Nikola Tesla and Orthodox paradigm

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleNikola Tesla i pravoslavna paradigma
3. Language term Serbian
4. lemma author Stevanovic, Aleksandra
5. lemma category Culture and national identities
6. Publication date 29-10-2016
7. lemma work Petrovic, Aleksandar [Author]. Happiness. 61–71, About the Setting Sun and Friends of Eidos
8. lemma manifestations Happiness
9. Keywords
   1. Tesla, Nikola
10. Keywords Divine inspiration
11. Lemma body

    1. The paper by professor Petrovic relies on phenomenology of religion in the quest for the core of creativity of Nikola Tesla. It analyzes the root of his energy and inspiration in the works of Voltaire, Goethe and Laza Kostic, but also Platonic paradigm and Serbian cultural pattern that is Orthodox. Like the mentioned thinkers, Tesla sees the Sun as the divine inspiration, and even creates his engine based on the principle of the Sun, analogue to its movement, and inspired by the verses of Faust. The concept of intercrossing by Kostic, and alternation by Tesla, represents nothing else but religion. The author also emphasizes that a great opportunity for the venture which Tesla mentions is the expression of many holy venturers whom Tesla must have known about. The idea of changing the world is also religion. Everything Tesla depicts in his Autobiography (flash of lightning, flood) also represents religious experiences. Therefore, the author realizes that there is compressed energy and phenomenology of religion in the work of the great scientist and accentuates the fact that this can be unexpected since we expect religion only in theology. That happens due to the fact that we are not conscious about the meaning of the word religion. The integrity of the creativity act is nothing but bond – religion, and it is not surprising that Tesla, as a son of an Orthodox priest, could feel the principle of connection. In that sense, once bond and connection are established, there is religion. The paper stresses that the ingenuity of Tesla brings relation that is impossible to find in separated domains of theology and technology.

       This paper is of particular significance since it associates one of the most important scientists with Orthodoxy. There are many other papers considering religion of Tesla, but none of them has succeeded in finding the Orthodox principle in the creativity of Tesla itself, without mentioning formalities such as whether Tesla went to church or spoke about his religion. Thereby, the author notices all the instances of Orthodoxy manifestation in Tesla’s work and wonders whether it is better to perceive Tesla in the light of Orthodox theology of Dionysius the Areopagite, accepted in medieval Serbia, in whose part On the Celestial Hierarchy it is said that “brightness never loses its internal unity although it leaks to be reunited with transient, to exalt it up and merge with God. For this divine light may shine under many distinct sacred and mysterious ways…” While western theology could not yield religion but only the concept of religion since it is able to reform, but not to connect, what divide us from religion is sunrise and sunset, what Tesla, as the son of the priest, directed us towards.

       This paper is relevant for the science–orthodoxy research because it represents the first time to discuss religion as the essence of Tesla’s vision and presence in his thought, without considering merely formalities distinguishing the religion of the great scientist. Therefore, it represents the first work that aims at understanding Tesla’s implicit religion and Orthodoxy as the core of his inventiveness, evident in all the aspects of his work.