What a miracle it is to be a man — a double miracle at that! — to be a human being in such a grand and mysterious universe! Don’t you feel this? Don’t you see it? Imagine now, that up to this moment you did not exist and now, right in this youthful age of yours and with this consciousness, with these feelings, with these senses of yours you were taken out of nonexistence and introduced into existence and were placed in this hall; how would you feel then? Look, there is light all around you. What would you think of it? No doubt, for you it would be something unusual, fantastic, a real dramatic surprise. How about the colors, these numerous colors around you — what would you think about them? They too, are — each one on its own and taken all in one — something miraculous, fantastic and quite dramatic. What if you take a closer look at one another! What would you think about yourselves and about the others around you? Wondrous, unusual, fantastic creatures: everything is surprise after surprise, miracle of miracles!
If you should leave this hall and go to the streets, look around: the deep, boundless, blue sky hanging above you; the people walking around you; the vehicles burning the road; the trams passing by; the children gamboling around; an old man trudging along… how would you feel and what would you think about all this? Surprise after surprise, is it not? Miracle after miracle, is it not? And the sun, too, is in flames above your head, by and by it is going down westwards and disappears, and look! — darkness cloaks every object. Then a host of stars swarms the dark-blue heavens… What is all this? Miracle after miracle… miracles of no end… you may be already tired of them but something flows deep inside you, something diminishes your consciousness, narrows your sense of self and you sink into darkness, into gloom, as though something is drawing you towards a realm of nonexistence. You could cry for help, but helpless as you are, you already cease to feel yourself as being yourself, as a living being… Sleep has overpowered you… Sleep? What is sleep? Is it not a returning to nonexistence? But look, you have been raised from sleep again. Again you rush into existence: from nonexistence into existence. And this thought comes to your mind: if a man can sleep and dream, is he not himself then of the same nature as the sleep?
Dear friends, observe closely the human eye… What an inquisitive little urchin it is, always flying from one object to another, from one color to another. What about the thought? Even a greater urchin than the eye; incessantly in movement, in a flurry, in a flight, in a flight towards… ? The thought: what a miracle indeed! To be able to think? O, this is such an art; no doubt, an art above all arts. What about the feeling? It is such a miraculous workshop, the most wondrous workshop in all the worlds… Pay attention to a single thought: how it comes into existence inside you, how it emerges, how it comes? Where does it come from? From some impenetrable darkness or from some depths suffused with light? The thought is the most mysterious stranger that sojourns in you. What about the feeling? Yet another stranger, no less mysterious than the first one. How about the instinct? It is a kind of darkness within me, which evades all light; it grabs you and starts drawing you towards some depths, into some impenetrable dark. Where is a man present most of all, where is he in the greatest quantity? In one’s thoughts, in one’s feelings or in one’s instincts? In all appearance: least of all in one’s flesh (or instincts), much more in one’s thoughts and most of all in one’s feelings.
To be able to think—this is a miracle, isn’t it? To be able to feel,—this is another miracle, isn’t it? To be able to see—this is a third miracle, isn’t it? To be able to hear—that’s a fourth miracle, isn’t it?
By the way, which is that thing that is not wondrous in man and in the world around him? If a man considers at least a little seriously the world around oneself or the world within oneself, one cannot escape the pressing facts which all focus in one thought and in one feeling: this world both as a whole and in its separate details is an endless miracle for every thinking creature and above all, for man. Whether one wants this or not, a man is like a living photo-camera taking pictures of the world with one’s senses, and with both one’s heart and soul—with one’s entire being — one feels that the world is not only an uninterrupted, but also a never ending film filled with dramatic miracles.
And what about us? We have lost the sense of the world, because ever since our childhood we have little by little been growing accustomed to this world, to its phenomena. While in fact there is nothing more fantastic than reality, than the reality of our earth. Please, do observe carefully only the insignificant flower of the violet or the little eye of the swallow. Are they not, according to their structures, something more fantastic than everything which men can ever imagine? Even the most fantastic novel by Jules Verne is not nearly thus fantastic as a little flower, to say nothing of the entire world.
The more one ponders over this mysterious and interesting world, the more one is pursued by the thought that the reality of this world is more fantastic than the most fantastic things, and more mysterious than the most mysterious things. Even the exuberant human imagination, were it even multiplied a quadrillion times, could not imagine a more fantastic and a more mysterious world than the one in which we, people, live.
Imagine now, that this world does not exist. And some otherworldly Being, through His almighty will and inexplicable desire chooses you to create a world according to your own ideas. Moreover, you are given full freedom of both your ideas and your actions. The most supreme Being would furnish you with the material necessary for the creation of the world. Would you resolve to be the architect of such a world? What would you put as a foundation, what would you choose as material, what would you set as goal? What creatures would you conceive, in what environment and atmosphere would you place them? Would you grant thoughts and feelings to some, or instead of thoughts and feelings would you grant them something different? Probably in some you would instill sadness, pain, tears, love? How many senses, for example, would you give a creature that would resemble a man? Would you not make a mistake if you give it a smaller number of senses than a man possesses; or would you not make an even greater mistake if you give it more? And what would happen if instead of one heart you would place in its bosom ten? When you prepare a detailed and elaborately worked out plan for this world, would you be sure you have not omitted anything important? Oh, you are sure — both you and me are sure that you will certainly omit something, because of which your world would collapse before completion.
Let us be particular: first of all you need to put the foundations of your world. But what would you place them themselves upon? Consider how our planet “stands” in the air as though upon some foundation! And the air “stands” in a vacuum! And vacuum itself consists of definite invisible particles which science calls atoms; atoms consist of electrons. Electrons consist of preons, and preons of photons. And photons—of non-material ether! And non-material ether of something even more non-material and invisible! And so on to infinity. Thus, through science, through philosophy and through art, human logic thirstily lets the smaller mystery go, so as to grasp the greater, it sinks from one invisibility into another, until it sinks into regions unknown! Do not condemn human logic on this account. It is incapable by its own nature to imagine where the invisible may end, that is to say, where what is endless ends. Our logic, our planet, our cosmos — this all is surrounded by countless invisibilities and immeasurable endlessness. All our knowledge of the world and man, all our predictions on their account are summarised in a single knowledge and a single prediction. This knowledge, this prediction says: this world is founded and exists on things invisible which have neither number, nor they end…
Yes! You are offered a divine honor: to be the creator and the architect of a new world. Do you possess sufficient imagination, sufficient wisdom, sufficient courage and sufficient strength? Here is a detail: to obtain a lightning, you need to unite fire and water. A paradox, isn’t it? But there is no other solution, the world rests on such paradoxes. They are here, all around us, no matter if we humans — poor mammals — understand almost nothing of all this. Our mammal Majesty still has the right to be cross that we were not asked for a counsel, when this world was being created, is that right? But there, you have the chance to obtain satisfaction: create a world after your own idea and plan.
