Nikolai Berdyaev

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Nikolai Berdyaev
freedom
Notable ideas
Emphasizing the existential spiritual significance of human freedom and the human person

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (

theologian, and Christian existentialist who emphasized the existential spiritual significance of human freedom
and the human person. Alternative historical spellings of his surname in English include "Berdiaev" and "Berdiaeff", and of his given name "Nicolas" and "Nicholas".

Biography

Nikolai Berdyaev was born near

Tatar origins.[3][4]

Nikolai Berdyaev in 1910
Nikolai Berdyaev in 1912

Berdyaev decided on an intellectual career and entered the

Kiev University in 1894. It was a time of revolutionary fervor among the students and the intelligentsia. He became a Marxist for a period and was arrested in a student demonstration and expelled from the university. His involvement in illegal activities led in 1897 to three years of internal exile to Vologda in northern Russia.[5]
: 28 

A fiery 1913 article, entitled "Quenchers of the Spirit", criticising the rough purging of

Bolshevik Revolution prevented the matter coming to trial.[6]

Berdyaev's disaffection culminated, in 1919, with the foundation of his own private academy, the "Free Academy of Spiritual Culture". It was primarily a forum for him to lecture on the hot topics of the day and to present them from a Christian point of view. He also presented his opinions in public lectures, and every Tuesday, the academy hosted a meeting at his home because official Soviet anti-religious activity was intense at the time and the official policy of the Bolshevik government, with its Soviet anti-religious legislation, strongly promoted state atheism.[5]

In 1920, Berdiaev became professor of philosophy at the

University of Moscow. In the same year, he was accused of participating in a conspiracy against the government; he was arrested and jailed. The feared head of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, came in person to interrogate him,[7]: 130  and he gave his interrogator a solid dressing down on the problems with Bolshevism.[5]: 32  Novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his book The Gulag Archipelago
recounts the incident as follows:

[Berdyaev] was arrested twice; he was taken in 1922 for a midnight interrogation with Dzerjinsky; Kamenev was also there.... But Berdyaev did not humiliate himself, he did not beg, he firmly professed the moral and religious principles by virtue of which he did not adhere to the party in power; and not only did they judge that there was no point in putting him on trial, but he was freed. Now there is a man who had a "point of view"![8]

After being expelled from Russia, Berdyaev and other émigrés went to Berlin, where he founded an academy of philosophy and religion, but economic and political conditions in the Weimar Republic caused him and his wife to move to Paris in 1923. He transferred his academy there, and taught, lectured and wrote, working for an exchange of ideas with the French and European intellectual community, and participated in a number of international conferences.[9]

Berdyaev's grave, Clamart (France).

Philosophical work

According to Marko Markovic, Berdyaev "was an ardent man, rebellious to all authority, an independent and "negative" spirit. He could assert himself only in negation and could not hear any assertion without immediately negating it, to such an extent that he would even be able to contradict himself and to attack people who shared his own prior opinions".[5] According to Marina Makienko, Anna Panamaryova, and Andrey Gurban, Berdyaev's works are "emotional, controversial, bombastic, affective and dogmatic".[10]: 20  They summarise that, according to Berdyaev, "man unites two worlds – the world of the divine and the natural world. ... Through the freedom and creativity the two natures must unite... To overcome the dualism of existence is possible only through creativity.[10]: 20 

David Bonner Richardson described Berdyaev's philosophy as Christian existentialism and personalism.[11] Other authors, such as political theologian Tsoncho Tsonchev, interpret Berdyaev as "communitarian personalist" and Slavophile. According to Tsonchev, Berdyaev's philosophical thought rests on four "pillars": freedom, creativity, person, and communion.[12]

One of the central themes of Berdyaev's work was philosophy of love.[13]: 11  At first he systematically developed his theory of love in a special article published in the journal Pereval (Russian: Перевал) in 1907.[13] Then he gave gender issues a notable place in his book The Meaning of the Creative Act (1916).[13] According to him, 1) erotic energy is an eternal source of creativity, 2) eroticism is linked to beauty, and eros means search for the beautiful.[13]: 11 

He also published works about Russian history and the Russian national character. In particular, he wrote about Russian nationalism:[14]

The Russian people did not achieve their ancient dream of

Third International was achieved, and many of the features of the Third Rome pass over to the Third International. The Third International is also a Holy Empire
, and it also is founded on an Orthodox faith. The Third International is not international, but a Russian national idea.

Though sometimes quoted as a

Christian anarchist for his emphasis on theology and critique of statist and Marxist socialism, Berdyaev did not self-identify as such and differentiated himself from Tolstoy.[15]

Theology and relations with Russian Orthodox Church

Berdyaev was a member of the Russian Orthodox Church,[16][17] and believed Orthodoxy was the religious tradition closest to early Christianity.[18]: at unk. 

