A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Nikola Moravčević

Nikola Moravčević (Cyrillic: Никола Моравчевић) is a University Professor, Critic and academic writer. He was born in Zagreb, (Yugoslavia) in a family of Serbian officer of Yugoslav Royal Army on December 10, 1935.

After he completed undergraduate studies at the Academy for Theatre Arts at the University of Belgrade in 1955, he moved to the United States. After three years of service in the U.S. Army, he continued his Graduate studies, obtaining a magisterial degree in Theatrical Directing from the School of Theatre Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1961, and in 1964 a doctoral degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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He subsequently taught at Stevens College in Missouri as an Assistant professor (1964–66) and at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an Assistant professor (1966–68), an Associate professor (1968–71) and full Professor (1971–2002). At UIC he also held several administrative positions. In 1968, he founded the Slavic Department and served as its Head for thirteen years (until 1981). From 1981 to 1988, he served as the University's Vice-Chancellor and Director of campus development.

His scholarly work includes over two hundred essays and critical reviews in the spheres of Russian, French and Serbian Literatures, published in various collections of essays, several leading encyclopedias and a wide array of scholarly journals in the United States and Canada. The periodicals which have most of his scholarly contributions are: Comparative Literature, Slavic and East European Journal, Drama Critique, Canadian Slavonic Papers, Drama Survey, Comparative Drama, Russian Literature, L'Europe du Sud-Est, Comparative Literature Studies, Russian Language Journal, Bucknell Review, The New Review, Journal of Baltic Studies, Books Abroad-World Literature Today, The South Slav Journal, Serbian Studies and Slavic Review.

His first notable creative literary endeavor is a historical novel Albion, Albion, published in Belgrade, Serbia, in the fall of 1994. This work was chosen as one of the ten best novels written in Serbian language during that year, and remained on the list of national best-sellers throughout 1995. Moravčević also received, in the summer of 1998, the Rastko Petrović Literary Award for the best Serbian novel written in Diaspora. The novel was reprinted in 1998 by the publishing house S. Masic, and in 2006 by Stubovi kulture. In 2009 publishing house "Arhipelag" from Belgrade published the English version of this novel.

Dr. Moravcevic is a member of several American and international scholarly associations and an honorary Doctor of Letters at the Wrocław University in Poland (1980). From 1980 to 1994, he served as the Chief Editor of the only scholarly journal in America dedicated to the Serbian culture, Serbian Studies. Since 1990, professor Moravcevich has been a member of the Crown Council of the Serbian Crown Prince Aleksandar Karađorđevic and is a bearer of the Serbian decoration of White Eagle with the great cross (first degree).

Dr. Moravcevic is married to Dr. Jelena Bankovic and they live in Chicago.

Bibliography

  • In 2003, the publishing house Prosveta in Belgrade, Serbia, published his second historical novel, Light of The West – Lux Occidentalis.
  • In 2005, the publishing house Stubovi kulture in Belgrade, Serbia, published in English his Selected Essays on Serbian and Russian Literatures and History.
  • In 2007, the publishing house Arhipelag in Belgrade, Serbia, published his third historical novel, Knight in the Time of Evil.
  • In 2008, the publishing house Arhipelag in Belgrade, Serbia, published his fourth historical novel in English, A Brandenburg Concerto.
  • In 2009, the publishing house Arhipelag in Belgrade, Serbia, published a Serbian translation of his historical novel in English "A Brandenburg Concerto".
  • In 2009, the publishing house Arhipelag in Belgrade, Serbia, published his fifth historical novel "A Time of Resurrection".
  • In 2010, the publishing house Arhipelag in Belgrade, Serbia, published his sixth historical novel "Trusting Vienna".
  • In 2011, the publishing house Arhipelag in Belgrade, Serbia, published his seventh historical novel "The Last Despot".

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Svetlana Rakic

A native of former Yugoslavia, Dr. Svetlana Rakic earned her master’s degree in art history from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and her doctorate in art history from Indiana University. She is the author of several books on Serbian Orthodox icons and the interrelatedness of modern art and religious thought. Most recently, she has published the book Art and Reality Now: Serbian Perspectives (New York: A. Pankovich Publishers, 2014).

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Sailors of the Sky

A conversation with Fr. Stamatis Skliris and Fr. Marko Rupnik on contemporary Christian art

In these timely conversations led by Fr. Radovan Bigovic, many issues are introduced that enable the contemporary reader to deepen and expand his or her understanding of the role of art in the life of the Church. Here we find answers to questions on the crisis of contemporary ecclesiastical art in West and East; the impact of Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract painting on contemporary ecclesiastical painting; and a consideration of the main distrinction between iconography and secular painting. The dialogue, while resolving some doubts about the difference between iconography, religious painting, and painting in general, reconciles the requirement to obey inconographic canons with the freedom essential to artistic creativity, demonstrating that obedience to the canons is not a threat to the vitatlity of iconography. Both artists illumine the role of prayer and ascetisicm in the art of iconography. They also mention curcial differences between iconography in the Orthodox Church and in Roman Catholicism. How important thse distinctions are when exploring the relationship between contemporary theology and art! In a time when postmodern "metaphysics' revitalizes every concept, these masters still believe that, to some extent, Post-Modernism adds to the revitatiztion of Christian art, stimulating questions about "artistic inspiration" and the essential asethetic categories of Christian painting. Their exceptionally wide, yet nonetheless deep, expertise assists their not-so-everday connections between theology, ar, and modern issues concerning society: "society" taken in its broader meaning as "civilization." Finally, the entire artistic project of Stamatis and Rupnik has important ecumenical implications that aswer a genuine longing for unity in the Christian word.

The text of this 94-page soft-bound book has been translated from the Serbian by Ivana Jakovljevic, Fr. Gregory Edwards, and Andrijana Krstic. Published by Sebastian Press, Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Contemporary Christian Thought Series, number 7, First Edition, ISBN: 978-0-9719505-8-0