Nikolai Berdyaev | |
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| Born | Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev 18 March 1874 Obukhov,Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | 24 March 1948(1948-03-24) (aged 74) Clamart, France |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Russian philosophy |
| School | Christian existentialism,personalism |
| Main interests | Creativity,eschatology,freedom |
| Notable ideas | Emphasizing theexistential spiritual significance ofhuman freedom and the human person |
Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev[a] (/bərˈdjɑːjɛf,-jɛv/;[1]Russian:Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Бердя́ев; 18 March [O.S. 6 March] 1874 – 24 March 1948) was a Russianphilosopher,theologian, andChristian existentialist who emphasized theexistential spiritual significance ofhuman freedom and the human person.
Nikolai Berdyaev was born nearKiev in 1874 to anaristocraticmilitary family.[2] His father, Alexander Mikhailovich Berdyaev, came from a long line ofRussian nobility. Almost all of Alexander Mikhailovich's ancestors served as high-ranking military officers, but In the sixth grade, he left the cadet school and began studying for the matriculation exams for admission to the university. Nikolai's mother, Alina Sergeevna Berdyaeva, was half-French and came from the top levels of both French and Russian nobility. She also hadPolish,Georgian andTatar origins.[3][4]
Berdyaev decided on an intellectual career and entered theKiev University in 1894. It was a time of revolutionary fervor among the students and theintelligentsia. He became aMarxist 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 internalexile toVologda in northern Russia.[5]: 28
In 1899, his first article "F. A. Lange and Critical Philosophy in their relation to Socialism" was published in the magazine "Die Neue Zeit".
In the following years, before his expulsion from the USSR in 1922, Berdyaev wrote numerous articles and several books, of which, according to him, he later truly appreciated only two — "The Meaning of Creativity" and "The Meaning of History."
A fiery 1913 article, entitled "Quenchers of the Spirit", criticising the rough purging ofImiaslavie Russian monks onMount Athos by theHoly Synod of theRussian Orthodox Church using tsarist troops, caused him to be charged with the crime ofblasphemy, the punishment for which was exile toSiberia for life. TheWorld War and theBolshevik 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 becauseofficial Soviet anti-religious activity was intense at the time and the official policy of the Bolshevik government, with itsSoviet anti-religious legislation, strongly promotedstate atheism.[5]
In 1920, Berdiaev became professor of philosophy at theUniversity of Moscow. In the same year, he was accused of participating in a conspiracy against the government; he was arrested and jailed.Felix Dzerzhinsky, the feared head of theCheka, personally interrogated him,[7]: 130 and he gave his interrogator a solid dressing down on the problems with Bolshevism.[5]: 32 NovelistAleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his bookThe Gulag Archipelago recounts the incident as follows:
[Berdyaev] was arrested twice; he was taken in 1922 for a midnight interrogation withDzerjinsky;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 his expulsion from the USSR on September 29, 1922, on the so-called "Philosophers' ships", Berdyaev and other émigrés went toBerlin, where he founded an academy of philosophy and religion, but economic and political conditions in theWeimar Republic caused him and his wife to move toParis in 1923. He transferred his academy there, and taught, lectured and wrote, working for an exchange of ideas with theFrench and European intellectual community, and participated in a number of international conferences.[9]
According toMarko Marković, 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, andAndrey 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 asChristian existentialism andpersonalism.[11] Other authors, such as political theologian Tsoncho Tsonchev, interpret Berdyaev as "communitarian personalist" andSlavophile. 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 wasphilosophy of love.[13]: 11 At first he systematically developed his theory of love in a special article published in the journalPereval (Russian:Перевал) in 1907.[13] Then he gavegender issues a notable place in his bookThe 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, anderos means search for the beautiful.[13]: 11
He also published works about Russian history and the Russian national character. In particular, he wrote aboutRussian nationalism:[14]
The Russian people did not achieve their ancient dream ofMoscow, the Third Rome.The ecclesiastical schism of the seventeenth century revealed that the muscovite tsardom is not the third Rome. The messianic idea of the Russian people assumed either an apocalyptic form or a revolutionary; and then there occurred an amazing event in the destiny of the Russian people. Instead of the Third Rome in Russia, theThird International was achieved, and many of the features of the Third Rome pass over to the Third International. The Third International is also aHoly 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 aChristian anarchist for his emphasis on theology and critique of statist and Marxist socialism, Berdyaev did not self-identify as such and differentiated himself fromLeo Tolstoy.[15]
Nikolai Berdyaev's work is also featured in the dedication of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel "Brave New World".
Berdyaev was a member of theRussian Orthodox Church,[16][17] and believed Orthodoxy was the religious tradition closest toearly Christianity.[18]
Nicholas Berdyaev was an Orthodox Christian, however, it must be said that he was an independent and somewhat a "liberal" kind. Berdyaev also criticized theRussian Orthodox Church and described his views asanticlerical.[6] Yet he considered himself closer to Orthodoxy than eitherCatholicism orProtestantism. 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 asFlorovsky 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 andVladimir Solovyov are somehow less authentically Orthodox.[20]
Berdyaev affirmeduniversal salvation, as did several other important Orthodox theologians of the 20th century.[24] Along withSergei Bulgakov, he was instrumental in bringing renewed attention to the Orthodox doctrine ofapokatastasis, which had largely been neglected since it was expounded byMaximus the Confessor in the seventh century,[25] although he rejectedOrigen's articulation of this doctrine.[26][27]
The aftermath of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, along with Soviet efforts towards theseparation of church and state, caused the Russian Orthodox émigré diaspora to splinter into three Russian Church jurisdictions: theRussian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (separated from Moscow Patriarchate until 2007), the parishes under MetropolitanEulogius (Georgiyevsky) that went under theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and parishes that remained under theMoscow Patriarchate. Berdyaev was among those that chose to remain under the omophorion of theMoscow 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]
In recent years, efforts to archive and document Berdyaev's work have expanded. A group of scholars has digitized original, unpublished manuscripts from the Berdiaev-museum in Clamart, France, offering researchers and the public deeper insight into his unpublished writings and correspondence.[32]
In 1901 Berdyaev opened his literary career so to speak by work onSubjectivism and Individualism in Social Philosophy. In it, he analyzed a movement then beginning inImperial 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."[33]
The first date is of the Russian edition, the second date is of the first English edition.
a devout member of Russian Orthodox Church
Orthodoxy is that form of Christianity which suffered the least distortion in its substance as a result of human history.... Out of all forms of Christianity, it is the Orthodox Church which remained more closely tied to early Christianity.
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