for publishing it, since it shares the endeavour which was Nicholai’s: to read and patiently reread the Gospel and to communicate the teaching of Jesus Christ as faithfully as possible so that it may illuminate both our personal lives and the destinies of our nations. The Serbian Chrysostom insisted that we need Christ to open our eyes in order to understand who He is. This is precisely what the central section of Saint Mark’s Gospel, analysed in the present study, is about. It also contains this aspect of Jesus’ teaching which was central for Bishop Nicholai: we will see God’s Kingdom and walk with head held high when we follow in the steps of Jesus, when we, instead of sacrificing the others to our interests, become their servants.

Nicholai Velimirovich: The Great War and America 1915–1918

The unique and broadly encompassing embrace of Nicholai Velimirovich, an inspired, charismatic and erudite individual, is difficult to succinctly present within the limitations of a single essay. Therefore, his religious and socio-political witness to America, concerning the plight of the Serbs during The Great War, as well as the response of his American contemporaries, institutions and media to him the person and to his message, shall be the focal point of this presentation. Nicholai’s distinct mission to America in 1915 must be understood in its proper historic context, as aspects of the same do remain as relevant today, as they were in their day.

Mystagogy of Saint Nicholai Velimirovich

The present article is an effort to draw research, spiritual and prayerful attention to the spiritual mystagogy in the preaching, missionary and theological work of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Saint Nicholai Velimirovich of Ohrid and Žiča. As a preacher, missionary and theologian, God-bearing Bishop Nicholai in his mystagogy reveals to us that the Gospel of Christ means the possibility of healing and building the human soul for the Eternity of the Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity.

Authors in this issue of the Nicholai Studies

Authors in this issue of the Nicholai Studies

The Problem of Authenticity of Bishop Nicholai Velimirovich’s Eulogy of Dimitrije Ljotić on April 24, 1945

This paper analyzes Bishop Nicholai Velimirovich’s eulogy of Dimitrije Ljotić on April 24, 1945. Furthermore, this paper follows the debate surrounding the speech’s authenticity. It aims not only to provide an outline of existing arguments but also to broaden the discussion using the author`s own research and interpretations.

Saint Nicholai Velimirovich: Understanding of War and Peace

The author addresses two important issues in this paper. First, what is a man, and what makes a man great and globally-historically important? In the light of this issue, he writes about Saint Nicholai. The author asserts that the attributes of a great man are intellectual depth, the width of knowledge, the ability to reach God and ontological depths of the world, vails of time and historical human destiny through his action, creation, and writing. All men who are great deal with the issue of man, meaning of life, and inevitability of death. Great men dreamt of immortality in their own glorious ways. What is left behind these giants are permanent unsurpassed deeds and the power of ideas accepted in all ages. The author aims to highlight what makes a man great for his people and for humanity in total, and to what extent does St. Nicholai meet these strict and demanding conditions and criteria to be viewed as a great man; is he great for his people or even outside of these limits. In the second, main issue and part of the paper, the author examines the understanding of war and peace in Bishop Nicholai’s work War and the Bible. The focal point of the examination is the phenomenon of war and peace, and especially the perception of the Bishop’s biblical study of war and peace which differentiates his approach from many other approaches to the phenomenon of war. The theological perspective of the phenomenon of war and peace always implies that good and evil clash in war and peace, and that this conflict is planetary and omnipresent; some individuals are on the side of justness, providence, light, and sanctity of life, while others side with the dark line of life which signifies the rule of evil in our world. According to the author, war is God’s will, just as peace among men. Conflict and peace between nations, as well as spiritual harmony and dissonance in human souls, depend primarily on faith in the Lord. If one is in God’s grace victory is secure. We ought to be reminded of the Christian understanding that the support of all people to one man is futile if he stands against God — on the other hand, he fears nothing if the will of God is on his side, even if all people are against him. In his book, War and the Bible, Bishop Nicholai claims that even in modern times the Lord of Armies decides the victor of every war, just as it was in ancient times. He claims that in modern war, just like in old times, the sinfulness of nations and national leaders and deviation from God’s Laws inevitably brings defeat; in today’s wars, just like in ancient conflicts, justfulness of nations and their leaders brings victory. Bishop Nicholai’s key conclusion is that all wars, both ancient and modern, can only be understood and explained in a biblical light. He devoted his entire very valuable and useful work to this idea, over a hundred years ago.

Recent Bibliography, 2018–2020

Among the recent publications, published in 2018–2020, we have selected the following articles and books as interesting for Nicholai studies. The list of this selected bibliography is provided in chronological order, referencing first the works and writings of Nicholai Velimirovich, then monographs, and finally the articles:

Was Saint Bishop Nicholai a Fascist? A Review of His Addresses from March 1935 to April 1941

The author addresses the issue of Nicholai Velimirovich’s attitude towards fascism, responding to the criticism of Bishop Nicholai as a sympathizer of Adolph Hitler’s policy and the interpretation of Velimirovich’s thoughts that enabled such constructions. In the present article, special attention is paid to the public addresses of Nicholai Velimirovich during the period of the rise of the Nazi state, i.e. from 1935 to 1941. The main topic of this article is to deconstruct the great myth of Bishop Nicholai’s critics, which reads: Saint Bishop Nicholai is a fascist because he received a decoration from Hitler in 1934, and in 1935 he gave a lecture at Kolarac called “Nationalism of Saint Sava” where he praised Hitler as few people did during the life of the Reich leader, comparing him with Saint Sava, “whereby Hitler turned out to be bigger than Saint Sava.” This accusation comes from the critics of Bishop Nicholai from Peščanik, whose pamphlets are adopted and passed on by a part of the Serbian intelligentsia in which there are historians, linguists, political scientists, and even theologians. However, such constructions are possible only if we ignore the legacy of Bishop Nicholai and his thought. For instance, it is interesting that in the same year, namely in 1926, Hitler and Velimirovich published two completely opposite works — Hitler the second part of his Mein Kampf in which he revealed his racial theory to the world, and Nicholai a short article entitled “The Problem of Races,” in which he explained that the problem of race can not solve anthropologists, nor historians and psychologists, but only Christianity, urging Serbian youth not to make a value difference between races, but to consider whether a black earthen pot with honey or a white porcelain pot with vinegar is better. In his later works, there are much more references to the issues of racism, nationalism, chauvinism, etc., where he clearly holds moderated and balanced Christian worldview.