If it is hard for your human power to create a universe, then descend from the enormous cosmic world into our smaller terrestrial world. Perhaps you would be able to become the architect of such a small world. Because compared to the universe, our earthly world is not only smaller, but infinitely smaller: smaller to the extent of being almost invisible. The great modern astronomer and professor in the University of Cambridge Sir James Jeans (1877-1946) maintains that “the total number of stars in the universe is probably something like the total number of grains of sand on all the seashores of the world. Such is the littleness of our home in space when measured up against the total substance of the universe.”[1]
But regard seriously this small terrestrial world of ours. Even here all things are so mysterious for us, so inexplicable. Something extraordinary is hidden in all things and all things emit something invisible. And one cannot escape the gnawing question: which, then, is the most important thing in this world? And if a man has pondered over this with selfless earnestness, then his reply must be: of greatest importance in this visible world is that which is invisible, intangible and unnoticeable. Now, radium is the most fearful power and yet, it is an invisible power. The power of gravitation upholds and keeps a countless number of solar systems in a wondrous order and yet, it is invisible, too. And full of sadness or dissatisfaction, the poor homo sapiens admits: all things visible have their foundation upon something invisible… O, tell me, please, how is this transition from the visible into the invisible realized? And also, how does the invisible turn into visible? How do the invisible photons, preons and electrons gain density and create this visible, tangible and material world? All that is visible in this world is infinitely less than that which is invisible in the world and around it.
“The explorations of astronomers demonstrate that the celestial bodies: the planets, the comets, the stars, which rest on the material ether, are only, generally speaking, a tiny, hardly discernible material island in space. Matter, as the explorations of the German astronomer Rihm revealed, is only an exception in this universe. The correlation between the material mass of all celestial bodies and the entire space of the universe is equal to the correlation between twelve pin-heads and the entire territory of the state of Germany. Matter, therefore, is an exception in the cosmic space the same as it is also an exception in an atom.”[2]
According to Hubble, its volume is of the order 384,000,000,000, billion, billion, billion, billion cubic miles .[3] James Jeans believes that in this universe the stars are as many as the particles of sand on all the sea-coasts of the earth. That compared to the general volume of all is like a little drop from a torrential rain that would fall over London all day long. And we should not forget, writes Jeans, that a middle-size star is about a million times bigger than the earth. “The mass of the Sun is,” according to Eddington, 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons [4], and the entire quantity of mass in the universe comes up to 11000 millions of millions of millions of suns. And in spite of all, this enormous quantity of mass takes only just a very small portion of the inscrutable space of the Universe. One could think, says Jeans, that the space containing such an enormous number of stars would be frightfully packed. To the contrary, the cosmic space is emptier than we could imagine. Suppose that only three midgets live in the entire Europe; even in this case the air of Europe would be more crammed with midgets than the cosmic space with stars, at least those sections of the Universe which we know about.[5]
In the final analysis, the invisible is the core of the visible, the essence of the visible. The visible is nothing more than a shell around the invisible. Infinite are the shapes in which the invisible is clothed. It is clothed and then it changes its clothes. The Sun is visible, but the power which heats it up is invisible. The numerous constellations are visible, but the power which wisely moves and guides them through the boundless space so that they should not collide, is invisible. The magnet is visible, but its power is invisible. The Earth is visible, but its gravitation is invisible. The oceans are visible, but the power that restrains them is invisible. The nightingale is visible, but the vital power which preserves its existence is invisible. Many creatures on the earth are visible but it is an invisible power that brings them into life and keeps them alive. The grass is visible, the plant is visible, the flower is visible, but it is an invisible power that produces from the selfsame earth a variety of grass, an abundance of flowers and different kinds of fruits.
This is what the world surrounding man looks like. And what can we say about the very human being? Oh, it is in him exactly that the most interesting and dramatic contention between the visible and the invisible is taking place! Here the invisible and the visible enfold each other in a tight embrace: an embrace that ends neither in this nor in the world beyond. Consider how man sacrifices his visible body in the name of certain convictions of his conscience. And conscience is a thing invisible. If not so, show it to me so that I can see it with my eyes. A man goes to death for the sake of a thought, of an idea. But the thought is something invisible, the idea is something invisible. If not so, show these to me, allow me to see them with my eyes. A mother protects her child when in danger and sacrifices her visible body. What for? For love. But love is something invisible. If not so, let mothers show me their love so that I can see it with my eyes. What is thought, what is feeling, what is conscience? Show these to me in such a manner so that I may see them with my proper eyes in their autonomous and material obvious reality! But you cannot display these to me because in their nature they are but invisible.
It ensues that what is of the greatest importance in man, is invisible. And also, as a matter of fact, man lives with what is invisible in him. When this invisible forsakes a man, then the body dies. If not so, then the dead man, at least when on his death-bed, could fulfill his vital functions since he possesses the same senses, the same physical parts as the living man. Only one thing is missing: there is no soul in that body — the soul that keeps the body alive, the soul that sees using the eyes, listens using the ears, acts using the senses, thinks using the thoughts. This invisible soul is the source of the entire human life. Perhaps you are not pleased that the soul is invisible? But what do we see in fact from our body? Only the skin, while all the vital functions: the functions of the nerves, the heart, the lungs, the liver, and the brain are all concealed from our sight. A number of invisible miracles are performed in our body; that is why it is a genial thought that prominent biologist, Dr. Alexis Carrel [6] voiced in his now renowned work “L’homme cet inconnu” [7]. This thought reads: “Each one of us is made of a procession of phantoms, in the midst of which strides an unknowable reality” [8]. Man is truly a being which we know the least about. Dr. Carrel asserts: “We must realize clearly that the science of man is the most difficult of all sciences.”[9]
Let us be frank: the three worlds — Cosmos, Earth, and man represent in themselves some invisible powers, clothed in matter. Wherever we look, we find out that the world is full of unknown and invisible things. But if we are consistent and logical, if we are spiritually valiant, we shall bring our thought to fruition. This is all I want: these three visible worlds — Cosmos, Earth, and man are only a projection of the invisible upon the visible. Visible Nature is only a material projection of God’s immaterial and invisible thoughts. How about man? Man is the same, but also something much sublimer than this: man is a visible projection of God’s invisible Face.
