The Reception of Palamas and Palamite Tradition in Justin Popović

This paper aims to elucidate the reception of St Gregory Palamas in the works of the Serbian theologian St Justin Popović (1894–1979). This is a very relevant venture since Justin Popović exercised a formative influence on two twentieth-century Orthodox scholars of Palamas, Cyprian Kern and Amfilohije Radović. First, it analyzes Justin’s early work, A Diary of Prayer (Molitveni dnevnik), written from 1920 to 1921, in order to demonstrate that his encounter with Gregory Palamas and Palamite theology takes place not through the academic elaboration of Palamas’s main theological position, but rather through the very concrete application of hesychast prayer and spirituality. Then, the focus shifts to the second volume of Justin’s Dogmatics from 1935, in which the references to Palamas’s works appear for the first time. Finally, it investigates the influence Justin exercised on Amfilohije Radović’s dissertation on the Holy Trinity in Palamas, completed in 1973.