The Religious Spirit of the Slavs Three Lectures Given in Lent, 1916

In this series of wartime lectures, a Serbian priest and professor unpacks the clash between traditional Slav Orthodoxy and the radical ideas of Leo Tolstoy. He contrasts the Holy Synod’s view of history as a grand drama with Tolstoy’s vision of a cyclical return to a simpler, natural existence, using vivid metaphors of fields and seeds. The discussion probes deep questions of happiness, atonement, and whether humanity can find fulfillment within or outside the structures of church and state.

The second part turns to the broader currents of revolutionary Catholicism across the Slavic lands, tracing influences from Jan Hus to the Polish and Southern Slavic movements and even the scientific upheavals of the era. Finally, the lecturer reflects on a shared religious spirit, suggesting that sin and salvation bind all peoples together in a common moral fabric. Listeners are invited to contemplate how faith, culture, and personal conscience intersect in the turbulent world of early 20th‑century Europe.