Everything in this world is a frame in which God input a thought of His. And all things together comprise a splendid mosaic of the Divine thoughts. Passing from one object to another, we proceed from one Divine thought to another, from one Divine fresco to another. And passing from one man to another, we proceed from one icon of God to another. Because if in the things of this world God has put His thoughts, then in man He has put His image, His icon. It is said in the Holy Scripture: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him...” (Genesis, 1:27).
Look, the all-majestic God did put His image, His icon into the human body, created by clay. Therefore every man is a little god with a body of clay. Yes, a little god with a body of clay. This Divine image is what raises man above all other creatures and things, above all Angels and Archangels, unto God Himself. God does not send a single man into this world without His image. That is why every man is a God-bearer even from his mother’s womb. Standing at the mysterious frontier of these two worlds is the Good Lord Christ and He bestows every soul He sends into this world with His lovely image (see St. John, 1:9). Therefore every man possesses by essence Christ’s image and is by nature a Christ-bearer.
Stretching beyond the thick curtain of the visible is the infinity of the invisible. Actually, there is no strict borderline between the visible and the invisible, between this world and the world beyond, between the natural and the supernatural. In all things, everywhere and through all things visible and invisible He reigns and dominates — He, the wondrous and mysterious God and Lord, the God-Man Christ. He poured down His divine boons in all things visible and invisible, all they, from the infinitely tiny to the infinitely great possess their divine value. This is especially valid for man. Since he was endowed with a soul after God’s image, contained in man—as in a small universe — are all the divine values. There lies the divine majesty and the divine inviolability of his personality.
The divine majesty and the divine inviolability of the human personality is a basic truth in our human world. For this reason every man is our brother, our immortal brother, because every man possesses God’s image in his soul and therefore has an eternal and divine value. That is why no single man should be considered as the material, the means, the instrument. Even the most insignificant man has an absolute value. Therefore, when you meet a person, say to yourself: look, this is a little god in a body of clay, look, this is a dear, immortal and everlasting brother of mine.
Dear friends, what am I doing? I am simply presenting to you Saint Sava’s Christian philosophy of the world. Please, immerse yourselves into Rastko’s [10] sense of this world, inquire deeper into it. Tell me, what was little Rastko Nemanjich’s sense of this world? Beyond all doubt, it was very powerful, very complex, very dramatic and in all respects infinite. His heart, as those hearts of yours, was taking pains over the lovely mysteries of the world. He is our first genuine philosopher, because he was the first of our nation who felt most powerfully, most intricately and most dramatically what a wonder this world is as well as all the things therein. Rastko became a philosopher as early as he felt these [mysteries] and began to wound his youthful heart with the question: what is the world, what is man? Once you put these questions to yourself, you become a philosopher; and if you give them the answers Rastko gave them, you are then a true philosopher indeed.
But do you know when Rastko felt the deepest, when he perceived with greatest clairvoyance and experienced most dramatically the mystery of the world and of man? When Christ took him by the hand and led him through this world. Then were the eternal mysteries of the world and of man revealed to Rastko, then their divine meaning rose up as a sun before his eyes. In his gentle gaze, warmed with prayer and love, every being was opening its little blossom and was divulging to him its divine secret, and Rastko saw that every being is a mysterious recess and a captivating thesaurus of God’s thoughts. And so his entranced eyes were talking to his ruffled heart: hear! Every being emanates the sound of a Divine thought, and of all things put together there emanates the divine symphony of thoughts of God, thoughts both imperial and eternal. This universe is a fascinating temple in which God dwells through His thoughts and man is a priest in this temple — a priest and an archpriest. Every little flower is a fragrant censer before God and every little bird — a jubilant member of the pan-cosmic choir which sings a never-ending hymn to the Creator of all worlds.
Don’t you feel this? Trust Rastko and you will feel it. Follow his lead through this wondrous world. Walk with him from one thing to another, from one being to another and warmed up by his sense of this world you should feel, you shall indubitably feel Rastko’s following fundamental truth about this world: every creation is a keeper of one thought of God’s; therefore, every being is a small Gospel of God’s, because it preaches about God, because it is an indefatigable apostle of God’s. The indestructible essence of every creature is a God’s thought laid therein: a thought of the Divine Wisdom, of the Divine Word. Hence all [created] things seek, gravitate to God, to the Divine Word, because of its logical nature [of the Logos, the Word] the creation yearns for God, seeks God. God's thoughts are like bright grains scattered in all creations and each creation emanates the light of the Word, and all the rays of all creations lead and bring one to the eternal and inextinguishable Sun: God the Word, Christ the Lord.
The logic of the world? Does this world possess any logic: the world in all its parts and in its all-comprehensive integrity? Yes, it does — God the Word [Logos] is the only logic of the world; the logic is in the Logos, only in [God] the Word. To the Serbian soul this was discovered and established by our first genuine philosopher: Rastko. However, this Logos of the world is not a fictional one, not abstract, not transcedental, not Plato's impersonal logos, but a historically real, eternal Divine Person — God the Word, Who became Man, became a Body, became material and in this manner entered our register — entered this world, in the earthly reality and lived and acted in the sphere of human history as the God-Man Jesus Christ. With the help of this God the Word St. Sava saw the entire divine logic and divine logicality of the world; he saw the mystery of the world in its entire divine magnificence and thorough preciousness, and with all his being he felt the same which St. Apostle Paul felt: All things are from Christ and for Christ. And this means that all things in this world, from the Angel to the worm, from the Sun to the atom have their own logos and their own logic which is, at that, a divine logos and a divine logic; and also this inevitable addition: all things in this world exist for the sake of these divine logoses and for this divine logic. Without these the world would be a monster without any logos and logic.
First among the Serbians St. Sava developed in himself a holy and evangelic consciousness for the world. In this consciousness, in this philosophy of the world God the Word is not only the centre of all beings and creatures but He is also the creative, life-creating, cohesive, synthetic and providential power in all beings and in all things created. All things emanate a logos, insomuch as all things own a logos and a logic. All things have their divine meaning, divine purpose, divine value, all things except the sin, except the evil. Because in this world only sin is deprived of logos, only sin is illogical and meaningless. Sin is the dark power that deprives of meaning the world, that deprives all beings and creations of their inherent logos. God the Logos entered this world through His incarnation in order to make it full of logos and to expel from it the sin and its meaninglessness, in order for the Divine meaning to reign therein and for the divine values to take precedence in it. Only the demolisher of sin in the world can make the world meaningful; only He can enlighten the world. And this Person is [no one else] but He, the God-Man Christ. Through His incarnation He entered the sinful world so He should purify it through His Divinity from the sin and the evil so He should enlighten it through His Divinity, so He should fill it with light and make it meaningful through His Divinity. And truly, the God-Man, alone among the human beings – did expound the mystery of the world and of man in a divinely wise, divinely perfect, divinely complete way. This was what St. Sava experienced with his entire being and to the greatest possible extent. But how did he experience that? Through evangelic holiness. Because the divine mystery, the divine meaning, the divine Logos and the divine logic of the world can be revealed only to a person living in evangelic holiness.
