Unity of the religious and the national in Saint Savaism: from Saint Nikolai of Serbia to modernity (based on Serbo-Croatian and English-language literature)

Abstract

The aim of the research is to systematize the main approaches to the interpretation of Saint Savaism as a Serbian Orthodox tradition of the unity of the religious and the national. Based on Serbo-Croatian and English-language literature, the article consistently examines: 1) the religious-national approach of Saint Nikolas of Serbia, who in the 20th century actualized the ideas of the most revered Serbian saint – Saint Sava of Serbia, who lived in the 12th-13th centuries (principles of creating a folk church, folk authority, a national state, the unity of school, culture, state, and religion); 2) the theohumanistic turn of Venerable Justin Popović after World War II (adding new ideas about the national soul and collective responsibility, as well as an interpretation of the myth of Heavenly Serbia); 3) a stylistic and theological comparison of the two approaches; 4) a critical "anti-approach" that formed in communist Yugoslavia and is currently developing in the West, as well as the reaction to it in the form of two strategies – "compromise" (through the rejection of the national) and universalization (adapting the principles of Saint Savaism to other peoples). The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that, for the first time in Russian, a systematization of approaches to Saint Savaism is conducted, the logic connecting the principles of Saint Savaism of Saint Nikolas of Serbia and Venerable Justin Popović is demonstrated, critical remarks regarding a departure from the national in the theohumanistic approach are refuted, and the continuity of approaches in interpreting Saint Savaism as "Orthodox Christianity of the Serbian style and experience," uniting the national in the religious and the religious in the national, is proven. As a result of the study, a four-stage periodization of Saint Savaism was identified, and the parallelism of the two approaches to interpreting Saint Savaism was proven, making it possible to view it as a holistic tradition.