Nicholas Berdyaev was an Orthodox Christian, however, it must be said that he was an independent and somewhat a "liberal" kind. Berdyaev also criticized the

anticlerical.[6] Yet he considered himself closer to Orthodoxy than either Catholicism or Protestantism. According to him, "I can not call myself a typical Orthodox of any kind; but Orthodoxy was near to me (and I hope I am nearer to Orthodoxy) than either Catholicism or Protestantism. I never severed my link with the Orthodox Church, although confessional self-satisfaction and exclusiveness are alien to me."[16]

Berdyaev is frequently presented as one of the important Russian Orthodox thinkers of the 20th century.[19][20][21] However, neopatristic scholars such as Florovsky have questioned whether his philosophy is essentially Orthodox in character, and emphasize his western influences.[22] But Florovsky was savaged in a 1937 Journal Put' article by Berdyaev.[23] Paul Valliere has pointed out the sociological factors and global trends which have shaped the Neopatristic movement, and questions their claim that Berdyaev and Vladimir Solovyov are somehow less authentically Orthodox.[20]

Berdyaev affirmed

apokatastasis, which had largely been neglected since it was expounded by Maximus the Confessor in the seventh century,[25] although he rejected Origen's articulation of this doctrine.[26][27]

The aftermath of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, along with Soviet efforts towards the

Moscow Patriarchate. He is mentioned by name on the Korsun/Chersonese Diocesan history as among those noted figures who supported the Moscow Patriarchate West-European Eparchy (in France now Korsun eparchy).[28]

Currently, the house in Clamart in which Berdyaev lived, now comprises a small "Berdiaev-museum" and attached Chapel in name of the Holy Spirit,[29] under the omophorion of the Moscow Patriarchate. On 24 March 2018, the 70th anniversary of Berdyaev's death, the priest of the Chapel served panikhida-memorial prayer at the Diocesan cathedral for eternal memory of Berdyaev,[30] and later that day the Diocesan bishop Nestor (Sirotenko) presided over prayer at the grave of Berdyaev.[31]

Works

Berdyaev on a 2024 stamp of Russia

In 1901 Berdyaev opened his literary career so to speak by work on Subjectivism and Individualism in Social Philosophy. In it, he analyzed a movement then beginning in

Imperial Russia that "at the beginning of the twentieth-century Russian Marxism split up; the more cultured Russian Marxists went through a spiritual crisis and became founders of an idealist and religious movement, while the majority began to prepare the advent of Communism". He wrote "over twenty books and dozens of articles."[32]

The first date is of the Russian edition, the second date is of the first English edition

Sources

See also

References

  1. ^ "Berdyaev" Archived 20 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  2. ISBN 9780415493154. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. ISBN 978-0199892945
  4. ^ Berger, Stefan and Miller, Alexei (2015) Nationalizing Empires, Central European University Press, p. 312.
    ISBN 978-9633860168
  5. ^ a b c d Marko Marković, La Philosophie de l'inégalité et les idées politiques de Nicolas Berdiaev (Paris: Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1978).
  6. ^
    ISBN 1597312584
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0060803322
    .
  8. ^ Cited by Markovic, op. cit., p.33, footnote 36.
  9. ^ "A Conference in Austria". www.berdyaev.com. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  10. ^
    doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.476
    .
  11. ^ Existentialism: A Personalist Philosophy of History Archived 13 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Berdyaev's Philosophy of History. An Existentialist Theory of Social Creativity and Eschatology, by David Bonner Richardson, pp. 90–137.
  12. ^ Tsonchev, Tsoncho (2021). Person and communion: the political theology of Nikolai Berdyaev. McGill University’s institutional digital repository: McGill University. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  13. ^ a b c d Shestakov, Vyacheslav (1991). "Вступительная статья". In Шестаков, В.П. (ed.). Русский Эрос, или Философия любви в России [Russian Eros, Or Philosophy of Love in Russia] (in Russian). Progress Publishers. pp. 5–18. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  14. ISBN 5-85646-059-6
    (Наш советский новояз. Маленькая энциклопедия реального социализма).
  15. ISBN 978-1-84540-663-9
    .
  16. ^
    ISBN 978-0-231-14265-6
    .
  17. ^ "Berdyaev, Orthodox religious philosopher, dies in Paris". The Living Church. Vol. 116. Morehouse-Gorham Company. 1948. p. 8. a devout member of Russian Orthodox Church
  18. ^ Berdyaev 1952.
  19. ISSN 0010-3713
    .
  20. ^ a b Valliere, Paul (2006). "Introduction to the Modern Orthodox Tradition". In Witte, John Jr.; Alexander, Frank S. (eds.). The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature. Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 2–4.
  21. ^ Clarke, Oliver Fielding (1950). Introduction to Berdyaev. Bles.
  22. S2CID 162966900
    .
  23. ^ "Ortodoksia and Humanness". www.berdyaev.com. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  24. ISBN 978-0521864848
    .
  25. ISBN 978-0-664-22416-5
    .
  26. ISBN 9780315454330
    .
  27. ISBN 978-1-5013-2544-1
    .
  28. ^ "ИСТОРИЯ ЕПАРХИИ". Cerkov-ru.eu. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  29. ^ "Часовня в честь Святого Духа в Кламаре". Cerkov-ru.eu. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  30. ^ Sheshko, Prêtre Georges. "Il y a 70 ans, Nicolas Berdiaev (1874–1948), célèbre philosophe russe, était rappelé à Dieu". Egliserusse.eu. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  31. ^ "Исполнилось 70 лет со дня кончины известного русского философа Николая Бердяева". Cerkov-ru.eu. Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  32. ISBN 978-0801020759
  33. ^ The book is not available in English. For secondary literature in English, see:

Sources

Further reading

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Nikolai Berdyaev.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nikolai_Berdyaev&oldid=1217709226"