Dear friends, please go deeper into the Christian worldview and you will feel with your entire being what is the thing on which this world stands; its foundation is laid upon God the Logos. A human world, full of divine logic, divine meaning, divine wisdom and divine eternity can be built only upon such a foundation. The foundation Stone of all eternally human things was laid once and for all and He is the Lord Christ. If Christ be rejected, then the foundation of this world is rejected, the fundament is removed from under the construction of the world and in an instance all things collapse into chaos, into absurdity, into madness, into a demonic vaudeville.
What is matter – according to the Christian philosophy of the world? Matter is something divine, something with a logos, since it came into existence through God the Logos. Therefore matter emanates the light of logos and possesses divine logicality. Modern science also maintains that matter emanates some kind of metaphysical light. The Logos is emanated, radiates and shines through all things and from all things which we humans name “matter.” This world is illumined by God the Logos, by Divine Light, Divine Logic, Divine Reason. That is why the Incarnate Logos said about Himself: “I am the light of the world” (St. John 9:5). And the world also is a world through the Logos; life is life, too, through the Logos. The Logos is also in the atom, in all the Universe, from the top to the bottom all things are from Him, in Him and through Him. Existence itself has a nature originating in the Logos, because “all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (St. John 1:3). All existing things comprise one whole: imbued with Divine logos and divinely logical. For St. Sava matter and all the material world are a transparent veil through which he sees and senses God. Thus science sees electrons and photons through the hard and solidified matter. In the world of matter behind all its visible manifestations God’s invisible power is concealed. Every creation is a fountain, a source of this power. Such a great number of miracles exist only in a single drop of water and then how greater — in the Sun, the stars, the constellations, to say nothing of the Creator of all those wondrous things! The human eye can never look at the Sun, how much more — at the Creator of such a myriad of suns!...
Dear friends, the evangelic holiness makes the human soul infinite with divine infinity and the holy person sees the world with a divine profundity, feels its mystery with a divine power, reasons on the world with a divine sublimity. For saint Sava every creature is a small theophany[11] because every creature reveals God by its very existence. Is the little leaf of the violet not a small theophany? Is the eye of the martin not a theophany? How about the pupil of your eye: is it not an even greater theophany compared to the former two? Think about it: Rastko contemplates the mystery of the worlds. Before his eyes, in endless lines, pass creatures great and small, and each of them is a theophany, greater or smaller. And all these little theophanies converge into one enormous and all-embracing Theophany—Christ the God-Man. And you, along with Rastko, say to yourself: yes, every creation is linked to its Creator! Yes, every creation has a divine voice! Yes, every creation is a theophany, yes, this world is a ceaseless and never-ending theophany. Through it God proclaims His wisdom, His love, His power, His truth, His righteousness, His goodness and His beauty...
Only the petty souls cannot (as they do not want to) be absorbed into the divine depths of the world and find there its divine logic and idea, and thought, and meaning. As superficial parasites, they constantly reside on the surface of the world and therefore cannot live without the dust of the world. This dust has blinded their eyes and they can see neither God nor anything of God’s. They have declared the creation to be the foremost and ultimate existence, the foremost and ultimate life, the foremost and ultimate truth. This, however, is a kind of idolatry and the source of new idolatry, whether spiritual or physical.
Now you know the foundations of the Christian philosophy of life: the world is a theophany. And the second fundamental thing is that human life is the divine worship. Theophany is the nature of the world and the purpose of the world is the divine worship. God reveals Himself through the world. To this Divine revelation man responds by divine worship. Man’s principal occupation in this world—this grand church of God — is to serve God, to worship God. To live by serving and worshipping God is both natural and logical in this universe, in this church of God. And as this world is a Divine revelation, it is natural that human life should be a divine service. According to the Christian worldview man is nothing but a sacred worshipper of God. One serves God all the time: with one’s thoughts, with one’s feelings, with one’s words, with one’s deeds, in a word — with one’s entire life.
Dear friends, the Christian philosophy of the world comprises two principal foundations. The first one is: the world is a theophany; the second one is: human life is a divine service. Saint Sava’s entire life was based on these two fundamentals— his life was a never-ceasing service to God and a never-ending divine worship. In his view, the entire world is a gigantic church of God in which a ceaseless theophany is taking place. One serves God in the best and most perfect way when one lives according to the Gospel of Christ the God-Man. With his entire being St. Sava thought and felt and acted and lived in accordance with the Christian Gospel and in such manner he became and forever remains the wisest and the greatest philosopher of Serbia, who has made manifest — to the fullest and in the most perfect manner — to the human soul the eternal divine meaning of the world and of man.
ENDNOTES
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[1] The mysterious universe, London: Penguin, 1937, p. 3.
[2] Kyprian Kern, Materialism i nauka, p. 106-107 (“Hristiansko delo”, 1936, sv. 2).
[3] J. G. Crowther. An Outline of the Universe, London 1931, p. 2.
[4] A. S. Eddington. Stars and Atoms, 2007, p. 24.
[5] J. Jeans, op. cit. p. 148.
[6] Alexis Carrel (June 28, 1873 – November 5, 1944) was a French surgeon, biologist and eugenicist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912.
[7] Man, The Unknown (L'Homme, cet inconnu) is a best-selling 1935 book by Alexis Carrel which advocated, in part, that mankind could better itself by following the guidance of an elite group of intellectuals, and by implementing a regime of enforced eugenics.
[8] Quoted from: Alexis Carrel. Man the Unknown, 1935 by Harper and Brothers Publishers, Chapter One: The Need of a Better Knowledge of Man, p. 4.
[9] Carrel, op. cit. p.10.
[10] Rastko Nemanjich is the lay name of Saint Sava, the most venerated Serbian Saint. In his book Fr. Justin Popovich presents St. Sava—Rastko, as the perfect model of Christian world-view, thinking and life. The Serbian title of the book is The Svetosavlje As Philosophy of Life [svetosavlje, is derived from Pravoslavlje, i. e. Orthodoxy]. Saint Sava became a treasury of all Christian virtues and in the highest degree embodied and fulfilled Christ’s faith and teaching, that is why Fr. Justin identifies “the Svetosavlje” with Christianity in general. But as these lectures were held before a Serbian audience, we deemed it necessary to extricate them from their narrow national context and present them, for what they are, as an inspired exposition of the Orthodox Christian world-view and philosophy of life in general.
