Dr. Julija Vidovic: Innovative Answers to the Age-Old Question of Desiring Eternal Existence
Hi, my name is Julija. I was born in Tuzla (Turkish name meaning salt) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since the wars in ex-Yugoslavia, I travel. I lived in Serbia, then in France and a bit in between. At the moment, I live in Strasbourg. A city I am looking forward to discovering as soon as Covid is behind us – let’s be positive!
I am a theologian. Although I am far from being one. The Orthodox Church, of which I am a lay member, recognises only three theologians: The Evangelist John, St Gregory of Nazianzus of the fourth century and St Simeon the New Theologian of the tenth century. But we must not despair, as the Greek poet Constantine Kavafy said in his poem “Ithaka”, it is not the goal that counts, it is the path.
I have always been impressed by the human being, by the way he/she lives, by the way he/she experiences and conceives life, its meaning and the world. Today, I am trying to understand these new quests for eternity with or without God that the trans and posthumanist movements are proposing.
Why am I doing this research? To better understand the expression of this deep desire to exist, to really be, that is to say to exist eternally. The question is an old one, but the statements are intended to be innovative. Whether they are so new remains to be seen.
Fun fact: I wonder if there will be coffee in heaven.