An amazing fusion of theology, philosophy, artistic narration and lyrics, cast in a special language and style, has few analogues in modern Christian literature. The translation, carefully edited and, if possible, collated with the original source, is aimed at a wide range of readers interested in Orthodox thought and spirituality.

From the Editors: when typing the text, for ease of reading, quotations from the Church Slavonic translation of the Bible are duplicated with text from the Russian Synodal translation, with brackets, and quotations recommended for comparison, placed at the end of the book, and for convenience, are linked by hyperlinks.

Editor's Note

Archimandrite Justin (Popović) (1894-1979) is one of the greatest figures of the Serbian Orthodox Church of the twentieth century, who in 1993 was glorified as a locally venerated saint and is deeply venerated in the Orthodox Balkans. Father Justin came into this world and left it on the same day – March 25 (April 7), on the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Father Justin for many years was engaged in teaching at theological seminaries in Yugoslavia and at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Belgrade. In 1948, he retired to the monastery of Celije (western Serbia), where he was engaged in creative, translation and publishing activities until the end of his life.

Archimandrite Justin left behind a rich theological, philosophical, and hagiographic heritage, which is based on the three-volume Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church, or the Orthodox Philosophy of Truth (1932-1978) and the Lives of the Saints in twelve volumes (1972-1978). He is also the author of a number of major scientific studies and philosophical works: "The Problem of Personality and Consciousness According to St. Macarius of Egypt" (doctoral dissertation, 1926), "Philosophy and Religion of F.M. Dostoevsky" (1923), "Progress in the Mill of Death" (1933), "Primary Theology" (1939), "Dostoevsky in Europe and the Slavs" (1940), "St. Sava as a Philosophy of Life" (1953), "Philosophical Abysses" (1957), "Man and the God-Man" (1969), "The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism" (1974); a number of unpublished commentaries on the Holy Scriptures (the Gospel of Matthew and John, the Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul, St. John the Theologian) and translations of liturgical texts into the Serbian language used by the Serbian Church (Holy Liturgy, Trebnik, Prayer Book, etc.). Many of Archimandrite Justin's works have been translated into Greek, French, and Russian.

"Philosophical Abysses" is a collection of philosophical essays that combine the features of preaching, parable and scientific research and are filled with a strong lyrical beginning. These essays reproduce the path of human thought, trying to comprehend the structure of the world, the meaning of life and death, "crashing in the rocks" of humanistic philosophy and finding peace in Orthodox philosophy. Lyrical in genre, this work is poetic, figurative, rich in metaphors and artistic in language.

In order to preserve the figurative culture of the text, the language and style of the translation is as close as possible to the original and, if possible, reflects the syntactic and lexical originality of the Serbian text (the author's lexical formations, occasional compatibility and form-formation are preserved), with the exception of the cited texts. Fragments of the Holy Scriptures, which in the author's text, as a rule, are rendered in Serbian, are given in Church Slavonic translation in this edition. Breaks in quotations from the Holy Scriptures are marked with ellipsis, including in cases where in the original they are given in continuous text. If the quotations from the works of the Holy Fathers in the original text are enclosed in quotation marks and the translation of Archimandrite Justin from Greek into Serbian does not have significant discrepancies with the Russian translation, then these fragments are given according to the Russian translation. Otherwise, the author's version is retained in the main text, and the text of the Russian translation is given in a note. Quotations from Russian-speaking authors are given in the original version, and from foreign authors – in reverse translation from Serbian (except for special cases). In the text of the translation, the author's spelling of uppercase and lowercase letters is preserved. Additional notes are written by the translator and editor (see the corresponding notes). Information belonging to the editors and included in the text of the author's note is enclosed in square brackets.

… This book includes an afterword to the Serbian edition of 1987, written by a disciple of Archimandrite Justin, Bishop Amfilohije of Banat (now Montenegrin).

E.I. Yakushina

From the publisher

According to the author himself, Father Justin of blessed memory, the collection "Philosophical Abysses" was compiled in the period between the two world wars in some days and nights. Published for the first time in 1957 in the library publication "Svechanik", as it was in great demand, it soon became inaccessible to a wide readership. In republishing it, we are confident that these articles are as relevant today as they were when they were written; moreover, we are sure that they have become much more relevant and closer to the modern reader than to the reader of yesterday; We are convinced that in the future they will be in demand much more than today.

It is not only the language and style with which this book is written, the reasons for its ageless novelty. The main reason is in its content: in the existential, direct fierce struggle with the eternal "accursed" questions of the meaning of man, his consciousness, the reality of the world, time and space. In fact, Father Justin in his "Philosophical Abysses" confesses to heaven and earth: he confesses his human tragedy, the "joys and sorrows" of his thoughts and sensations, his "sorrows and desires," his ardent faith in Christ the God-Man. Lighting his inextinguishable lamp before His wondrous Face, he incessantly poured into it, instead of oil, as he himself confessed, his own blood, drop by drop, blood from his heart, agitated by the mystery of His worlds!

The author himself, in fact, is the same "chamois in the lost paradise", in whose heart "someone gathered all the anguish from all the worlds", and thus the "universal feeling of sorrow" appeared. For him, there is nothing more incomprehensible than our "thinking man," who in most cases reminds him of "the silkworm who jealously hides in his cocoon," the man of "narrow-minded, dry thoughts, who is all buried in the bark of this planet like a tick in sheep's wool." And he sees nothing but this bark. "And above him blaze innumerable luminaries... countless worlds rumble." Petrified before human tragedy and evil, overwhelmed by the Mystery, inflamed by faith in the living Christ, such was and remains Justin of Celija – one of the most original philosophers who ever wrote in the Serbian language...