[11] Manifestation to humankind of God.
If you should leave this hall and go to the streets, look around: the deep, boundless, blue sky hanging above you; the people walking around you; the vehicles burning the road; the trams passing by; the children gamboling around; an old man trudging along… how would you feel and what would you think about all this? Surprise after surprise, is it not? Miracle after miracle, is it not? And the sun, too, is in flames above your head, by and by it is going down westwards and disappears, and look! — darkness cloaks every object. Then a host of stars swarms the dark-blue heavens… What is all this? Miracle after miracle… miracles of no end… you may be already tired of them but something flows deep inside you, something diminishes your consciousness, narrows your sense of self and you sink into darkness, into gloom, as though something is drawing you towards a realm of nonexistence. You could cry for help, but helpless as you are, you already cease to feel yourself as being yourself, as a living being… Sleep has overpowered you… Sleep? What is sleep? Is it not a returning to nonexistence? But look, you have been raised from sleep again. Again you rush into existence: from nonexistence into existence. And this thought comes to your mind: if a man can sleep and dream, is he not himself then of the same nature as the sleep?
Dear friends, observe closely the human eye… What an inquisitive little urchin it is, always flying from one object to another, from one color to another. What about the thought? Even a greater urchin than the eye; incessantly in movement, in a flurry, in a flight, in a flight towards… ? The thought: what a miracle indeed! To be able to think? O, this is such an art; no doubt, an art above all arts. What about the feeling? It is such a miraculous workshop, the most wondrous workshop in all the worlds… Pay attention to a single thought: how it comes into existence inside you, how it emerges, how it comes? Where does it come from? From some impenetrable darkness or from some depths suffused with light? The thought is the most mysterious stranger that sojourns in you. What about the feeling? Yet another stranger, no less mysterious than the first one. How about the instinct? It is a kind of darkness within me, which evades all light; it grabs you and starts drawing you towards some depths, into some impenetrable dark. Where is a man present most of all, where is he in the greatest quantity? In one’s thoughts, in one’s feelings or in one’s instincts? In all appearance: least of all in one’s flesh (or instincts), much more in one’s thoughts and most of all in one’s feelings.
To be able to think—this is a miracle, isn’t it? To be able to feel,—this is another miracle, isn’t it? To be able to see—this is a third miracle, isn’t it? To be able to hear—that’s a fourth miracle, isn’t it?
By the way, which is that thing that is not wondrous in man and in the world around him? If a man considers at least a little seriously the world around oneself or the world within oneself, one cannot escape the pressing facts which all focus in one thought and in one feeling: this world both as a whole and in its separate details is an endless miracle for every thinking creature and above all, for man. Whether one wants this or not, a man is like a living photo-camera taking pictures of the world with one’s senses, and with both one’s heart and soul—with one’s entire being — one feels that the world is not only an uninterrupted, but also a never ending film filled with dramatic miracles.
And what about us? We have lost the sense of the world, because ever since our childhood we have little by little been growing accustomed to this world, to its phenomena. While in fact there is nothing more fantastic than reality, than the reality of our earth. Please, do observe carefully only the insignificant flower of the violet or the little eye of the swallow. Are they not, according to their structures, something more fantastic than everything which men can ever imagine? Even the most fantastic novel by Jules Verne is not nearly thus fantastic as a little flower, to say nothing of the entire world.
The more one ponders over this mysterious and interesting world, the more one is pursued by the thought that the reality of this world is more fantastic than the most fantastic things, and more mysterious than the most mysterious things. Even the exuberant human imagination, were it even multiplied a quadrillion times, could not imagine a more fantastic and a more mysterious world than the one in which we, people, live.
Imagine now, that this world does not exist. And some otherworldly Being, through His almighty will and inexplicable desire chooses you to create a world according to your own ideas. Moreover, you are given full freedom of both your ideas and your actions. The most supreme Being would furnish you with the material necessary for the creation of the world. Would you resolve to be the architect of such a world? What would you put as a foundation, what would you choose as material, what would you set as goal? What creatures would you conceive, in what environment and atmosphere would you place them? Would you grant thoughts and feelings to some, or instead of thoughts and feelings would you grant them something different? Probably in some you would instill sadness, pain, tears, love? How many senses, for example, would you give a creature that would resemble a man? Would you not make a mistake if you give it a smaller number of senses than a man possesses; or would you not make an even greater mistake if you give it more? And what would happen if instead of one heart you would place in its bosom ten? When you prepare a detailed and elaborately worked out plan for this world, would you be sure you have not omitted anything important? Oh, you are sure — both you and me are sure that you will certainly omit something, because of which your world would collapse before completion.
Let us be particular: first of all you need to put the foundations of your world. But what would you place them themselves upon? Consider how our planet “stands” in the air as though upon some foundation! And the air “stands” in a vacuum! And vacuum itself consists of definite invisible particles which science calls atoms; atoms consist of electrons. Electrons consist of preons, and preons of photons. And photons—of non-material ether! And non-material ether of something even more non-material and invisible! And so on to infinity. Thus, through science, through philosophy and through art, human logic thirstily lets the smaller mystery go, so as to grasp the greater, it sinks from one invisibility into another, until it sinks into regions unknown! Do not condemn human logic on this account. It is incapable by its own nature to imagine where the invisible may end, that is to say, where what is endless ends. Our logic, our planet, our cosmos — this all is surrounded by countless invisibilities and immeasurable endlessness. All our knowledge of the world and man, all our predictions on their account are summarised in a single knowledge and a single prediction. This knowledge, this prediction says: this world is founded and exists on things invisible which have neither number, nor they end…
Yes! You are offered a divine honor: to be the creator and the architect of a new world. Do you possess sufficient imagination, sufficient wisdom, sufficient courage and sufficient strength? Here is a detail: to obtain a lightning, you need to unite fire and water. A paradox, isn’t it? But there is no other solution, the world rests on such paradoxes. They are here, all around us, no matter if we humans — poor mammals — understand almost nothing of all this. Our mammal Majesty still has the right to be cross that we were not asked for a counsel, when this world was being created, is that right? But there, you have the chance to obtain satisfaction: create a world after your own idea and plan.
