The Concept and the Undertaking of Self-Education by Uroš Petrović

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of self-education as the essence of the process of education and the path toward becoming a true spiritual man. It also considers the epochal context in which this concept developed, not only in Uroš Petrović’s moralistic work For Every Day (1914, 1926) but also in his writings of literary-critical and theoretical nature. At the same time we attempt to understand the intellectual image of Petrović as reflected in the testimonies of relevant contemporaries.
When analyzing what Petrović considers self-education as the only true form of education, it becomes evident that this pertains to the transformative journey toward becoming a true spiritual individual, rather than constructing a cultured individual, suitable for the societal mainstream and mundane interactions. The greatness of a person lies in their spiritual greatness, the victory of the spiritual principle over the material. Not long after, during the avant-garde era, Momčilo Nastasijević would express an even more explicit and radical stance. Following a decisive break from the constraints of rationalism, Nastasijević unabashedly asserts that Christ is the realized ideal of Man. No matter how much Petrović remained within the boundaries of the intellectual discourse of the time, which would sooner exclude rather than tolerate traditional Christian images and concepts, the description of the concept of self-education is in many ways analogous to spiritual undertaking, the asceticism practiced by the Stoics and Christian ascetics.