If it is hard for your human power to create a universe, then descend from the enormous cosmic world into our smaller terrestrial world. Perhaps you would be able to become the architect of such a small world. Because compared to the universe, our earthly world is not only smaller, but infinitely smaller: smaller to the extent of being almost invisible. The great modern astronomer and professor in the University of Cambridge Sir James Jeans (1877-1946) maintains that “the total number of stars in the universe is probably something like the total number of grains of sand on all the seashores of the world. Such is the littleness of our home in space when measured up against the total substance of the universe.”[1]
But regard seriously this small terrestrial world of ours. Even here all things are so mysterious for us, so inexplicable. Something extraordinary is hidden in all things and all things emit something invisible. And one cannot escape the gnawing question: which, then, is the most important thing in this world? And if a man has pondered over this with selfless earnestness, then his reply must be: of greatest importance in this visible world is that which is invisible, intangible and unnoticeable. Now, radium is the most fearful power and yet, it is an invisible power. The power of gravitation upholds and keeps a countless number of solar systems in a wondrous order and yet, it is invisible, too. And full of sadness or dissatisfaction, the poor homo sapiens admits: all things visible have their foundation upon something invisible… O, tell me, please, how is this transition from the visible into the invisible realized? And also, how does the invisible turn into visible? How do the invisible photons, preons and electrons gain density and create this visible, tangible and material world? All that is visible in this world is infinitely less than that which is invisible in the world and around it.
“The explorations of astronomers demonstrate that the celestial bodies: the planets, the comets, the stars, which rest on the material ether, are only, generally speaking, a tiny, hardly discernible material island in space. Matter, as the explorations of the German astronomer Rihm revealed, is only an exception in this universe. The correlation between the material mass of all celestial bodies and the entire space of the universe is equal to the correlation between twelve pin-heads and the entire territory of the state of Germany. Matter, therefore, is an exception in the cosmic space the same as it is also an exception in an atom.”[2]
According to Hubble, its volume is of the order 384,000,000,000, billion, billion, billion, billion cubic miles .[3] James Jeans believes that in this universe the stars are as many as the particles of sand on all the sea-coasts of the earth. That compared to the general volume of all is like a little drop from a torrential rain that would fall over London all day long. And we should not forget, writes Jeans, that a middle-size star is about a million times bigger than the earth. “The mass of the Sun is,” according to Eddington, 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons [4], and the entire quantity of mass in the universe comes up to 11000 millions of millions of millions of suns. And in spite of all, this enormous quantity of mass takes only just a very small portion of the inscrutable space of the Universe. One could think, says Jeans, that the space containing such an enormous number of stars would be frightfully packed. To the contrary, the cosmic space is emptier than we could imagine. Suppose that only three midgets live in the entire Europe; even in this case the air of Europe would be more crammed with midgets than the cosmic space with stars, at least those sections of the Universe which we know about.[5]
In the final analysis, the invisible is the core of the visible, the essence of the visible. The visible is nothing more than a shell around the invisible. Infinite are the shapes in which the invisible is clothed. It is clothed and then it changes its clothes. The Sun is visible, but the power which heats it up is invisible. The numerous constellations are visible, but the power which wisely moves and guides them through the boundless space so that they should not collide, is invisible. The magnet is visible, but its power is invisible. The Earth is visible, but its gravitation is invisible. The oceans are visible, but the power that restrains them is invisible. The nightingale is visible, but the vital power which preserves its existence is invisible. Many creatures on the earth are visible but it is an invisible power that brings them into life and keeps them alive. The grass is visible, the plant is visible, the flower is visible, but it is an invisible power that produces from the selfsame earth a variety of grass, an abundance of flowers and different kinds of fruits.
This is what the world surrounding man looks like. And what can we say about the very human being? Oh, it is in him exactly that the most interesting and dramatic contention between the visible and the invisible is taking place! Here the invisible and the visible enfold each other in a tight embrace: an embrace that ends neither in this nor in the world beyond. Consider how man sacrifices his visible body in the name of certain convictions of his conscience. And conscience is a thing invisible. If not so, show it to me so that I can see it with my eyes. A man goes to death for the sake of a thought, of an idea. But the thought is something invisible, the idea is something invisible. If not so, show these to me, allow me to see them with my eyes. A mother protects her child when in danger and sacrifices her visible body. What for? For love. But love is something invisible. If not so, let mothers show me their love so that I can see it with my eyes. What is thought, what is feeling, what is conscience? Show these to me in such a manner so that I may see them with my proper eyes in their autonomous and material obvious reality! But you cannot display these to me because in their nature they are but invisible.
It ensues that what is of the greatest importance in man, is invisible. And also, as a matter of fact, man lives with what is invisible in him. When this invisible forsakes a man, then the body dies. If not so, then the dead man, at least when on his death-bed, could fulfill his vital functions since he possesses the same senses, the same physical parts as the living man. Only one thing is missing: there is no soul in that body — the soul that keeps the body alive, the soul that sees using the eyes, listens using the ears, acts using the senses, thinks using the thoughts. This invisible soul is the source of the entire human life. Perhaps you are not pleased that the soul is invisible? But what do we see in fact from our body? Only the skin, while all the vital functions: the functions of the nerves, the heart, the lungs, the liver, and the brain are all concealed from our sight. A number of invisible miracles are performed in our body; that is why it is a genial thought that prominent biologist, Dr. Alexis Carrel [6] voiced in his now renowned work “L’homme cet inconnu” [7]. This thought reads: “Each one of us is made of a procession of phantoms, in the midst of which strides an unknowable reality” [8]. Man is truly a being which we know the least about. Dr. Carrel asserts: “We must realize clearly that the science of man is the most difficult of all sciences.”[9]
Let us be frank: the three worlds — Cosmos, Earth, and man represent in themselves some invisible powers, clothed in matter. Wherever we look, we find out that the world is full of unknown and invisible things. But if we are consistent and logical, if we are spiritually valiant, we shall bring our thought to fruition. This is all I want: these three visible worlds — Cosmos, Earth, and man are only a projection of the invisible upon the visible. Visible Nature is only a material projection of God’s immaterial and invisible thoughts. How about man? Man is the same, but also something much sublimer than this: man is a visible projection of God’s invisible Face.
Everything in this world is a frame in which God input a thought of His. And all things together comprise a splendid mosaic of the Divine thoughts. Passing from one object to another, we proceed from one Divine thought to another, from one Divine fresco to another. And passing from one man to another, we proceed from one icon of God to another. Because if in the things of this world God has put His thoughts, then in man He has put His image, His icon. It is said in the Holy Scripture: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him...” (Genesis, 1:27).
Look, the all-majestic God did put His image, His icon into the human body, created by clay. Therefore every man is a little god with a body of clay. Yes, a little god with a body of clay. This Divine image is what raises man above all other creatures and things, above all Angels and Archangels, unto God Himself. God does not send a single man into this world without His image. That is why every man is a God-bearer even from his mother’s womb. Standing at the mysterious frontier of these two worlds is the Good Lord Christ and He bestows every soul He sends into this world with His lovely image (see St. John, 1:9). Therefore every man possesses by essence Christ’s image and is by nature a Christ-bearer.
Stretching beyond the thick curtain of the visible is the infinity of the invisible. Actually, there is no strict borderline between the visible and the invisible, between this world and the world beyond, between the natural and the supernatural. In all things, everywhere and through all things visible and invisible He reigns and dominates — He, the wondrous and mysterious God and Lord, the God-Man Christ. He poured down His divine boons in all things visible and invisible, all they, from the infinitely tiny to the infinitely great possess their divine value. This is especially valid for man. Since he was endowed with a soul after God’s image, contained in man—as in a small universe — are all the divine values. There lies the divine majesty and the divine inviolability of his personality.
The divine majesty and the divine inviolability of the human personality is a basic truth in our human world. For this reason every man is our brother, our immortal brother, because every man possesses God’s image in his soul and therefore has an eternal and divine value. That is why no single man should be considered as the material, the means, the instrument. Even the most insignificant man has an absolute value. Therefore, when you meet a person, say to yourself: look, this is a little god in a body of clay, look, this is a dear, immortal and everlasting brother of mine.
Dear friends, what am I doing? I am simply presenting to you Saint Sava’s Christian philosophy of the world. Please, immerse yourselves into Rastko’s [10] sense of this world, inquire deeper into it. Tell me, what was little Rastko Nemanjich’s sense of this world? Beyond all doubt, it was very powerful, very complex, very dramatic and in all respects infinite. His heart, as those hearts of yours, was taking pains over the lovely mysteries of the world. He is our first genuine philosopher, because he was the first of our nation who felt most powerfully, most intricately and most dramatically what a wonder this world is as well as all the things therein. Rastko became a philosopher as early as he felt these [mysteries] and began to wound his youthful heart with the question: what is the world, what is man? Once you put these questions to yourself, you become a philosopher; and if you give them the answers Rastko gave them, you are then a true philosopher indeed.
But do you know when Rastko felt the deepest, when he perceived with greatest clairvoyance and experienced most dramatically the mystery of the world and of man? When Christ took him by the hand and led him through this world. Then were the eternal mysteries of the world and of man revealed to Rastko, then their divine meaning rose up as a sun before his eyes. In his gentle gaze, warmed with prayer and love, every being was opening its little blossom and was divulging to him its divine secret, and Rastko saw that every being is a mysterious recess and a captivating thesaurus of God’s thoughts. And so his entranced eyes were talking to his ruffled heart: hear! Every being emanates the sound of a Divine thought, and of all things put together there emanates the divine symphony of thoughts of God, thoughts both imperial and eternal. This universe is a fascinating temple in which God dwells through His thoughts and man is a priest in this temple — a priest and an archpriest. Every little flower is a fragrant censer before God and every little bird — a jubilant member of the pan-cosmic choir which sings a never-ending hymn to the Creator of all worlds.
Don’t you feel this? Trust Rastko and you will feel it. Follow his lead through this wondrous world. Walk with him from one thing to another, from one being to another and warmed up by his sense of this world you should feel, you shall indubitably feel Rastko’s following fundamental truth about this world: every creation is a keeper of one thought of God’s; therefore, every being is a small Gospel of God’s, because it preaches about God, because it is an indefatigable apostle of God’s. The indestructible essence of every creature is a God’s thought laid therein: a thought of the Divine Wisdom, of the Divine Word. Hence all [created] things seek, gravitate to God, to the Divine Word, because of its logical nature [of the Logos, the Word] the creation yearns for God, seeks God. God's thoughts are like bright grains scattered in all creations and each creation emanates the light of the Word, and all the rays of all creations lead and bring one to the eternal and inextinguishable Sun: God the Word, Christ the Lord.
The logic of the world? Does this world possess any logic: the world in all its parts and in its all-comprehensive integrity? Yes, it does — God the Word [Logos] is the only logic of the world; the logic is in the Logos, only in [God] the Word. To the Serbian soul this was discovered and established by our first genuine philosopher: Rastko. However, this Logos of the world is not a fictional one, not abstract, not transcedental, not Plato's impersonal logos, but a historically real, eternal Divine Person — God the Word, Who became Man, became a Body, became material and in this manner entered our register — entered this world, in the earthly reality and lived and acted in the sphere of human history as the God-Man Jesus Christ. With the help of this God the Word St. Sava saw the entire divine logic and divine logicality of the world; he saw the mystery of the world in its entire divine magnificence and thorough preciousness, and with all his being he felt the same which St. Apostle Paul felt: All things are from Christ and for Christ. And this means that all things in this world, from the Angel to the worm, from the Sun to the atom have their own logos and their own logic which is, at that, a divine logos and a divine logic; and also this inevitable addition: all things in this world exist for the sake of these divine logoses and for this divine logic. Without these the world would be a monster without any logos and logic.
First among the Serbians St. Sava developed in himself a holy and evangelic consciousness for the world. In this consciousness, in this philosophy of the world God the Word is not only the centre of all beings and creatures but He is also the creative, life-creating, cohesive, synthetic and providential power in all beings and in all things created. All things emanate a logos, insomuch as all things own a logos and a logic. All things have their divine meaning, divine purpose, divine value, all things except the sin, except the evil. Because in this world only sin is deprived of logos, only sin is illogical and meaningless. Sin is the dark power that deprives of meaning the world, that deprives all beings and creations of their inherent logos. God the Logos entered this world through His incarnation in order to make it full of logos and to expel from it the sin and its meaninglessness, in order for the Divine meaning to reign therein and for the divine values to take precedence in it. Only the demolisher of sin in the world can make the world meaningful; only He can enlighten the world. And this Person is [no one else] but He, the God-Man Christ. Through His incarnation He entered the sinful world so He should purify it through His Divinity from the sin and the evil so He should enlighten it through His Divinity, so He should fill it with light and make it meaningful through His Divinity. And truly, the God-Man, alone among the human beings – did expound the mystery of the world and of man in a divinely wise, divinely perfect, divinely complete way. This was what St. Sava experienced with his entire being and to the greatest possible extent. But how did he experience that? Through evangelic holiness. Because the divine mystery, the divine meaning, the divine Logos and the divine logic of the world can be revealed only to a person living in evangelic holiness.
Dear friends, please go deeper into the Christian worldview and you will feel with your entire being what is the thing on which this world stands; its foundation is laid upon God the Logos. A human world, full of divine logic, divine meaning, divine wisdom and divine eternity can be built only upon such a foundation. The foundation Stone of all eternally human things was laid once and for all and He is the Lord Christ. If Christ be rejected, then the foundation of this world is rejected, the fundament is removed from under the construction of the world and in an instance all things collapse into chaos, into absurdity, into madness, into a demonic vaudeville.
What is matter – according to the Christian philosophy of the world? Matter is something divine, something with a logos, since it came into existence through God the Logos. Therefore matter emanates the light of logos and possesses divine logicality. Modern science also maintains that matter emanates some kind of metaphysical light. The Logos is emanated, radiates and shines through all things and from all things which we humans name “matter.” This world is illumined by God the Logos, by Divine Light, Divine Logic, Divine Reason. That is why the Incarnate Logos said about Himself: “I am the light of the world” (St. John 9:5). And the world also is a world through the Logos; life is life, too, through the Logos. The Logos is also in the atom, in all the Universe, from the top to the bottom all things are from Him, in Him and through Him. Existence itself has a nature originating in the Logos, because “all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (St. John 1:3). All existing things comprise one whole: imbued with Divine logos and divinely logical. For St. Sava matter and all the material world are a transparent veil through which he sees and senses God. Thus science sees electrons and photons through the hard and solidified matter. In the world of matter behind all its visible manifestations God’s invisible power is concealed. Every creation is a fountain, a source of this power. Such a great number of miracles exist only in a single drop of water and then how greater — in the Sun, the stars, the constellations, to say nothing of the Creator of all those wondrous things! The human eye can never look at the Sun, how much more — at the Creator of such a myriad of suns!...
Dear friends, the evangelic holiness makes the human soul infinite with divine infinity and the holy person sees the world with a divine profundity, feels its mystery with a divine power, reasons on the world with a divine sublimity. For saint Sava every creature is a small theophany[11] because every creature reveals God by its very existence. Is the little leaf of the violet not a small theophany? Is the eye of the martin not a theophany? How about the pupil of your eye: is it not an even greater theophany compared to the former two? Think about it: Rastko contemplates the mystery of the worlds. Before his eyes, in endless lines, pass creatures great and small, and each of them is a theophany, greater or smaller. And all these little theophanies converge into one enormous and all-embracing Theophany—Christ the God-Man. And you, along with Rastko, say to yourself: yes, every creation is linked to its Creator! Yes, every creation has a divine voice! Yes, every creation is a theophany, yes, this world is a ceaseless and never-ending theophany. Through it God proclaims His wisdom, His love, His power, His truth, His righteousness, His goodness and His beauty...
Only the petty souls cannot (as they do not want to) be absorbed into the divine depths of the world and find there its divine logic and idea, and thought, and meaning. As superficial parasites, they constantly reside on the surface of the world and therefore cannot live without the dust of the world. This dust has blinded their eyes and they can see neither God nor anything of God’s. They have declared the creation to be the foremost and ultimate existence, the foremost and ultimate life, the foremost and ultimate truth. This, however, is a kind of idolatry and the source of new idolatry, whether spiritual or physical.
Now you know the foundations of the Christian philosophy of life: the world is a theophany. And the second fundamental thing is that human life is the divine worship. Theophany is the nature of the world and the purpose of the world is the divine worship. God reveals Himself through the world. To this Divine revelation man responds by divine worship. Man’s principal occupation in this world—this grand church of God — is to serve God, to worship God. To live by serving and worshipping God is both natural and logical in this universe, in this church of God. And as this world is a Divine revelation, it is natural that human life should be a divine service. According to the Christian worldview man is nothing but a sacred worshipper of God. One serves God all the time: with one’s thoughts, with one’s feelings, with one’s words, with one’s deeds, in a word — with one’s entire life.
Dear friends, the Christian philosophy of the world comprises two principal foundations. The first one is: the world is a theophany; the second one is: human life is a divine service. Saint Sava’s entire life was based on these two fundamentals— his life was a never-ceasing service to God and a never-ending divine worship. In his view, the entire world is a gigantic church of God in which a ceaseless theophany is taking place. One serves God in the best and most perfect way when one lives according to the Gospel of Christ the God-Man. With his entire being St. Sava thought and felt and acted and lived in accordance with the Christian Gospel and in such manner he became and forever remains the wisest and the greatest philosopher of Serbia, who has made manifest — to the fullest and in the most perfect manner — to the human soul the eternal divine meaning of the world and of man.
ENDNOTES
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[1] The mysterious universe, London: Penguin, 1937, p. 3.
[2] Kyprian Kern, Materialism i nauka, p. 106-107 (“Hristiansko delo”, 1936, sv. 2).
[3] J. G. Crowther. An Outline of the Universe, London 1931, p. 2.
[4] A. S. Eddington. Stars and Atoms, 2007, p. 24.
[5] J. Jeans, op. cit. p. 148.
[6] Alexis Carrel (June 28, 1873 – November 5, 1944) was a French surgeon, biologist and eugenicist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912.
[7] Man, The Unknown (L'Homme, cet inconnu) is a best-selling 1935 book by Alexis Carrel which advocated, in part, that mankind could better itself by following the guidance of an elite group of intellectuals, and by implementing a regime of enforced eugenics.
[8] Quoted from: Alexis Carrel. Man the Unknown, 1935 by Harper and Brothers Publishers, Chapter One: The Need of a Better Knowledge of Man, p. 4.
[9] Carrel, op. cit. p.10.
[10] Rastko Nemanjich is the lay name of Saint Sava, the most venerated Serbian Saint. In his book Fr. Justin Popovich presents St. Sava—Rastko, as the perfect model of Christian world-view, thinking and life. The Serbian title of the book is The Svetosavlje As Philosophy of Life [svetosavlje, is derived from Pravoslavlje, i. e. Orthodoxy]. Saint Sava became a treasury of all Christian virtues and in the highest degree embodied and fulfilled Christ’s faith and teaching, that is why Fr. Justin identifies “the Svetosavlje” with Christianity in general. But as these lectures were held before a Serbian audience, we deemed it necessary to extricate them from their narrow national context and present them, for what they are, as an inspired exposition of the Orthodox Christian world-view and philosophy of life in general.
[11] Manifestation to humankind of God.
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